Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina
Study Guide by Course Hero
and Levin.
What's Inside
TENSE
Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is written in the past tense.
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1
ABOUT THE TITLE
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1 Anna Karenina is named for its tragic main character.
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3
h Characters .................................................................................................. 3
d In Context
k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 8
c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 14

Slavic Movement
g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 48
Pan-Slavism (or the Slavic movement) swept Russia in the 19th
l Symbols ..................................................................................................... 50 century and was an attempt to bring the Slav peoples of
eastern and central Europe together politically, as well as
m Themes ........................................................................................................ 51
celebrate their common cultural heritage. The Russian Pan-
b A Problem with Time in Anna Karenina ...................................... 54 Slavists also took the position that Russia was far superior,
both spiritually and culturally, to Western Europe. Some of the
e Suggested Reading .............................................................................. 54 anti-Western sentiment was a reaction to the forced
Westernization of Russia that began with Peter the Great and
flowered in the era of Catherine the Great. Peter the Great
(1672–1725) undertook a series of reforms to bring Russia into
j Book Basics the modern era. For example, he built a navy, reorganized the
army, and secularized the schools. Catherine the Great, who
AUTHOR ruled Russia in the late 18th century, was responsible for
Leo Tolstoy making knowledge of the French language and culture a
prerequisite for those in the aristocratic class. Russians who
YEARS PUBLISHED supported the Pan-Slavist return to Russian roots also
1875–77 supported the liberation of other Slavs from domination by
non-Slav powers. This is why Russian Pan-Slav enthusiasts
GENRE
sign up to fight against the Ottoman Empire in solidarity with
Tragedy
the Serbian Christians in Anna Karenina.
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR
Anna Karenina uses third-person omniscient narration. The
action moves back and forth in time as two major plot threads
entwine: the story of Anna and Vronsky and the story of Kitty
Anna Karenina Study Guide In Context 2
professionals of the middle class; or soldiers, artisans, and

Critique of Religious laborers in the working class.
Movements
Anna Karenina features two religious fads of Tolstoy's day that
Aristocratic Privilege
deviate from traditional Russian Orthodox Christianity. The first
The most privileged of the aristocracy, to which Tolstoy and
is practiced by Varenka and her guardian, Madame Stahl,
his main characters belonged, were a tiny percentage of the
whom Prince Shcherbatsky calls Pietists. Pietism was a
population. The sexual behavior Tolstoy depicts among the
mystical trend, popular among members of the upper classes,
hypocrites of Anna's set is probably a milder version of what
that practiced internal prayer and introspection.
actually went on among people used to pleasing themselves. In
The second is a form of Radstockism practiced by Countess practice, the aristocrats lived outside religious and moral
Lydia Ivanovna, whom Tolstoy surrounds with scorn and codes, and both married men and women freely took lovers.
situational irony. The Petersburg aristocrats became enamored Society, however, demanded that women keep up the
of the teachings of Lord Radstock, an Englishman who brought appearance of propriety, while men could openly engage in
his unorthodox Christianity to Russia in 1874 and whose extramarital affairs without experiencing public scorn or
followers founded the Society for the Encouragement of humiliation.
Spiritual and Ethical Reading. Tolstoy was in the throes of his

own religious crisis while writing Anna Karenina, and in 1877 he
briefly tried to revive his Orthodoxy, an attempt that may have Emancipation of the Serfs
inspired his parody of Radstockism: he portrays Countess
Lydia, leader of the Conscience of St. Petersburg Society, Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs (peasant farmers bound to
teaching Karenin that it is not necessary to imitate Christ or do serve their landowners) in 1861 to help stimulate the economy.
good deeds but that only faith in Christ's death on the cross is If people were no longer bound to the land and could move
necessary for atonement and salvation. Tolstoy believed that around freely, then they could hire themselves out as laborers,
such notions do not encourage people to lead a moral life. either on a farm or in a factory. The tsar also anticipated that
Lydia is an example of a fake Christian who hides evil under freed serfs with more incentives might make improvements in
the cloak of religion. One of the cruelest acts in the novel is farming. However, it was hard for serfs to benefit from
Karenin's refusal to let Anna see her son after he is instructed freedom. First, they had to buy the land they would farm from
by Lydia. landowners if they wanted to be independent. The landowners
reserved the best portions of their lands and ceded the least
desirable, and they were compensated by the government for
Class what they gave up. Thus, in the novel, Tolstoy shows how
freeing the serfs was not widely beneficial.
The rigid class structure of Russia, which existed unimpeded

up until the Russian Revolution of 1917, severely oppressed the
majority of the people and gave unlimited wealth and privilege The Role of the Zemstvo
to a small aristocratic class. The Industrial Revolution had
swept through Europe in the late 18th century, but Russia After the emancipation of the serfs, the tsarist government set
remained largely agrarian until the 20th century. A small up local governing bodies called zemstvo, charged with
percentage of aristocrats owned the land and the peasants educating the serfs, building hospitals, schools, and
who lived on it. In 1861, the year that the serfs were freed, more infrastructure, and even lending money. The government paid
than 80 percent of the population in Russia were for these activities with taxes from property owners, who then
peasants—agricultural workers—and about half of them were served as representatives to the councils. Unfortunately, while
serfs. The upper classes (including the nobles and high clergy) some of the Russian peasants prospered with help, most
accounted for about 12 percent of the population, and the rest simply worked for their new masters—called kulaks. These
of the people were either businessmen, bureaucrats, or were a new class of peasants who owned their own land.
Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Anna Karenina Study Guide Author Biography 3
Additional problems arose over time with these governing explore the tenets of Eastern religion as well—specifically
bodies, and the government eventually stepped in and took Hinduism and Buddhism. Not surprisingly, Anna Karenina has
away their power. In Anna Karenina, Levin's reformist brother, as a subtext an indictment of the aristocratic class, much
Sergei Ivanovich, believes that the zemstvo has the ability to stronger than that found in War and Peace. Tolstoy also
significantly change the lives of the peasants, while Levin touches on the entrenched problems of the class system and
himself finds the zemstvo to be useless. The two brothers absolute monarchy, but falls far short of calling for radical
argue about the extent to which reform can be brought about. reform.
Anna Karenina has enjoyed widespread acclaim among both
a Author Biography
authors and readers and is hailed by some as the greatest
novel ever written. It has had an equally widespread social
influence, spawning many film and stage adaptations, and even
Leo Tolstoy (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy), born September the Anna Karenina principle: a statistical theory developed by
9, 1828, in the Tula province of Russia, was an aristocrat and Jared Diamond in 1997, which he based on the first sentence
landowner who wrote primarily about his own class. He was of the novel.
orphaned by the time he was nine and lost additional close
relatives by age 13; he and his siblings were raised by their Most of the works that followed Anna Karenina were didactic
relations. Tolstoy never completed his university education but fiction and nonfiction philosophical texts, and in later life
was successful in the military, earning promotions and a Tolstoy would repudiate War and Peace and Anna Karenina,
citation for bravery under fire. After he married Sofya according to his evolving definition of art. Tolstoy left his wife
Andreyevna Behrs in 1862, he moved to the family estate of of 48 years after a long period of intense quarreling, mostly
Yasnaya Polyana and wrote his two most acclaimed novels, over his copyrights, which he wanted to give away, and died
War and Peace and Anna Karenina. two weeks later on November 7, 1910, at age 82.
Tolstoy uses many elements from his own life in Anna Karenina
and explores themes and ideas that inspired and haunted him.
The character of Levin is largely based on himself. Like Levin,
h Characters
he was in his 30s when he married his wife, who was 18.
Tolstoy also insisted she read his diary, which contained the
sordid details of his wild years as a bachelor—including Anna
numerous liaisons with prostitutes, women of the lower
classes, and married acquaintances, his bouts with venereal Anna is a beautiful woman in her late 20s who is married to a
disease, and his love affair with a peasant that produced a man 20 years her senior. Although he is a good and
child. Like Levin, Tolstoy had a long-standing relationship with responsible husband, he lacks passion and treats her with
his wife's family before he married. According to the some degree of condescension. Anna pours all of her love into
Introduction in the translation of Anna Karenina by Richard her son, Seryozha, as a result, because she is starved for
Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, most of the affection. When Anna comes to Moscow to help smooth her
characters—including the minor ones—are drawn from life. brother's marital woes, she meets Count Vronsky, and they fall
in love. After he pursues her relentlessly over several months,
Toward the end of the period when Tolstoy was writing Anna
she becomes his mistress and eventually leaves her husband.
Karenina, he began to experience an intense spiritual crisis,
Although she wishes to transcend the limits of social restraints,
which is captured in Levin's fear of death and existential angst.
she does not have the strength to do so. In the end, Anna kills
But Tolstoy's dark night of the soul was much profounder and
herself because she sees no way out of her situation. Anna's
lasted a lot longer. Eventually, he came to hate his life as an
maiden name is Princess Oblonsky.
aristocrat and desired to give away his wealth. In his early
period of spiritual transformation, he was reading the
philosophers mentioned by Levin—Plato, Spinoza, Kant,
Schelling, Hegel, and Schopenhauer—and would eventually

Anna Karenina Study Guide Characters 4
Levin Kitty
Levin is a nobleman in his early 30s who manages and farms Kitty is the youngest daughter of the Shcherbatskys, and she
his own estate, working beside his peasants. He is a has known Levin since she was a child. Kitty, now 18, loves
nonconformist who disagrees at times with both the liberals Levin, and he loves her. But he stops courting her, and she
and traditionalists, and he has a notion that he can improve his meets Vronsky and falls for him. When Levin returns to town
land's productiveness if he can learn more about the and asks her to marry, she says no because she wants
relationship between the land and the peasants. Levin is also in Vronsky. Vronsky drops her quickly when he sets eyes on
love with Kitty but does not have the confidence to ask her to Anna, and then Kitty suffers both rejection and regret for
marry him until it is too late. However, Kitty and Levin get a turning Levin down. Eventually, she and Levin resume friendly
second chance and end up marrying and living happily. relations, and he proposes again. They marry and have their
first child by the end of the novel. Kitty is also called Katerina,
Katia, and Katenka.
Karenin
Karenin is a highly placed government minister who marries Stiva
Anna after being pressured to do so by her aunt. But he learns
to love his wife and is devastated when he discovers she is Stiva is Anna's brother and an unrepentant rake. Although he is
cheating on him with Vronsky. When she refuses to stop married, he carries on affairs with a string of women, goes out
seeing Vronsky, he decides to divorce her. After she gives birth on the town and treats himself and his girlfriends, and runs
to Vronsky's child and almost dies, he forgives her, but she still through a good part of his wife's estate. He takes no interest in
cannot stand to live with him and leaves him for Vronsky. He their numerous children and has stopped loving his wife, Dolly,
has agreed to give her a divorce, but she initially refuses his because she has lost her youthful beauty. Stiva is well liked
offer. After Anna leaves, Karenin deteriorates and becomes and gets along with everyone, and he tries to intervene with
dependent on a vindictive and fatuous woman who preaches a Karenin on behalf of his sister. But he is a man with few values,
distorted form of Christianity. a hypocrite, and a cheat.
Vronsky Dolly
Count Vronsky is a handsome military officer in his 20s who Dolly is Stiva's wife, and she gets a rude awakening at the
receives a brilliant education and begins a promising career. beginning of the novel when she learns that Stiva has been
He has no intention of marrying and lives the promiscuous life carrying on an affair with the children's English governess. She
of a typical officer. When he comes to Moscow, he begins thinks about leaving him, but she still loves him, and there are
courting Kitty but then sees Anna and experiences "love at first the children to consider. She allows Anna to talk her into
sight." He dances with her at a ball and then follows her back forgiving her husband, but as time passes she realizes he is still
to Petersburg, courting her insistently until she gives in to him. doing the same thing. She resigns herself to living an unhappy
Anna becomes pregnant with his child, and the two of them married life and takes solace in her beautiful children. She also
eventually live together but are not able to become a legal cultivates relationships with her sisters and remains good
couple because her husband will not divorce her. Vronsky ends friends with Levin and with Anna. Dolly is also called Dasha,
up a broken man after Anna commits suicide in a fit of rage Dashenka, and Dollenka. Her maiden name is Shcherbatsky.
and spite.

Character Map
Levin
Passionate, idealistic
landowner; dedicated
to farming
Best
friends Spouses
Kitty
Stiva
Sheltered but courageous girl;
Unfaithful narcissist; neglects
learns to excel as a wife
paternal responsibilities
and mother
Siblings
Anna
Friends Beautiful, dissatisfied woman; Sisters
craves passionate love
Lovers
Dolly
Vronsky
Maternal, forgiving woman;
Pleasure-seeking aristocrat; Spouses
unappreciated but intelligent
smitten by unexpected love
and beautiful
Rivals
Karenin
Cold bureaucrat; fails
miserably to save his
marriage
Spouses
Main Character
Other Major Character
Minor Character

Full Character List Annie Karenina

Annie is Anna and Vronsky's baby
girl.
Character Description Sergei (Kutik or Seryozha)

Seryozha Alexeich
Alexeich Karenin is the young son
Karenin
of Anna and Karenin.
Anna Arkadyevna Karenina is the
Anna wife of a powerful bureaucrat,
Karenin, and sister of Stiva. Fyodor Vasilyevich Katavasov is a
Fyodor Vasilyevich
professor at the university and
Katavasov
Levin's friend.
Konstantin (Kostya) Dmitrich
Levin Levin is a nobleman who farms
and manages his own estate. Princess Katerina Pavlovna is
Princess Katerina
Anna's aunt and the woman who
Pavlovna
raised her.
Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin is
the middle-aged husband of Anna
Karenin
and an important government Kornei (Vasily) Kornei (Vasily) Vasilyevich is
official. Vasilyevich Karenin's valet.
Count Alexei (Alyosha) Kirillovich Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev is

Vronsky Vronsky is a handsome military Sergei Ivanovich
Levin's older half-brother and a
officer who falls in love with Anna. Koznyshev
famous writer.
Princess Ekaterina (Kitty) Kuzma Kuzma is Levin's servant.

Alexandrovna Shcherbatsky is
Kitty the youngest daughter of Prince
Shcherbatsky and later the wife Landau is a religious crank and
of Levin. alleged clairvoyant that has been
Landau taken up by Lydia and Karenin. He
tells Karenin not to grant Anna a
Prince Stepan (Stiva) Arkadyich divorce.
Stiva Oblonsky is Anna's brother and
Dolly's irresponsible husband.
Dmitri Levin is Kitty and Levin's
Dmitri Levin
new baby.
Princess Darya (Dolly)
Alexandrovna Oblonsky is Kitty's
Dolly Nikolai Dmitrich Levin is
eldest sister and wife of Stiva; she
is the mother of several children. Nikolai Dmitrich Konstantin Levin's sick and
Levin impoverished brother and
Koznyshev's half-brother.
Agafya Mikhailovna is Levin's
Agafya Mikhailovna
housekeeper and former nurse.
Mademoiselle Linon is Kitty's
Mademoiselle Linon
French governess.
Annushka Annushka is Anna's lady's maid.
Lizaveta Petrovna is Kitty's

Chirikov is a comrade of Levin Lizaveta Petrovna
Chirikov midwife.
who goes bear hunting with him.
Prince Arseny Lvov is the

Golenishchev is an old Prince Arseny Lvov husband of Natalie and loving
acquaintance of Vronsky. The two father of two sons.
Golenishchev
of them reconnect while Anna
and Vronsky are in Italy.
Kapitonych is the hall porter at

Kapitonych
the Karenin home.

Princess Natalya Alexandrovna, Alyosha Oblonsky is the son of

Alyosha Oblonsky
whose maiden name is Dolly and Stiva Oblonsky.
Princess Natalya
Shcherbatsky, is Dolly and Kitty's
Alexandrovna Lvov
middle sister and the wife of
Prince Lvov. Grisha Oblonsky is the son of
Grisha Oblonsky
Dolly and Stiva Oblonsky.
Countess Lydia Ivanovna is a

Countess Lydia Lily Oblonsky is the daughter of
close friend of Karenin and a Lily Oblonsky
Ivanovna Dolly and Stiva Oblonsky.
religious fanatic.
Princess Marya Princess Marya Borisovna is Masha Oblonsky is the daughter

Masha Oblonsky
Borisovna Kitty's godmother. of Dolly and Stiva Oblonsky.
Marya Efimovna is Seryozha's old Nikolenka Oblonsky is the son of

Marya Efimovna Nikolenka Oblonsky
nanny. Dolly and Stiva Oblonsky.
Marya (Masha) Nikolaevna is Tanya Oblonsky is the daughter

Marya Nikolaevna Tanya Oblonsky
Nikolai Levin's common-law wife. of Dolly and Stiva Oblonsky.
Matryona (Matryosha) Princess Varvara Oblonsky is

Matryona Princess Varvara Stiva and Anna's aunt. She
Filimonovna is the nanny of the
Filimonovna Oblonsky latches onto Anna after she is
Oblonsky children.
shunned by society.
Matvie Matvie is Stiva's valet.

Pestov is a liberal and intellectual
Pestov
friend of Koznyshev.
Metrov is a famous scholar whom
Metrov Katavasov introduces to Levin so
they can speak about his book. Lieutenant Petritsky is a friend
Lieutenant Petritsky and sometime roommate of
Vronsky.
Princess Miagky is an outspoken
member of Betsy's circle who
Princess Miagky Mademoiselle Roland, the French
tells the truth, whether or not it is
polite. Mademoiselle governess of the Oblonsky
Roland children, becomes Stiva's
mistress.
Mikhaila is the coachman that
Anna sends to Vronsky with
Mikhaila Ryabinin is the merchant who
messages on the day she
commits suicide. Ryabinin buys Dolly's wood from Stiva at a
greatly reduced price.
Mikhailov is a talented Russian

Mikhailov painter Anna and Vronsky meet in General (Prince) Serpukhovskoy
Italy; he paints Anna's portrait. General is an old friend and schoolmate of
Serpukhovskoy Vronsky who obtains a post for
him in Tashkent.
Nastya is Sviyazhsky's sister-in-
Nastya law, whom he would like to match
up with Levin. Prince Alexander Dmitrievich
Prince Alexander
(Alexandre) Shcherbatsky is the
Dmitrievich
father of Kitty, Dolly, and Natalie;
Shcherbatsky
Countess Nordston is a friend of he wants Kitty to marry Levin.
Countess Nordston
Kitty who dislikes Levin.

Anna Karenina Study Guide Plot Summary 8
Princess Shcherbatsky is the Alexander Kirillovich Alexander Kirillovich Vronsky is

Princess mother of Dolly, Natalie, and Kitty; Vronsky Alexei Vronsky's brother.
Shcherbatsky she initially wants Kitty to marry
Vronsky.
Countess Vronsky is the mother
of Alexei and Alexander; she
Countess Vronsky
Baroness Shilton is Petritsky's disapproves of Alexei's liaison
Baroness Shilton lover and a woman trying to get a with Anna once it gets serious.
divorce from her husband.
Varya (Varvara) Varya (Varvara) Vronsky is the

Slyudin is Karenin's office Vronsky wife of Alexander Vronsky.
Slyudin
manager.
Captain (or Prince) Yashvin is

Princess Sorokin is a friend of the Captain Yashvin Vronsky's best friend and an
Vronskys, whom the countess inveterate gambler.
Princess Sorokin
would like her son Alexei to marry
if he will only drop Anna.
Madame Stahl
Madame Stahl is a religious
invalid and the guardian of
k Plot Summary
Varenka.
Anna Karenina is often called a love story, which it is, within the
Stremov is a high-level bureaucrat context of marriage and family life. The story is also a tragedy
and Karenin's rival who wins a because the alluring heroine, who cannot make the decision to
Stremov
post that Karenin was hoping to leave her psychological prison of loneliness and dependency,
get.
takes her own life.
Nikolai Ivanovich Sviyazhsky is a

Nikolai Ivanovich
friend of Levin and a marshal of
Sviyazhsky
nobility in his district. Part 1
Turovtsyn is a friend of Stiva and Dolly and Stiva, an aristocratic couple who live in Moscow and
Dolly's, who helps Dolly nurse the have several children, are on the verge of a marital split
Turovtsyn
children through scarlet fever; he
has a crush on her. because Stiva is unfaithful. While he is at work, Stiva is visited
by his best friend Levin; he has come to town to propose to
Tushkevich is Betsy's lover whom Stiva's sister-in-law, Kitty, who is being courted by a handsome
Tushkevich
she eventually casts off. and charming officer named Vronsky. When Levin proposes,
Kitty turns him down.
Princess Elizaveta (Betsy)
Princess Betsy Stiva has asked his sister to talk to his wife, and he goes to the
Fyodorovna Tverskoy is
Fyodorovna
Vronsky's first cousin and Anna's station to meet his sister's train from Petersburg; at the station,
Tverskoy
confidante.
he runs into Vronsky who is waiting for his mother. When the
train comes in, Vronsky sees Anna for the first time and is
Varvara (Varenka) Andreevna is a smitten. Anna successfully convinces her sister-in-law to give
Varvara (Varenka)
friend of Kitty's and a religious
Andreevna Stiva another chance. She also attends a ball with Kitty, and
and intellectual woman.
Vronsky has eyes only for Anna. Kitty is heartbroken when she
Vasily Lukich Vasily Lukich is Seryozha's tutor. is rejected by Vronsky. Levin goes back to his farm, and Kitty
becomes ill.
Vasenka (Vaska) Veslovsky is a

Vasenka Veslovsky
friend of Stiva and a foppish flirt.

Part 2 Part 5
Kitty's parents take her abroad to recover from her heartbreak. Kitty and Levin get married and settle on his estate, while Anna
Eventually, she gets better and returns to Moscow. Meanwhile, and Vronsky leave for Italy for three months and then come
Vronsky begins courting Anna. After almost a year, Vronsky back to Petersburg. Anna visits her son on his birthday, and
finally convinces Anna to become his mistress. She soon both of them express their intense sorrow over their
becomes pregnant with his child, and he asks her to leave her separation. Anna then attends the opera and is shunned by
husband. When he takes a fall at a steeplechase race and everyone because she is living openly as a mistress. Thus,
Anna acts distressed in public, her husband Karenin Anna and Vronsky decide to retire to the country, where
reprimands her for her improper behavior; she then confesses Vronsky has an estate.
her infidelity. Karenin is shocked and upset, but hoping she will
get over her infatuation, he decides to tolerate her dalliance.
Part 6
Part 3 Dolly visits Anna on Vronsky's country estate and finds her
seemingly doing well, although she is taking a lot of opium to
Levin has returned to his life in the country, managing his sleep. Dolly, on Vronsky's prodding, encourages her to seek a
estate and working with his peasants. Dolly comes to her divorce, but Anna doubts he will grant one now that he is under
country estate for the summer, not far from Levin, and she the influence of the religiously hypocritical Countess Lydia.
tries to convince him to pick up his courtship with her sister Anna feels trapped because she cannot go out in society, and
Kitty, but he is too proud. Still, he knows that she is the only she becomes very jealous of Vronsky. Levin and Kitty move to
woman he can possibly marry. Moscow before the birth of their child, and Anna and Vronsky
also move to Moscow. Anna agrees to write to Karenin again.
Part 4
Part 7
Karenin and his wife continue to live estranged in the same
house, but things come to a head when Anna invites Vronsky Kitty gives birth to a boy, and after Karenin does not answer
over and he runs into her husband. Karenin decides to apply Anna, Stiva visits him when he is next in Petersburg. Karenin,
for a divorce, but he will need to prove Anna's adultery with based on the counsel of a French clairvoyant that Lydia has
eyewitnesses. When Karenin visits Moscow, he tells Stiva latched onto, decides to refuse Anna's divorce. Anna becomes
about the divorce. Anna's brother begs him to reconsider and more desperate, takes more opium, and becomes more jealous
invites him to dinner. He has also invited Levin, and when he of Vronsky. She feels herself hemmed in, and guilty that she
sees Kitty again he proposes, and she accepts. Karenin gets a has traded her son Seryozha for Vronsky. She also becomes
letter from his wife, who is on the brink of death after giving paranoid, and after she has an argument with Vronsky, she
birth to a baby girl. She begs his forgiveness, which he grants, throws herself under a train and kills herself.
and he determines to stay with her and take care of the baby.
In despair, Vronsky shoots himself but later recovers. Anna
recovers as well, and she still wants to be free of Karenin, who Part 8
agrees to give her a divorce. But she decides to simply leave
with Vronsky and the baby, leaving behind her son, who legally Vronsky is devastated by Anna's suicide and, as a result,
belongs to Karenin. Vronsky resigns his commission to live with reenlists in the army. Levin experiences a serious spiritual
Anna. crisis in which he determines that it is sufficient to work for the
"good" instead of promoting one's self-interest. Dolly and Stiva
remain together. Kitty and Levin are happy in their marriage,
and Levin continues to manage the farming on his estate.

Plot Diagram
Climax
11
10
12
9
Falling Action
Rising Action 8
13
7
6 14
5
15
4
Resolution
3
2
1
Introduction
9. Dolly visits Anna at Vronsky's country estate.

Introduction
10. Anna and Vronsky return to Moscow for the last time.
1. Anna and Vronsky meet in a train compartment.
Climax
Rising Action 11. Anna throws herself under a train.
2. Stiva and Dolly quarrel about Stiva's infidelity.
3. Levin proposes to Kitty and is rejected.

Falling Action
4. Anna and Vronsky, mutually attracted, dance at the ball.
12. Vronsky leaves to fight in the Serbian war.
5. Vronsky follows Anna back to Petersburg and seduces her.
13. Stiva gets an additional post for a large salary.
6. Anna defiantly confesses her affair to Karenin.
14. Levin is still haunted by existential questions.
7. Anna almost dies and then leaves Karenin for Vronsky.
8. Levin proposes to Kitty again and they marry.

Resolution
15. Levin resolves his spiritual crisis.

Timeline of Events
Midwinter 1873
Stiva and Kitty quarrel over Stiva's infidelity.
Midwinter 1873
Kitty turns down Levin's proposal.
Midwinter 1873
Vronsky sees Anna on the train and falls in love with her.
Midsummer 1873
Levin experiences timelessness when he mows with the

peasants.
December 1873
Vronsky consummates his relationship with Anna.
July 1874
Anna reveals she is pregnant to Vronsky and Karenin.
December 1874
Levin proposes to Kitty again.
December 1874
Anna gives birth to Vronsky's child.
December 1874
Karenin forgives Anna and Vronsky when she appears to

be dying.
December 1874
Vronsky shoots himself.
Midwinter 1875
Anna refuses Karenin's offer of a divorce and leaves for

Europe with Vronsky.
Midwinter 1875

Levin and Kitty marry.
Summer 1875
Anna visits her son Seryozha after she returns from Italy.
Summer 1875
Dolly visits Anna in the country.
November 1875
Anna and Vronsky return to Moscow.
September–December 1875
Kitty and Levin go to Moscow for her confinement.
December 1875
Kitty gives birth to a boy, Dmitri.
May 1876
Karenin refuses to divorce Anna.
May 1876
Anna throws herself under a train.
Summer 1876
Levin determines he will believe in the goodness of God.

Anna Karenina Study Guide Chapter Summaries 14
over infidelity: Stepan Arkadyich thinks it is his due to cheat on

c Chapter Summaries his wife because he is the breadwinner. Nonetheless, Dolly has
brought considerable wealth to the marriage, and Stiva needs
to sell part of her estate to meet his financial obligations. Stiva
Part 1, Chapters 1–5 has no capability to love deeply, which is why he is no longer
attracted to a wife who has lost the first bloom of her youthful
beauty. A thin woman with thinning hair, her body attests to the
toll taken by birthing seven children. Stiva's attitude of sexual
Summary entitlement was not an uncommon attitude for upper-class
Russian men.
The story, told through omniscient, third-person narration,
begins in Moscow, with a crisis in the home of Stiva and his For the most part, the narrator remains neutral, carefully
wife, Dolly. Dolly has recently learned that her husband is withholding judgment about the characters, but the reader may
having an affair with the children's former governess. In draw conclusions from the facts, as well as from the
Chapter 2, Stiva is taken by surprise by his wife's indignation, characters' thoughts and feelings. Stepan Arkadyich is well
because he thinks she knows about his dalliances and simply liked but, as the story progresses, shows himself to be a selfish
has looked the other way. He is a man with a considerable and shallow man with little ability for self-examination. Levin is
sexual appetite who finds himself no longer attracted to his Stiva's best friend and his opposite in many ways. While
33-year-old wife, "the mother of five living and two dead Stepan Arkadyich is in his element in his office and city, Levin
children." He thinks she should make allowances for him, is out of sorts in Moscow, although they have had a similar
because he is 34 and still handsome, while she is worn out, old, upbringing and education. Levin also has different views about
"none too bright," and no longer pretty. The reader learns in marriage and fidelity, believing a man should be loyal to his
Chapter 3 that Stiva is an aristocratic liberal, meaning he wife. This novel makes continuous use of juxtaposition of
believes that marriage and religion are obsolete. He feels characters' actions and views to elaborate on Tolstoy's
uncomfortable that his desire to reconcile with his wife is themes. Some of these comparisons include Stiva and Levin,
motivated partly by his need to sell a forest on her estate. As Stiva and Karenin (his brother-in-law), Dolly and Anna (Stiva's
Dolly is packing to leave in Chapter 4, Stiva pretends sister), and, most important, Anna and Levin.
repentance and asks her to weigh their nine years together
against a "moment of infatuation."
Stiva has a wide network of friends and relatives in both

Part 1, Chapters 6–10
Moscow and Petersburg, but his sister's husband, Karenin,
helped him land his current high-paying job. Stiva is well liked
at work because he treats everyone with respect. His best Summary
friend, Konstantin Levin, about the same age and of the same
Thirty-two-year-old Levin arrives in Moscow in Chapter 6 to
class, unexpectedly shows up at his office, inquiring about Kitty
propose marriage to Kitty, Stiva's sister-in-law. Levin has a
(Princess Ekaterina Shcherbatsky). She is Dolly's 18-year-old
long-standing relationship with Kitty's family, the
sister with whom he is in love. Levin farms on his 8,000-acre
Shcherbatskys, which goes back to his childhood. His own
estate in the country and has not been in Moscow for a few
mother died when he was very young, so the Shcherbatskys
months.
became a second family for him. He recently courted Kitty for
two months, but then left town abruptly, thinking himself an
Analysis unworthy suitor because he has no fixed position in society.

Nevertheless, he has returned to try his luck. Levin is staying
The subject of adultery is examined in depth in this novel about with his half-brother, Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev, a famous
marriage and family, as is the question of how individuals writer, who in Chapter 8 asks Levin about his work with the
negotiate their personal needs while fulfilling social obligations. zemstvo, the local administrative council, and is disappointed
Apropos of this theme, the first scene shows a couple in crisis to hear Levin has resigned. Koznyshev tells Levin that their

older brother, Nikolai Levin, an alcoholic who has run through

his fortune, is in town but does not want to be bothered. Part 1, Chapters 11–15
Nonetheless, Levin is determined to see him and gets his
address from Koznyshev.
Summary
In Chapter 9, Levin leaves his brother to find Kitty at the
Zoological Garden, where she regularly skates. When they During dinner in Chapter 11, Stiva tells Levin about Count Alexei
skate together, he drops a hint about why he has returned to Vronsky, a rich and handsome officer from Petersburg who has
town. Kitty's mother coldly tells him they receive visitors on been courting Kitty in Levin's absence. Thus, he advises him
Thursdays, which means he may visit that night. Stiva then not to wait to propose. Stiva then alludes to his current
comes to pick up Levin for dinner. Levin mentions in Chapter predicament in which he feels he owes something to his
10 that Kitty's mother invited him to call half-heartedly. He mistress, who has "sacrificed everything." Levin initially
reveals his intentions to propose, and Stiva encourages him, responds without much sympathy, saying all fallen women are
saying Dolly has predicted that her sister will marry Levin. "vermin," but then softens his stance when he remembers his
own sexual escapades. Stiva says Levin is "a wholesome
character" who expects life to be the same way, when in reality
Analysis "all the variety ... all the beauty of life [is] made up of light and
shade."
Although Levin is an acceptable suitor for Kitty, he puts all
women on a pedestal, especially the Shcherbatsky women, It is revealed in Chapter 12 that Princess Shcherbatsky does
and most of all, the woman he loves. Moreover, he fears he not want her daughter to marry Levin, preferring the rich,
appears to be a lazy nobleman because he does not have a aristocratic Vronsky, a brilliant match for Kitty. Vronsky has
"job." Stiva is a high-level bureaucrat, for example, and his own been openly courting Kitty, and the princess expects him to
brother is a writer. Most noblemen did not actually manage propose. The reader learns in Chapter 13 that Kitty is nervous
their land but rather left everything in the hands of estate about both suitors coming to her home in the evening. She
managers. Levin runs his farm and estate and actually does loves Levin, whom she has known since childhood. On the
real work, as opposed to the paper-pushing Stiva. His choice of other hand, she imagines a brilliant future with Vronsky, while a
work is idiosyncratic among his peers, and he is something of future with Levin seems "cloudy." Levin arrives early and finds
social outcast to have seriously taken up farming. But Levin's her alone, and when he proposes in Chapter 14 she turns him
nonconformism is meant to be seen by the reader in a positive down. As other people arrive, Levin slips out at the first
light. opportunity. Later, in Chapter 15 the old prince is told that Kitty
refused Levin, and he is furious with his wife, calling Vronsky a
Levin's half-brother is a social reformer as well as a writer, so "popinjay ... who is only amusing himself."
he is disappointed Levin has given up the zemstvo. These rural
governing bodies were established in Russia after the serfs
were freed in 1861, and their purpose was to provide important Analysis
services—such as health and education—to the peasantry
(rural farm workers, also called muzhiks). Levin has no patience The conversation between Stiva and Levin highlights their
for politics and is too idealistic to put up with the corruption different attitudes toward sex, love, and marriage. Levin has
endemic in the zemstvo. Another important theme in the novel not been chaste as a single man, but he feels shame about it.
is social responsibility, and Tolstoy continually contrasts the He looks with disgust upon sexual liaisons outside of marriage,
views of the two brothers. Koznyshev is a liberal who believes and for him they are all in the same category—with no
that his class should work for more democracy in Russian difference between a prostitute and a governess. Levin should
governance, while Levin believes he can create reform only be understood as Tolstoy's mouthpiece and the moral
within his personal sphere of influence and that the zemstvo is compass of the novel. Thus, the modern reader cannot help
out of his sphere of control. but cringe at his division of the female gender into two
categories of "pure woman" and "whore." But as the novel
progresses, it becomes clear, as pointed out by Gayle Greene

(1977), that Tolstoy the moralist is often at odds with Tolstoy Chapter 18, he is struck by the woman sitting with his mother.
the visionary artist. Moreover, Tolstoy the artist portrays the Anna Karenina and Countess Vronsky have been talking about
plight of women with great sensitivity and depth, even as their respective sons; Anna is anxious about having left her
Tolstoy the moralist relegates them to the limited and eight-year-old son Seryozha for the first time.
necessary sphere (in his estimation) of wifehood and
motherhood. As the women disembark, the men learn a drunken watchman
has been killed when he fell under the train. Anna is shaken
Levin's idea of marital love is entirely romantic. For this reason, and comments that the death is a "bad omen," but then turns
he does not comprehend how Stiva can look for sexual her attention to her brother. When they get home in Chapter
gratification outside his marriage, saying, "I do not understand 19, she greets all the children by name and remembers
how I could pass by a bakery, as full as I am now, and steal a everything important about them, which Dolly appreciates.
sweet roll." Partly he is naive about marital bliss, but partly Because Anna does not offer Dolly "falsely compassionate
Stiva is shallow and greedy—the kind of man who fills his phrases," she is able to be open with her. "Do you understand,
emptiness by gorging on an excessive and variegated number Anna, who took my youth and beauty from me?" she asks.
of rolls. Stiva rightly points out to his friend that he looks at Anna tells Dolly that men who cheat put a barrier between their
things as either black or white. The case of the governess is families and mistresses. She reassures her that Stiva still loves
not so cut and dried, because Stiva has some obligation to her her and counsels forgiveness.
now that he has tarnished her reputation.
Kitty, who knows Anna only slightly, meets her in Chapter 20.
Just as Stiva's predicament is complicated, the love between She is immediately captivated by Anna's beauty and charm and
Kitty and Levin is not so simple. He loves her unconditionally, looks forward to Anna's attendance at the upcoming ball. Kitty
but previously he was also somewhat in love with her sisters as blushes when Anna mentions that Kitty may soon expect a
part of his romance with the family. Kitty sees Vronsky as a proposal from Vronsky—something Stiva has told her.
charming, good-looking newcomer, highly valued by her
mother and society, and therefore a much more attractive
prospect. Analysis
The information provided in these chapters gives some insight
Part 1, Chapters 16–20 into Vronsky, who was brought up by a frivolous and amoral
mother and lived mostly at boarding school from an early age.
He does not remember his father or have a lot of experience
with family life. His mother is contrasted with Anna Karenina,
Summary an overprotective mother who feels guilty about leaving her
son behind to come to Moscow. Vronsky is contrasted with
The narrator provides some background on Vronsky in
Levin. He substituted his lack of a mother with a surrogate
Chapter 16. His mother has been "a brilliant society woman"
family (the Shcherbatskys), while Vronsky is cynical on the
who, in her younger days, had many sexual affairs. Vronsky's
subject of wives and children. "He not only did not like family
father died when the boy was very young, and he was sent to
life, but pictured the family, and especially a husband ... as
the best military boarding school and launched into a brilliant
something alien, hostile and, above all, ridiculous," the narrator
career. He now lives the frivolous lifestyle of rich Petersburg
says. Not surprisingly, he dislikes his mother. Strangely, though,
officers. He has no intention of marrying, because he considers
he is attracted to Anna for her motherly qualities, her beauty,
husbands "ridiculous."
as well as by "something especially gentle and tender in the
In Chapter 17, Stiva runs into Vronsky at the train station, expression of her sweet-looking face."
where his mother is also arriving on the Petersburg line with
The death of the drunken watchman is indeed a bad omen,
Stiva's sister, Anna Karenina. He has asked Anna to Moscow to
foreshadowing the tragic end of the story. Trains are an
help patch up the quarrel with Dolly. Vronsky neither respects
important, recurring symbol in the novel. Trains represent
nor loves his mother, although outwardly he is both "obedient
progress, both bringing people together and destroying
and deferential." When Vronsky enters the railway carriage in

traditional ways of life. Before improvements in transportation,

people lived within walking distance of one another in close-
Analysis
knit communities. After the Industrial Revolution, those social
Anna initially ignores Vronsky because she wishes to avoid his
bonds created in traditional agrarian societies were torn apart.
attraction, both for her own and Kitty's sake. However, she
Here, the train has killed a man.
ultimately cannot resist his worship, and as Kitty observes,
Tolstoy's view of progress is another contradiction in the "Each time he addressed Anna, he bowed his head slightly, as
author's vision in Anna Karenina. The author pens a scathing if wishing to fall down before her, and in his glance there were
indictment of the aristocratic class and shows a society on the only obedience and fear." Kitty is mortified when she realizes
brink but does not go as far as recognizing the need for a her look of love is not returned by Vronsky and that his interest
radical change. Gayle Greene points out that Tolstoy instead now lies elsewhere.
has his hero retire to the country. The country estate is a
The highlight of a Russian ball is the mazurka, originally a
paradise, while the cities, with their attendant technology and
Polish folk dance, and by rights Vronsky should have asked
industrialization, are virtual purgatories for a man like Levin.
Kitty to dance, because his behavior up until now has been one
of a suitor. To Kitty's considerable horror, she watches
Vronsky fall in love with Anna right before her eyes, while Anna
Part 1, Chapters 21–25 takes his worship as her due. Anna is victorious over Vronsky
and does not want Kitty's broken heart to mar her enjoyment. It
is as if Anna is of two minds: one belongs to the responsible
Summary matron and the other to a beautiful woman who cannot help
but bask in Vronsky's infatuation. She deliberately ignores the
In Chapter 21, Anna realizes that Dolly and Stiva have pain of the younger woman, crestfallen because of the betrayal
reconciled because of Dolly's mocking banter and Stiva's of her suitor; thus she tacitly accepts Vronsky's advances,
slightly guilty cheerfulness. On the day of the ball in Chapter even though she is a married woman.
22, Kitty carefully attends to her toilette and makes a strong
impression on everyone. Anna wears "a low-cut black velvet
dress, which revealed her full shoulders and bosom, as if Part 1, Chapters 26–30
shaped from old ivory," which greatly impresses Vronsky. Anna
initially ignores Vronsky, and he absently dances with Kitty. In
Chapter 23, when Kitty looks at him with love, he does not
respond. Kitty expects to dance the mazurka with him and has
Summary
already turned down five invitations. But she then sees Anna
In Chapter 26, Levin returns home from Moscow, determined
"drunk with the wine of the rapture she inspired." Kitty retires
not to "hope any more for the extraordinary happiness that
to another room, and Countess Nordston finds her and puts
marriage would have given him," or allow himself to be carried
her with her own partner. On the dance floor she helplessly
away by "vile passion." Despite his disappointment, he is happy
watches Vronsky and Anna dance the mazurka, and when Kitty
to be home and pleasantly surprised that a prize cow has
looks at her with despair, Anna merely turns away.
calved. Agafya Mikhailovna, Levin's old nurse and now
Chapter 24 moves back slightly in time, with Levin visiting his housekeeper, acknowledges Levin's sadness in Chapter 27.
brother Nikolai after leaving the Shcherbatskys. Nikolai is living
Back at the Oblonsky house in Chapter 28, Anna decides to
in a run-down hotel with a common-law wife, a former
leave immediately. She confesses to Dolly that she spoiled the
prostitute. Nikolai is cross and defensive with his brother but
ball for Kitty, but was only "a little" to blame, and Dolly jokes
calms down when he learns in Chapter 25 that Levin does not
that she sounds like her brother. Anna denies the similarity but
judge him. His brother is consumptive (has signs of
admits to herself she is excited and disturbed by what
tuberculosis) and also drinks too much. When they put him to
happened. Once settled on the train in Chapter 29, she feels
bed, Marya Nikolaevna, his brother's companion, promises to
relieved to be returning to her old life and husband and son.
convince Nikolai to go to the country and live with Levin.
Anna falls asleep and dreams she is falling through the floor.

She is awakened by the conductor at the next station and

goes outside for a breath of fresh air. On the platform she
Summary
recognizes Vronsky and asks him why he is going back to
In Chapter 31, Vronsky feels proud that he has made an
Petersburg. "You know I am going in order to be where you are
impression on Anna. When he sees her interact with her
... I cannot do otherwise," he answers in Chapter 30. She begs
husband at the station, he immediately knows she does not
him to forget his words and feels both scared and elated. Upon
love him. At home in Chapter 32 Seryozha is joyfully reunited
meeting her husband in Petersburg, she feels disappointed
with his mother, to whom he is strongly attached. Her
when she notices his ears on which his hat rests and his
husband's good friend, Countess Lydia Ivanovna, immediately
"habitual mocking smile."
comes to visit to ask about Anna's peace mission in Moscow,
but then changes the subject to talk about the Pan-Slavic
movement.
Analysis
In Chapter 31, the reader learns how Anna's husband keeps a
In a turn of situational irony, Anna has come to Moscow to ask demanding schedule, on which all things must occur
a wife to forgive her wayward husband while she herself lays punctually. Later in the evening, the couple discusses Anna's
the groundwork for her own adulterous affair. Anna and Stiva trip, Karenin's work, and what he is reading. He follows all the
are similar in that both crave sexual passion and both go intellectual trends, despite his tremendous work
outside of their marriages to find it. Anna is different from Stiva responsibilities. Anna reminds herself he is "a good man ...
in that she is not interested in casual affairs. Rather, her remarkable in his sphere."
loneliness and craving for affection pull her in Vronsky's
direction. But for now, Anna feels guilty about what happened In Chapter 34, Vronsky returns to his apartment where he is
at the ball and wishes the sudden infatuation to quickly end. putting up a lieutenant friend, Petritsky. Vronsky greets him
She looks forward to returning to her normal life, but on the and his "lady-friend," a married baroness, and a cavalry captain.
train Vronsky intrudes once again, arousing her desire for his In Vronsky's world people are "banal" and "stupid" if they think
novel and passionate regard. In insistently inserting himself into couples should be faithful, that "a girl should stay innocent ...
Anna's life, Vronsky clearly understands that she is not an that one should raise children, earn one's bread, pay one's
impregnable fortress. debts, and other such stupidities." On the other hand, the "real"
people in Vronsky's crowd are "elegant, handsome,
Anna's dream of falling through the floor of the train magnanimous, bold, gay," and indulge in their passions without
symbolizes her fall from society and its norms, which is what shame or remorse. As Vronsky jokes with his friends, he thinks
will happen if she takes up with Vronsky. Gary Jahn (1981) about whom he needs to start visiting in society so that he can
points out that the train symbolizes society, and when Anna begin meeting Anna.
steps outside of the train and meets Vronsky again, he is an
external force luring her beyond the safe boundaries of her
conventional relationship. When she sees her husband upon Analysis
disembarking from the train in Petersburg, Karenin appears to
her to be lacking. The possibility of another relationship on the Anna attempts to settle into her old routine, but she clearly
horizon suddenly throws her marriage into relief, and she sees the negatives in her normal life, which she has not paid
becomes aware of a "pretense" in her dealings with Karenin attention to previously. For example, Lydia Ivanovna is not
that she has not noticed before. really interested in hearing the answers to the questions she
asks and would rather hear herself talk. As a Pan-Slavist, she is
interested in propagating Orthodox Christianity, but she is
Part 1, Chapters 31–34 angry all the time and has many enemies. Anna dearly loves her
son, but even he seems a little disappointing in the first
moments she reunites with him. However, she talks herself
back into her regard for her husband, remembering his good
qualities. The fact that Vronsky has so easily made headway

with Anna points to a deep fissure in her relationship with her officers and a titular councilor, whom the officer has insulted
husband and a strong dissatisfaction. by attempting to pursue his wife.
Vronsky travels with a crowd of amoral and self-indulgent

aristocrats who scorn fidelity and other old-fashioned customs Analysis
and think they have the perfect right to amuse themselves
without considering how their actions might affect others. It Kitty is heartbroken after Vronsky drops her so abruptly and
was not uncommon for both men and women in the circles of has symptoms of physical illness as a result of her mental
Russian high society to carry on sexual affairs outside of their state. Dolly wants to know whether Levin proposed because
marriages, so long as no one got too serious and everything she is thinking ahead; later, she will act as a mediator to bring
took place behind closed doors. Vronsky is infatuated with the couple together again. Kitty is mortified because she was
Anna and now embarks on a plan to seduce her, but at this rejected and also because she turned down her old friend
point he has no idea how deeply he will come to feel about her Levin. But her sister's questions are like salt on her wound,
or what it will cost them. Together, they will break the rules of which is why she attacks Dolly. Dolly easily forgives her mean,
both conventional morality and hypocritical high society. hurtful words because she is the older sister and knows Kitty is
suffering.
Part 2, Chapters 1–5 Anna's husband Karenin "made his career" in Countess Lydia's
circle, which includes the "ambitious men" and "unattractive,
virtuous and pious women." Since marrying, Anna has chosen
her friends from among these people, but now they seem false
Summary to her. She gravitates toward the carefree socialites and
handsome and charming men so that she can see Vronsky and
In Chapter 1, Kitty is in poor health after Vronsky disappears,
bask in his admiration. In a turn of situational irony, he is
and the physicians who are called recommend a change in
attempting to smooth over a faux pas that involved the pursuit
scenery. Dolly, who has recently given birth to another child,
of a married woman, even as he pursues Anna.
arrives in Chapter 2 to see her sister. The reconciliation
between her and Stiva has proved superficial, because Stiva
spends little time at home and does not give Dolly enough
money to run the house. When the sisters are alone in Chapter Part 2, Chapters 6–10
3, she asks if Levin proposed. Kitty flies into a rage and attacks
Dolly for reconciling with a man who no longer loves her. She
immediately regrets what she says, and after the two sisters Summary
cry and commiserate, Dolly understands that Kitty is "ready to
love Levin and hate Vronsky." Shortly after, Kitty temporarily Chapter 6 describes Princess Betsy's salon, where she
moves to her sister's house to help care for the children, who presides over a samovar (tea urn) on one side and the
have come down with scarlet fever; she then goes abroad with ambassador's wife at the other. In Betsy's aristocratic drawing
her parents. room, shallow people find it difficult to talk about anything at
length, so conversation descends into malicious gossip. At the
Chapter 4 moves back to Petersburg, where Anna is in the end of the chapter Vronsky arrives. In Chapter 7, soon after,
highest social circle consisting of three divisions: Karenin's Anna enters the drawing room and takes a private moment to
"official service" circle; Countess Lydia's circle of power and tell Vronsky "this must end" after she reprimands him for his
influence; and "society proper," which includes people like behavior with Kitty. He shrugs it off, and when he asks her in
Vronsky and his cousin, Princess Betsy Tverskoy. Whereas Chapter 8 if she wants him to disappear, she says no. At this
Anna frequented Lydia's circle before meeting Vronsky, she point, Karenin enters the drawing room and soon suggests
now socializes with Betsy's circle and likes running into they go home together, but Anna decides to stay for supper,
Vronsky. In Chapter 5, Vronsky tells Betsy a story about how and he leaves without her.
he's been trying to smooth over a quarrel between one of his
In Chapter 9, Karenin is disturbed by the "senseless" thought

of his wife falling in love with another man. To be jealous is an in the room, she directs her plea to him. "And he felt what a
insult to his wife, but he feels obligated to speak to her about murderer must feel when he looks at the body he has deprived
improper behavior. When Anna gets home, past 1 a.m., he of life." She tells him that he ought to remember that all she
mentions her "too animated conversation" with Vronsky, which has now is him. Anna begins having a recurring dream, which
will give people grist for the gossip mill. Anna pretends horrifies her, in which both Karenin and Vronsky are her
innocence, and he apologizes if he is wrong. "I am your husbands.
husband and I love you," he says, and asks her if she is
harboring any inappropriate feelings. Anna denies having a Chapter 12 returns the reader to Levin in his country home,
secret, thinking Karenin does not know the meaning of the after Kitty's refusal, as a new spring farming season arrives. In
word "love." Karenin makes numerous attempts to get past Chapter 13, Levin feels frustration because his orders are often
Anna's new wall of silence. He cannot seem to strike the right carried out improperly or not at all, and the steward blames the
note, however, continuing to use a mocking tone to talk about peasant workers for these ills. Despite his frustration, Levin
these serious matters. cannot help but be pleased with the beautiful spring. When he
returns to the house in Chapter 14, he finds that Stiva has
come to visit him. Stiva has to sell the wood on his wife's
Analysis property, and he also tells his friend he has a new, illicit love
interest. The two men go bird hunting in Chapter 15, and when
Anna half-heartedly rebukes Vronsky for misleading Kitty, but Levin asks his friend about Kitty, Stiva says she has been ill
his defense is that he fell in love with her and could not help it. and did not marry Vronsky.
He plays a lover's game, saying he will bravely depart if she
wishes it, and she responds in kind that "I do not want to drive
you away." Anna is clearly already caught in Vronsky's net. Analysis
Meanwhile, Karenin has heard the gossip about Vronsky and Anna experiences many contradictory emotions upon her
Anna and sees evidence of the growing attachment with his surrender to Vronsky—and not the happiness he feels when
own eyes. Karenin is a conventional man with little imagination, their passion is consummated. She feels loathing and horror,
but he loves his wife enough to demean himself, as he sees it, as well as shame and joy. Her dream of two husbands
and ask her to confide in him any illicit feelings she may have. indicates an unconscious attempt to reconcile these two
Anna coldheartedly accuses him in her heart of not knowing relationships. In the dream she tells them "now they were both
what love is—perhaps because his declaration is too little too content and happy," when, in fact, both of them will soon be
late, and as she drifts off to sleep she thinks, "It's late now, late, very unhappy.
late."
In this novel, Tolstoy delves deeply into the dark side of sexual
Karenin is not passionate and seems unable to express his relationships. The author battled his entire life with his own
feelings, falling back on his "habitual tone," which he uses to contradictory feelings about sex: for him, sexual acts had a
hide from emotion. Thus, he has no chance of winning Anna sordid aspect he could not reconcile with the lofty feelings of
back because he does not know how to access her emotional love felt in the early stages of romance, nor with the
nature. commitment made when the bloom comes off the rose. The
narrator says the "body ... [of] their first period of love" had
been killed because the pure, passionate expectation of union
Part 2, Chapters 11–15 has been brought down to earth in the reality of the physical
act of sex—quite ordinary by comparison.
The abrupt shift to Levin's farm symbolizes the vast difference

Summary between the adulterous lovers and Levin's feelings for Kitty. No
doubt Levin is sexually attracted to Kitty, but the focus of his
In Chapter 11, the narrator abruptly says that after almost a
regard lies in their long-standing friendship. Vronsky's initial
year of pursuit, Vronsky finally satisfies his desire. Anna
attraction to Anna is focused on her physicality. As the story
instinctively asks for forgiveness, and because only Vronsky is

advances, it becomes clear that the intensity of his feelings for Anna.
Anna take him somewhat by surprise.
Also contrasted are Anna and Stiva. While Anna has horror and Analysis
remorse about stepping outside the bounds of her marriage,
Stiva continues to be cavalier about his casual romances, Stiva's visit to Levin brings him the good news that Kitty is not
which are depleting the family fortunes—some of which came attached, and both he and Stiva know he is glad. Still, his pride
from his wife, Dolly. Readers of Anna Karenina sometimes is hurt, and he feels that Vronsky is his enemy, both because
mistake Tolstoy's intentions in the character of Stiva. He is a he bested him in love and because he has insulted the woman
shallow and heartless aristocrat who always puts his own he loves. Stiva's misdeeds are not restricted to the sexual; he
needs ahead of others. While he has the veneer of also gambles and overspends, putting his family's security and
kindheartedness, he will put himself out for people only if it future at risk. Through him, Tolstoy shows how weakness
does not cost too much. becomes pervasive and systemic. Levin takes his own role as
caretaker of his own ancestral property quite seriously. He
studies agricultural methods and works in the fields alongside
Part 2, Chapters 16–20 his laborers. Thus, he sees Stiva's casual mishandling of Dolly's
property as an insult to him as a land-holding gentleman.
Vronsky's feelings for Anna are beginning to change him and

Summary will transform him as the novel progresses—which is to say, he
will experience great unhappiness. People like Vronsky's
In Chapter 16, Levin is happy to hear that Kitty did not end up
mother and the officers in the regiment allow themselves their
with Vronsky, although he tries to hide his pleasure from Stiva.
numerous sexual affairs so long as they are carried on
The merchant Ryabinin comes to complete the purchase of the
discreetly behind the curtain of respectability. The presence of
wood and tries to knock the price down. Levin is already
Stiva forces the reader to question the feasibility of such a
disgusted by how little his friend is getting for the acreage and
system.
threatens to buy it himself, and Ryabinin backs down. Levin is
cross with Stiva over the sale of the wood in Chapter 17, and Vronsky's mother initially thinks that "nothing ... gave the
angry that Kitty was insulted by Vronsky. Stiva assures him ultimate finish to a brilliant young man like a liaison in high
that her head was only temporarily turned by Vronsky's society." Anna is a beautiful, desirable woman, married to a
"aristocratism." Levin scorns the idea that Vronsky is an powerful and important man, so Vronsky's "conquest" gets
aristocrat, citing his father's uncertain pedigree and his kudos from his friends and even his mother. But Vronsky finds
mother's sordid affairs. He also says he is over Kitty, which himself living by a new code; his old coldness cannot
Stiva calls "nonsense." accommodate authentic passion. Thus, Anna becomes a point
of division between him and his mother.
Chapter 18 returns to Vronsky in Petersburg, whom the
narrator says is well loved and respected by his regiment.
Moreover, his friends approve of his affair, which everyone
knows about even though he has never said a word about it. Part 2, Chapters 21–25
Vronsky's mother is initially pleased, but when she learns he
turned down a promotion to be near Anna, she changes her
mind. Besides his passion for Anna, Vronsky loves horses and Summary
has signed up to race in the officers' steeplechase. In Chapter
19 Vronsky runs into Yashvin, a captain in the cavalry and his In Chapter 21, Vronsky goes to visit his beloved horse, Frou-
best friend, and the two go back to the cottage where Vronsky Frou, and the trainer reminds him to stay calm and not do
is staying for the summer. When they arrive in Chapter 20, anything to upset himself. In the carriage on his way to see
Petritsky is coping with a hangover. Vronsky's friends begin Anna, he reads nagging letters from his mother and brother
drinking, but he leaves for the stables and also plans to see who do not understand that "this woman is dearer to [him] than
life." He is upset about the necessity of having to lie about his

relationship and wants things to change. is to Anna, and perhaps not so surprisingly, she does not
disclose this important information. By throwing her lot in with
Vronsky is also troubled, the reader learns in Chapter 22, by Vronsky, Anna puts herself in a completely dependent situation
Seryozha, who sees him quite often but does not know what to made doubly dependent because of pregnancy. Ultimately,
make of him. Today, however, Anna is home alone. She tells Vronsky's desire will end up destroying Anna, just as it did the
him she is pregnant, and he urges her to leave her husband. horse.
Anna says in Chapter 23 that Karenin will say he cannot
release her. "He's not a man, he's a machine," she concludes.
She does not want to run away with Vronsky and leave
Seryozha behind, although she cannot bring herself to say so
and simply begs him to drop the idea.
Vronsky now realizes he is running late and gets to the races Summary
just in time in Chapter 24. Once the race is underway, he takes
the lead, but because he wants a "long first" he pushes the The reader learns in Chapter 26 that Anna has chosen to stay
horse further, but then fails to keep up in his saddle, and Frou- at Karenin's country house for the summer, because it is close
Frou stumbles and falls, breaking her back. Although Vronsky to Vronsky's barracks. Countess Lydia Ivanovna is avoiding
is unhurt, the horse must be shot. The death of the horse is a Anna and unsuccessfully tries to discuss Anna's behavior with
great misfortune that Vronsky knows is his own fault. Karenin. Karenin knows that his wife is unfaithful, but he cannot
confront the problem. "[I]n his soul he closed, locked, and
sealed the drawer in which he kept his feelings for his family."
Analysis He has withdrawn from his wife and son and spends very little
time at home. In Chapter 27, Karenin goes to the country
Anna's pregnancy lends urgency to Vronsky's desire to openly house before the races to give Anna money for expenses, and
love her. She also dislikes the lying and sneaking around, but she pretends to be glad to see him. Because Anna has already
she has more at stake, because her son legally belongs to arranged to go the races with Betsy, Karenin will go separately.
Karenin, and she cannot take him with her. The couple are At the races, Anna feels disgust for her husband, whom she
deeply in love and willing to sacrifice almost anything for each thinks has "nothing but ambition ... in his soul" in Chapter 28.
other, but the "almost" becomes everything. Vronsky is defying She concedes that she is a "bad woman" but at least does not
his family and has already given up a post that would advance like to lie, while "lying is food" for her husband.
his career in order to be near Anna; she, of course, risks her
reputation and the loss of her child. Anna describes her When Vronsky falls from his horse in Chapter 29, Anna begins
husband in the worst possible terms to Vronsky, bad qualities to cry. Karenin comes down to where she is sitting, asking her
that the reader must judge for him- or herself. She believes he to take his arm so they can leave. In the carriage, he tells her
is only concerned with propriety and his good name. she acted improperly. Once again, he apologizes if he is
mistaken in his suspicions, but this time she tells him, "I am his
Vronsky is overly excited by the time he gets to the race and mistress, I cannot stand you, I'm afraid of you, I hate you ... Do
his passion causes him to have poor judgment. Frou-Frou what you like with me." Anna then begins to cry again. Karenin
symbolizes Anna and his relationship with her. Like the horse, says he plans to "secure" his honor.
she is beautiful and high-strung, and he has the upper hand. He
initiated the affair and has a freedom of movement that is
closed to Anna. The consequences of the affair are much more Analysis
serious for her, just as the perils of racing are graver for the
horse. Vronsky expects to successfully overcome their Karenin's dignity prevents him from acknowledging Anna's
difficulties in being a couple because he is used to winning, but affair, which is obvious to everyone in the Petersburg
he has miscalculated his odds. aristocracy. Countess Lydia clumsily tries to take his side by
cutting off relations with Anna. It is clear that Lydia is a self-
Surprisingly, he does not understand how important Seryozha righteous, conventionally religious busybody who also happens

to have a crush on Karenin, and she will insinuate herself into their philosophy and Varenka's tranquility, and wants to know
his life after Anna leaves him. how they come by it.
As a counterpart to Lenin, Karenin also feels bound by duty, In Chapter 33, Varenka's influence begins to help Kitty
but his duty is to his government, making him into something of overcome her grief, and she tries to emulate her new friend,
an automaton. He believes in the bureaucratic system he who loses herself in loving and caring for others. Kitty's father,
works for, and even if it is corrupt, he is not. His conventional who has been in some other parts of Germany visiting friends,
nature and difficulty with emotion make him well-suited to his returns and is introduced to Varenka in Chapter 34, and he
job, but his bureaucratic attitude seeps into his home life. informs her that Madame Stahl is a Pietist, a Christian who
cultivates tranquility through prayer. In Chapter 35, Kitty tries
Clearly, Anna's accusations are self-serving. She cannot claim to follow her friend in performing good works but ends up
that she does not like to lie when she is a married woman making the wife of one of the invalids jealous. As the
having a high-profile affair with a handsome and popular man. Shcherbatskys prepare to leave, Varenka promises to visit
Her behavior shows how diametrically opposed she and her Kitty when she marries.
husband are, and it also calls her accusations of him into
question.
Before Vronsky appears, Anna pours all her excess emotion

Analysis
into Seryozha. She disrespects Karenin because she does not
These chapters describe Kitty's visit to Soden to "take the
understand his restrained response to the affair, because she
waters" at the mineral springs, which were believed to have
would act very differently if she were in his place. He genuinely
curative properties. Kitty is attracted to Varenka because of
loves her and his son, but he has trouble expressing his
her goodness and seemingly peaceful mind, and looks upon
emotions. This is why he keeps them locked in a metaphorical
her as a role model. Kitty is a young girl with a broken heart
drawer. There is a cruelty in her declaration that she hates him
who thinks she will never love again. Because marrying and
and is afraid of him—as he has given her no reason to fear him.
raising children is the only "career path" Kitty knows, Varenka's
Perhaps the factor that is most responsible for her passionate
way of life looks like an attractive alternative, and she wishes
outburst is her understanding of her untenable position as a
to learn how to make altruism the center of her own life. While
pregnant woman facing the prospect of having children by two
this path may work for Varenka, it is not Kitty's path, and she
different men.
gets angry when she fails to be helpful in her attempt to
emulate her Pietist friend. She is disappointed by her father's
revelations about Madame Stahl, for whom she previously felt
Part 2, Chapters 30–35 immense admiration, but he helps to bring her back down to
earth. Although she has benefited from her friendship with
Varenka, Kitty is happy to be returning home so that she can
Summary pick up her old life.
Chapter 30 moves back in time to the spring of Kitty's

heartbreak, when she goes to a German spa with her parents Part 3, Chapters 1–5
to improve her health; they learn that also staying there are
Levin's brother Nikolai and his wife. Kitty observes and is
drawn to a young woman named Varenka, a companion of a
high-society Russian woman, Madame Stahl. Varenka is a
Summary
selfless soul who, in addition to tending to Madame Stahl, looks
In Chapter 1, Levin's elder half-brother, Koznyshev, visits him in
out for the most gravely ill at the spa. In Chapter 31, Princess
the country, and although Levin is happy to see him, he also
Shcherbatsky makes the acquaintance of Varenka, who was
feels somewhat uncomfortable when his brother is around.
brought up by Madame Stahl, and Varenka and Kitty become
Whereas for Levin, farming—which involves an intimate
friends. Both Varenka and her guardian are religious women,
relationship with the peasantry and the land—is a natural way
the reader learns in Chapter 32; Kitty is impressed both with

of life, for Koznyshev, it is a refuge, a place to hide from life's pleasant and often blissful. The narrator says Levin "forgot
crueler truths. He idealizes the peasants and claims to love what he was doing and began to feel light, and in those
them, while Levin looks upon them as people with both good moments his swath came out as even and good as Titus's."
and bad qualities. Koznyshev also takes Levin away from his
work.
In Chapter 2 Levin frets about the unmown grass, while

Koznyshev waxes poetic about the beauties of nature. While
they are fishing in Chapter 3, Koznyshev once again brings up
the zemstvo and faults his brother for not being involved in
Summary
civic life. Koznyshev believes in working for "the common
In Chapter 6, Levin finishes mowing a large meadow with the
good," but Levin sees no benefit for himself in participating in
peasants and arrives home long after dinner. He finds a letter
the zemstvo. Feeling a need to calm himself and knowing that
from Stiva, asking him to go to the family's country estate
physical activity is a good remedy, Levin decides to mow with
(Yergushovo) to help Dolly get it in shape for the summer. Stiva
the peasants in Chapter 4. At first, he has difficulty keeping up
is in Petersburg in Chapter 7, supposedly on business but
with them, but soon he loses all awareness of time and self in
mostly spending money on good times, and Dolly has moved to
the grassy fields. "The longer Levin mowed, the more often he
her dowry estate to reduce family expenses. Stiva was
felt those moments of oblivion during which it was no longer
supposed to order the necessary repairs when he came in the
his arms that swung the scythe, but the scythe itself that lent
spring, but he paid attention to the wrong things. Matryona
motion to his whole body, full of life and conscious of itself"
Filimonovna, Dolly's old nanny, works with the steward and his
(Chapter 5). At dinnertime, Levin eats with the peasants.
wife to make the place comfortable.
Dolly derives her joy from her children and in Chapter 8

Analysis prepares to take them to the liturgy. She dresses up for the
occasion, mostly to "not spoil the general impression" of her
These chapters contrast Levin and Koznyshev. Levin lives from
beautiful brood. When they get back from church in Chapter 9,
his heart and can do good only as it practically pertains to
Levin is waiting for her to see how he might help, and Dolly tells
himself and the people he is directly involved with. Koznyshev,
him the nanny has put things in order. Levin then visits with the
on the other hand, lives from the head and rationally
family in Chapter 10, and Dolly brings up the topic of her sister
determines how he should act for the common good. "I think ...
Kitty. She steers the conversation toward his proposal and
no activity can be solid unless it's based on personal interest,"
explains that girls cannot pick and choose mates the way men
Levin says to his brother. Koznyshev responds that "only those
can and thus may not know whom they love when first asked.
nations can be historical, that have a sense of what is
She asks him to visit Kitty when she arrives, but he refuses.
important and significant in their institutions, and value them."
Koznyshev and Levin both supported the emancipation of the
peasants, but for different reasons. While Koznyshev continues
Analysis
to work to reform Russia, Levin has no interest in politics. He is
more interested in cultivating the land and those who live on it.
Stiva's selfishness is again evident in his failure to understand
what his wife would need in the country. In Petersburg he is
Levin experiences frustration over irreconcilable differences
renewing his contacts in the ministry, but for the most part he
between himself and his half-brother, so he decides to mow
is spending money at the races and on other social activities.
with the peasants again, an activity in which grass is cut across
The narrator says, "Hard as Stepan Arkadyich tried to be a
a wide acreage and then dried as hay to feed the animals. At
solicitous father and husband, he never could remember that
first, Levin is awkward in handling the scythe, but once he gets
he had a wife and children." The family owes money all around,
into the rhythm of the task he experiences what Mihály
which is why Dolly is trying to conserve, even while her
Csíkszentmihályi calls "flow," a state of complete absorption in
husband spends on himself without thinking.
which a person immersed in a task loses self-consciousness
and remains in the present moment. The state of flow is
While motherhood comes with many griefs, what little

happiness Dolly has derives from her caring for her children wants to do what will least disturb his life.
and watching them grow. "Had it not been for them, she would
have remained alone with her thoughts of her husband, who He decides they will stay together and she will stop seeing
did not love her." Dolly and Stiva are another unhappy couple, Vronsky. This also coincides with his religious view of giving
although as a man, Stiva has the ability to build an entire her an opportunity to reform. Karenin writes a letter to his wife
second life outside his marriage. Dolly, on the other hand, when he gets home in Chapter 14, advising her of his decision
cannot even count on her husband's fulfilling his and asking her to move back to Petersburg. He then mentally
responsibilities as a provider, although she takes refuge in her lines up additional new work projects to keep himself busy. In
children. Chapter 15, Anna feels both fear and shame the next day when
she thinks about her confession and begins to think Vronsky is
Dolly's devotion to her family can be seen in the fact that she growing tired of her. She also thinks that, whatever happens,
intercedes with Levin on Kitty's behalf. Despite her own she cannot leave her son. She writes a letter to Karenin, saying
unhappy marriage, Dolly sees the possibility of love, and longs she is leaving with her son, and prepares to go to Moscow.
to give this gift to her friends. Levin is not convinced. As a man,
he cannot understand the extent to which women do not
control their destinies, so what Dolly says largely goes over his Analysis
head, because he is still nursing a bruised ego.
Karenin's rewrite of his history with Anna, like Anna's
accusations of him, must be understood in the light of a deeply
Part 3, Chapters 11–15 dignified man who has been made to look ridiculous and who
has no remedy. Revenge is not possible for him, given his
social position and his constitution, taking both a duel and a
divorce off the table and furthering his impotence.
Summary
Also at play is his desire to continue his control of Anna. Either
In Chapter 11 it is July, and Levin goes to his sister's village to separation or divorce would allow Anna to live with Vronsky
check on the haying where he finds he has to negotiate with outside the bounds of marriage, but she would lose her son.
the headman to ensure he is not cheated of his fair share of Thus, the best solution, in Karenin's view, is for her to remain in
hay. As Levin watches peasants at work in Chapter 12, the the marriage. He argues that he cannot in good conscience put
previous argument forgotten, he thinks about how he needs to himself, or her, or their son through "the coarse proofs [of
change his life. When he leaves the meadow and begins adultery] the law demanded," but given the public nature of
walking toward the village, he sees a coach passing, and inside Vronsky and Anna's affair, his argument is specious.
is Kitty. Levin realizes he has not given up his dream of
marrying her and that she is "the only possibility of resolving Anna is helpless. She is largely ignorant of divorce law,
the riddle of his life." knowing only that she cannot legally take her son away from
his father. Vronsky has no legal obligation to protect her, and
Chapter 13 returns to Petersburg and Karenin. While his wife's now, neither does her husband. Still, her passion will not allow
words are painful, he feels "like a man who has had a long- her to relent.
aching tooth pulled out." Now he thinks back on their lives and
judges Anna as having been always "depraved." He wishes to
"shake off ... the mud she had spattered on him ... to continue
on his path of active, honest, and useful life." Karenin is afraid
to challenge Vronsky to a duel, which also would be
incongruous, given his position as a statesman. Divorce is not
an option, either, because he would have to drag them both
Summary
through a considerable amount of mud. Neither can he
Anna is furious upon receiving Karenin's bureaucratic response
condone a separation, which would allow her to be with
to their situation in Chapter 16. She mentally accuses him of
Vronsky, as would a divorce. He wants her to suffer and also
being mean and vile and stifling her life. She is sure Karenin

knows she will not abandon her son, because if she did, "there Anna has moral scruples and wonders if the fact that she
[could] be no life for me even with the one I love." Anna begins actually loves her paramour makes her better or worse than
to weep, thinking there is no way out for her. She goes to the other adulterers. She does not have an answer to the
Betsy's house in Chapter 17 with the thought of meeting question. She looks at the women who have become her
Vronsky, and finds Princess Tverskoy walking in her garden friends and cannot imagine how they manage because, of
with her lover Tushkevich. Also on hand is Stremov, a course, she is nothing like them. Anna is looking for permanent
colleague and rival of Karenin, and a woman he admires, Liza satisfaction not available in her current husband, while her
Merkalov, who is meanwhile having an affair with a third society friends are merely taking the edge off their boring lives
person. Betsy sends a note to Vronsky inviting him to dinner and lackluster marriages.
and discreetly gives Anna time to pen her own note to him
before she seals the letter. In Chapter 18 additional guests And Anna is not the only complicated factor in her relationship.
arrive, and after Anna makes some small talk, she leaves as Vronsky has far more good qualities than the average soldier
quickly as she can. or socialite. He is not greedy and has temporarily given up his
inheritance to benefit his brother. And despite his lack of
In Chapter 19, Vronsky is poring over his accounts, and his means, he acknowledges his responsibility to support Anna
debt far exceeds his income. Although he is thought to be very and their child.
rich, he has actually ceded his share of the family wealth to his
older brother, who was in debt and married a woman without
money. He has reserved a modest salary for himself and Part 3, Chapters 21–23
promised to do without his income until he himself marries.
Vronsky's attitude toward Anna in Chapter 20 is that she
deserves his highest respect as the woman he loves. Her
Summary
husband is, for him, an inconvenience, and he would have
gladly fought him in a duel. As he ponders his financial position,
Vronsky's friend from the military academy, Serpukhovskoy,
he realizes he will need money to take Anna out of her
arrives in Chapter 21, and the regimental commander throws a
marriage.
party for him. He and Vronsky are childhood friends who
graduated at the same time, but Serpukhovskoy is a general,
while Vronsky, who passed up a promotion, is still only a
Analysis captain. Serpukhovskoy offers to help Vronsky advance his
career. Vronsky then gets the note from Betsy with Anna's
Karenin's strength is being a government employee. His letter
postscript and excuses himself, promising to talk later. When
reads more like a negotiated deal than a marital reconciliation.
he arrives to see Anna in Chapter 22, she tells him she has
Still, Anna is not fair in her assessment of the situation; he is a
confessed to her husband and gives him Karenin's letter.
man who works in the highest circles of government, and she
Vronsky thinks he should not bind himself to Anna but still
has put him in an untenable position. Given the strict rules
urges her to leave her husband. When Anna begins to cry,
about divorce and the disgrace that Anna will bring upon the
saying she does not want to leave her son, Vronsky feels
family with an open, unsanctioned love, as well as the future
responsible for her unhappiness.
social position of their son, it is not unreasonable for Karenin to
demand that she give up her lover and remain in the marriage. In Chapter 23 Anna goes to Petersburg, following Karenin's
Like Karenin has done with her, she now exaggerates his bad instructions. She announces she cannot stop seeing Vronsky,
qualities. Although he may be cold and she may feel stifled by nor is she able to resume conjugal relations with Karenin. He
him, he is neither mean nor vile. excuses her from her marital duties and tells her he never
wants to meet Vronsky at his house.
The hypocrisy of the upper class is evident in the unrepentant
desecration of marriage vows that goes on in Betsy Tverskoy's
social circle to which Anna is now relegated. When Anna asks
Betsy about the exact relationship between Liza Merkalov and
her lover, Betsy laughs it off and calls her a "terrible infant."

relations have already been tried. After talking to the other

Analysis farmers in Chapter 28, Levin feels sure the key is to establish
the right kind of relationship with the workers. Sviyazhsky
Vronsky is not without ambition, and the arrival of his friend
argues that schools are necessary to educate the peasants,
reminds him that he once had high hopes for his career, and it
but Levin does not think that will raise the level of farming.
might even still rise quickly. His friend wants to help him move
Fired up by the conversation, he wants to return home to try
into a wider circle of influence, which will require leaving the
something new.
comfort of his regiment and most likely Petersburg, also. But
just as he is getting interested in what Serpukhovskoy has to When he returns home in Chapter 29, he tells his steward that
say, Vronsky is called away by Anna, who clearly takes the peasants can become shareholders in the farming
precedence over every other thing. Vronsky is conflicted about enterprise. Most are suspicious of his motives, but some sign
his desire for personal success and his sense of obligation, and up for the new program. Levin plans in Chapter 30 to write a
this conflict does not bode well for Anna. book about the relationship between the peasants and the
land, and decides to go abroad to study farming methods. He
Anna is equally as frank with Karenin as she was with Vronsky.
delays his trip, however, when his dying brother Nikolai arrives
But unlike Vronsky, Karenin is not conflicted, only weak. He
in Chapter 31. Levin's existential terror surfaces, and he thinks,
accepts the fact that she will not sleep with him while she
"I work, I want to do something, and I've forgotten that
continues to have sex with Vronsky, demanding only that the
everything will end, that there is – death." In Chapter 32, Nikolai
affair remain discreet. In this matter, Karenin represents the
begins to provoke his brother after a few days, and as the
ineffectual Russian government, managing well within its own
argument escalates, he decides to return home. Levin then
confines but having little idea how to manage an unruly and
leaves for Europe.
messy populace.
Analysis
In Levin, Tolstoy works out many of the agro-political
arguments common in his day. Levin is continually frustrated
Summary by peasants who will not use the modern equipment he
purchases, nor carry out his orders to farm more productively
Chapter 24 moves back to Levin, who is feeling disillusioned using new methods. He is also disgusted with his steward and
about farming, which seems to be a continual struggle others who say the peasants are simply lazy. From experience,
between him and his workers, who dislike the improvements he knows this is not the case. He disagrees with liberals like
brought by new technology. He is also dissatisfied because, Sviyazhsky and his half-brother Koznyshev, who think that if
even though Kitty is staying with the Oblonskys, he cannot the aristocrats simply finish what they started in freeing the
bring himself to visit her. To get away from his preoccupations, serfs—that is, educate the peasants and provide them with
Levin leaves to visit his friend Sviyazhsky and hunt snipe. On schools, hospitals, and other social services—things will
his way, he stops to eat at a wealthy peasant's farmhouse in improve, realizing that their vision is idealistic. Levin believes
Chapter 25 and is impressed with how well the farmer and his that it is a matter of understanding the particular relationship
family, along with some hired workers, manage the land. the Russian peasant has with the land and then building on that
knowledge to figure out the best method of farming.
Sviyazhsky is a strong presence in the zemstvo, the reader
learns in Chapter 26, and Levin respects him. Many of He knows that hired workers, whom most noblemen now need
Sviyazhsky's political opinions, however, contradict his to help farm, are not as reliable or skilled as the people
behavior. After hunting and over tea, Levin listens in Chapter attached to the land. Yet, as he looks at what different people
27 to two local landowners discuss how the emancipation of are accomplishing (for example, the prosperous peasant family
the serfs has ruined farming. Levin believes in developing at the farmhouse), he feels hopeful that there must be a way
"relations with the workforce that would make work for him to accomplish his goals. Of course Levin, like the rest
productive." Sviyazhsky disagrees, saying all forms of possible of his class, is adjusting to a new order of things, in which

people who have been enslaved for centuries are suddenly At the opera in Chapter 4, Karenin is fuming about Anna's
free but still universally oppressed. disregard of the one condition he has placed on her. When he
comes back, he barges into Anna's bedroom and takes her
Here is another place in the novel where Tolstoy walks to the portfolio that contains Vronsky's love letters. Karenin accuses
edge of the precipice but refuses to look down. The situation in Anna of being base and then says he will move to Moscow and
Russia—in which a tiny portion of the population held all of the be in touch with her about a divorce. He will move Seryozha to
wealth and the majority of the population lived in hardship to his sister's house, although Anna begs him to let the boy stay
support them—was coming to an end. Tolstoy the artist until she gives birth.
faithfully represents his country in which a revolution could not
be far off. Yet, Tolstoy the gentleman farmer has Levin argue When Karenin visits a lawyer in Chapter 5, he learns that
that it is simply a matter of reengineering farming according to divorce on the grounds of adultery requires "exposure of the
the natural rhythms of the peasant worker. The reader should guilty party by mutual agreement" or "involuntary exposure,"
be aware of the artistic and social disjunctions. and advises the best course is adultery by mutual consent.
Karenin says the first option is not possible; moreover, he has
letters to confirm the adultery. The lawyer explains that
Part 4, Chapters 1–5 eyewitnesses are required and assures Karenin he can get
them.
Summary
Analysis
By midwinter following the summer of the horse race, Anna,
Karenin is still hoping to reclaim his wife, although Anna seems
Karenin, and Vronsky have settled into an odd truce, as
entirely unaware of it. She has allowed for things to continue
explained in Chapter 1. Karenin sees his wife every day but
as they are, mostly out of inertia, but she is also terrified about
does not dine with her. His hope is that her mad passion will
the possibility of losing Seryozha. Her jealousy of Vronsky
pass and things will return to normal. Anna, too, somehow
increases proportionately with her inability to take an active
thinks the situation will "clarify itself very soon." Vronsky is
part in society. Although at this moment in time, he feels cold
called away for a week to entertain a foreign prince. Upon
toward her because of how she looks (pregnant; "like a faded
returning in Chapter 2, he receives a note from Anna, asking
flower he had plucked") and because of her unjustified
him to call at the house that evening, because her husband will
jealousy, he knows "his bond with her could not be broken." He
be at a meeting.
feels frustrated that Karenin has not asked him to duel so that
Vronsky takes a nap and wakes up from a terrible dream of a they can bring matters to a climax and conclusion.
dirty peasant and realizes he has slept past his appointment
When Karenin confronts his wife after coming back from the
with Anna. When he gets to the house, he runs into Karenin
opera, she refuses to acknowledge his suffering in addition to
leaving, and they reluctantly acknowledge each other. When
her own. Readers must decide for themselves both the degree
Anna sees him in Chapter 3, she expresses her jealousy,
of Karenin's sincerity and Anna's passion. Although Karenin
because she has heard that the prince's entertainment
has avoided a scandal up until now, Anna's invitation to
involved women, and Vronsky is exasperated by her doubt. In
Vronsky puts him beyond his patience, and he is finally forced
fact, he is glad to be rid of the prince, who reminds him of his
into action. Unfortunately, Karenin is confronted with three,
former self—"stupid, self-confident ... contemptuously good
equally unpleasant, choices: to take the blame, to have Anna
natured with his inferiors." Because Vronsky is his social
take the blame, or to get ironclad evidence of Anna's infidelity.
inferior, he suddenly feels what it is like to be on the other end
side of that contempt. The dirty, dwarfish peasant is a recurring symbol in the novel,
and both Anna and Vronsky see this figure and dream of him.
Anna tells Vronsky of an old dream of a frightening peasant
The peasant can be identified as the archetypal figure of
rummaging in a sack and was told in the dream she would die
Trickster. In his mildest form, he humorously disrupts the
of childbirth. Vronsky is horrified about the similarities in their
status quo. In his extreme form, he brings chaos,
dreams but says her fear is unfounded.

transformation, and often destruction into being. The affair is wife's goodness and compassion and hopes she can do for
something that will change both of them but ultimately destroy Karenin what Anna did for Dolly at the beginning of the novel.
them, and the visitation of the peasant is a warning, which both But the differences between the two are stark. Stiva has
of them fear, but which neither of them heeds. affairs because he is an irresponsible man who lives only for
his own pleasure. Anna's affair is tearing her life apart, but
nothing can convince her to stop. The difference is obviously
Part 4, Chapters 6–10 due, in part, to their sex.
Women's rights were a pressing issue in the 1870s, and the old
prince and Pestov openly discuss the question. Tolstoy the
Summary artist allows Koznyshev and Pestov to present the reasonable
view that women are human beings, and like men, they need
In Chapter 6, Karenin travels to the provinces on business, and
meaningful work. The prince immediately refutes that view,
when he stops in Moscow to see the governor general, he runs
arguing that the only job they need is nurturing their families
into Stiva and Dolly, who invite him to dinner. The next day, in
and bearing children. Although the author so clearly and
Chapter 7, Stiva runs several errands. First, he visits his latest
sympathetically portrays the oppression of women, he
girlfriend, a ballet dancer to whom he gives a coral necklace.
repeatedly demonstrates women such as Dolly and Anna
Next, he shops for dinner. Then he visits Levin at his hotel, who
finding their greatest, and often only, joy in their children.
has recently gotten back from visiting some manufacturing
towns in Europe to study the workers. Stiva teases Levin for
his preoccupation with death, and they talk at length. Finally, he
invites Levin to dinner, although he does not mention Kitty will
be there.
In Chapter 8, Stiva then visits Karenin, who has just written a Summary
letter to the lawyer, giving him permission to do what was
necessary to obtain the divorce. Karenin says he cannot come Kitty and Levin begin conversing apart from the general
to dinner and explains why. Stiva begs him to come and at conversation in Chapter 11, and he tells her how he saw her in
least talk to Dolly before doing anything, and he reluctantly her carriage when she came to the country. After dinner in
agrees. Chapter 12, when the men continue talking alone, Pestov
returns to women's rights and the "inequality of spouses," in
The dinner takes place in Chapter 9, and several people are which unfaithfulness is punished "unequally by the law and
there, including Koznyshev, Levin's half-brother, and his public opinion." Suddenly Turovtsyn, a friend of the Oblonskys,
intellectual friend Pestov. When Stiva introduces Levin to mentions a man who challenged his wife's lover to a duel and
Karenin, he also notices Kitty, who is clearly both embarrassed killed him. At that point, Karenin leaves to join the ladies in the
and happy to see him. Levin is uncharacteristically talkative drawing room. Dolly takes the opportunity to speak privately
and charming because he knows Kitty is listening. Over dinner, with him and is shocked to learn Anna told Karenin directly
the guests discuss politics, education, and women's rights, with about her affair. Dolly then appeals to his Christianity, begging
Koznyshev and Pestov holding the most liberal views. him not to "ruin" Anna, but he says he already gave her a
"Obligations are coupled with rights. Power, money, chance to reform.
honours—that's what women are seeking," Pestov says in
Chapter 10, and the old prince makes a joke about seeking the Meanwhile, in Chapter 13 Kitty and Levin are sitting together at
right to be a wet nurse. a card table covered with a green cloth, and Levin begins a
game with her, in which he writes in chalk on the cloth, giving
her only the first letters of each word. He asks about her first
Analysis refusal, and she asks him to forgive and forget. Levin then
declares his love and is accepted. Kitty's suitor leaves on a
Stiva does not want Karenin to divorce his sister, and is hoping cloud in Chapter 14 and asks his brother if he can attend his
that Dolly can somehow talk him out of it. He believes in his

political meeting with him. In his ecstatic state of love, however,

Levin understands nothing of the proceedings. The next day in
Summary
Chapter 15, he goes to the Shcherbatskys, and Kitty's parents
In Chapter 16, Kitty tells Levin she always loved him, although
give their blessing to the union.
she had been infatuated, and asks if he can really forgive her.
He also needs forgiveness, however, for his lack of belief and
previous sexual liaisons. During the engagement period, Levin
Analysis gives Kitty his diaries to read; she weeps over his sexual
exploits while he was a bachelor but forgives him.
These chapters raise the issue of different treatment and
consequences of adultery for men and women. No doubt the Meanwhile, Karenin gets a telegram in Chapter 17 informing
reader is meant to sympathize with Anna's plight, but that does him that his professional rival Stremov has been promoted to
not mean that Tolstoy condones adultery in either a man or a the position that Karenin desired. Anna has also sent a
woman. The hypocrisy in treating adultery differently, message asking him to come at once because she is dying.
depending on whether the offender was a man or woman or Karenin admits to himself that he wishes for her death,
whether they had money and status, is something to which the because it will resolve his dilemma. When he gets home, he
author deliberately calls attention. Tolstoy employs situational learns his wife has given birth to a child. Vronsky is at the
irony in allowing the conservative Karenin to act with house weeping. Anna, partially delirious, tells Karenin "there is
remarkable liberalism and tolerance with regard to Anna's another woman in me, I'm afraid of her – she fell in love with
indiscretions. Anna is not hypocritical like Stiva and wants to that man, and I wanted to hate you." She then begs for
go public with the affair and find some way to be with the man forgiveness. Karenin struggles with his feelings and enters "a
she loves, but her expectations are not realistic, given the blissful state of soul, which suddenly gave him a new,
prevailing mores of her culture. previously unknown happiness." Anna calls Vronsky in and
makes Karenin uncover Vronsky's face and grant him
At the same time, these chapters juxtapose Anna's pain with
forgiveness also. Later, he tells Vronsky, "You may trample me
Kitty's joy. Anna and Vronsky are deeply involved in a physical
in the mud, make me the laughing-stock of society, I will not
and scandalous relationship that has more to do with passion
abandon her, I will never say a word of reproach to you ... I
than love, while Kitty and Levin barely speak to one another,
must be with her and I will be."
choosing to hint at their feelings instead.
In Chapter 18, Vronsky feels a mixture of complex emotions

Karenin expresses his hatred of Anna when he speaks to Dolly.
after he leaves Karenin. Vronsky now sees himself as
"I consider it unjust. I did everything for that woman, and she
despicable, while the formerly pathetic figure of the cuckolded
trampled everything in the mud that is so suitable to her. I am
husband appears elevated in his magnanimity. He is also
not a wicked man ... but her I hate with all the strength of my
distressed because his passion for Anna has been reignited.
soul." Karenin's feelings are much more complex, as later
When Vronsky gets home, his obsessive thoughts overwhelm
chapters will show, but at this juncture he is consumed by his
him and he shoots himself.
rage over Anna's escalating betrayals. In another room not far
away, Levin is making the opposite declaration—one of love By Chapter 19, two months pass and Anna is recovering,
and commitment. He and Kitty feel mutual love and affection, although relations with her husband are strained. Karenin also
but not the consuming sexual passion that fuels Anna and feels like people are expecting something of him and at the
Vronsky's attachment. Tolstoy thought that relationships that same time feel "concealed joy" for his troubles. Princess
were based primarily in sexual attraction were doomed to fail. Tverskoy comes to urge Anna to say goodbye to
Vronsky—who has recovered from his gunshot wound and is
leaving town—but Anna says no. Later, Karenin addresses
Part 4, Chapters 16–20 Anna intimately, reiterating that Vronsky need not come, and
she gets annoyed. Anna feels repulsed by her husband, and
"[s]he now wished for only one thing – to be rid of his hateful
presence." He thinks that both his wife and society are
"demanding something of him," although he does not know

what. He also "knew ... that everything was against him and that and no passion. Karenin cannot give her the kind of love she
he would not be allowed to do what now seemed to him so needs, and although he has significantly changed, she does not
natural and good, but would be forced to do what was bad but want to give him a second chance.
seemed to them the proper thing."
Karenin understands that his wife is irritated by his presence
and still wants to do what will make her happy. He notices that
Analysis his society friends, especially the women, look at him with a
"barely concealed joy," or schadenfreude—pleasure in the
Kitty's confession that she was infatuated means that she was suffering of others. Karenin has a high position in the
sexually attracted to Vronsky and dazzled by his aristocratic government and is well respected, and people like nothing
standing, and Levin wisely allows her this temporary deviation. better than to watch a great man fall. He feels that people
Similarly, Kitty accepts the base part of Levin, revealed in his want him to do something that may satisfy the petty
diaries, who pursued uncommitted sex. Both revelations accounting system demanded by the social structure, but that
demonstrate a unique artistic ability to show characters who will not be the right thing to do as a Christian and a human
have many facets, often contradictory. For example, Karenin being.
tells Kitty he hates Anna, and then he runs back to Petersburg
as soon as she sends for him. At first, he feels a sense of
obligation and fears that people will reproach him if he does Part 4, Chapters 21–23
not. But when she softens toward him and begs his
forgiveness, he opens his heart to her suffering and easily
reclaims his love for her. He has a moment of transcendence in Summary
which he experiences pure compassion and true forgiveness.
He recommits to his wife and vows to stay with her. Suddenly, In Chapter 21 Betsy meets Stiva on her way out after visiting
he no longer cares about what society will think, and he tells Anna, who tells him Karenin is killing Anna. She says "he must
Vronsky he can do what he likes, but he will not abandon Anna. either take her away, act energetically, or give her a divorce."
Similarly, when Anna thinks she is dying, she acknowledges When Stiva comes in, Anna tells him she hates her husband
that there are two women inside of her—one that ran to "for his virtues." Stiva recommends that his sister get a divorce.
Vronsky and one that acknowledges her connection to He then goes into Karenin's office in Chapter 22 to discuss this
Karenin. possibility. Stiva uses every bit of wiliness and insincerity he
can muster to propose that Karenin confess to a fictitious
Vronsky is devastated by Anna's illness. She is suffering from
adultery so that Anna will be able to remarry. But Karenin's
childbed fever, also called puerperal fever, which was an
religious feelings make lying about himself repulsive, and
infection in some part of the reproductive system women often
having his wife "exposed and disgraced" is equally repugnant.
experienced after giving birth. Women often died from
Nonetheless, he tells Stiva, "I'll take the disgrace upon myself,
puerperal fever, and Vronsky's love for Anna has been revived
I'll even give up my son, but ... isn't it better to let things be?"
now that he is in danger of losing her. He also feels extreme
Stiva is proud of his victory, even thinking about how he will
humiliation, especially because he feels himself so guilty and
brag about it later to his wife and close friends.
unworthy before Anna's husband, whom he previously thought
of as being superfluous. Karenin's compassion elevates him, Vronsky feels terrible regret about losing Anna's love, so in
and suddenly Vronsky sees the wrongness of his trespass on a Chapter 23 he accepts an assignment in Tashkent, finagled by
marriage. his friend Serpukhovskoy. When he learns Karenin has agreed
to a divorce, he rushes over to see Anna. She tells him she
Anna was perfectly willing to beg forgiveness on her deathbed,
cannot accept her husband's generosity, but is worried about
but once she is feeling better, all her old feelings surface. Now
losing Seryozha. In his old life, Vronsky would never turn down
she is even more repulsed by her husband, seeing his refusal
a plum assignment, but now he resigns his commission. A
to punish her as another sign of his weakness. Moreover, he
month later, Anna and Vronsky leave to go abroad with little
still has hope that they can be a couple again, but she cannot
Annie, and Karenin is left with Seryozha.
go back to what for her is a loveless marriage with little warmth

Analysis Summary
Betsy represents high society and what people think about the In Chapter 1, Levin's and Kitty's families help them prepare for
situation between Karenin and his wife. They want him to do the wedding, and Levin, in a state of perpetual happiness,
something—challenge Vronsky to a duel, forcibly remove Anna agrees to everything. Stiva reminds Levin he needs to go to
from Petersburg and away from her lover, call her an adulterer, confession so that he can be married in the church. Levin is an
and divorce her. The fact that he is not acting according to unbeliever, but at the same time not entirely convinced of his
social expectations puts him in a bad light. It would have been position. When he speaks to the priest, he confesses doubts,
best, from society's point of view, if Anna and Vronsky had especially about the existence of God. After the priest
continued to carry on their affair in secret, but once it has been admonishes him, he gives Levin absolution and blesses him.
brought to light, it demands a resolution. Anna also needs a
resolution—one that would allow her to be with Vronsky. In Chapter 2, Levin has his last bachelor dinner at the hotel
with his brother Koznyshev and two friends, and they tease him
If Karenin takes on the burden of adultery, then Anna will be about premarriage jitters. This leads him to wonder if Kitty
granted custody of Seryozha and be allowed to remarry, but really loves him. Thus, he visits her and says she can back out
Karenin will not be able to remarry. If Anna is named as the of the wedding, but Kitty reassures him. Chapters 3 through 6
adulterer and witnesses are procured for the necessary cover the wedding, which is a two-part ceremony of a betrothal
divorce, Anna loses custody of her child and can never be and a crowning (the wedding rite). In Chapter 5, Dolly
legally united with Vronsky—thus remaining a mistress for the remembers her own wedding and "first innocent love." Her
rest of her life, assuming that Vronsky does not grow tired of mind then travels to all her female friends who, like Kitty "stood
her. Stiva uses all of his cunning to convince Karenin to take on under the crown with love, hope and fear in their hearts,
a burden that will hurt his career and reputation. He renouncing the past and entering into a mysterious future." She
congratulates himself for pulling this off but, in fact, Karenin also remembers Anna and thinks about her current troubles. In
was already preparing to do whatever Anna might ask. Still, he Chapter 6, the matrimonial ceremony takes place, and after
believes it is wrong to divorce and that it will end up destroying supper Levin and Kitty leave for his estate.
Anna.
Anna decides she cannot accept Karenin's sacrifice—to Analysis

pretend he has committed adultery. This is a turning point in
the novel: perhaps she feels guilty because she has already put Anna Karenina is a love story, but it is one that is concerned
him through so much, or perhaps she is too proud to take his with love's part in marriage. It is no accident that the
charity. Whatever the reason, she seals her fate as a pariah destruction of Anna's marriage and the sad fulfillment of her
when she leaves with Annie to live as Vronsky's mistress. What affair are followed so quickly by Kitty and Levin's nuptials.
was previously inconceivable for her—giving up Seryozha—has
now become inevitable so that she can have her lover. Vronsky Levin has a tendency to doubt—himself, his betrothed, and
also does what was previously inconceivable to him—quitting even God. Here, his doubts are laid to rest. For Tolstoy,
the military. Meanwhile, Karenin is left alone—a sorry reward marriage is the greatest good in the secular world, and he
for all his trouble. Stiva's skill at reconciliation is certainly far firmly believes in the primacy of the family as the foundation of
inferior than his wife's. society. While marriage, like faith, is not without its problems or
tragedies, belief and practice can keep both strong.


themes are thus reinforced: humanity's interdependence and

Summary the need for a vocation. Although the couple at first
experiences great happiness in finally being united, as time
The reader learns in Chapter 7 that Vronsky and Anna have
passes, they begin to grow bored. They both need an
been traveling in Italy for three months and have settled in a
occupation, and Vronsky takes up painting to fill up the time.
small Italian town. Vronsky runs into Golenishchev, an
He is extremely pleased to run into Golenishchev, a fellow
acquaintance from Russia of whom he is not fond, but as a
expatriate whom he actually disliked and would have shunned
fellow expatriate in a foreign country, whom he is now happy to
at home but who provides a diversion in Italy.
see. Golenishchev understands his relationship with Anna "in
the right way," meaning he neither judges nor asks questions,
so Vronsky introduces him to her. The narrator comments that
Anna appears "cheerful and happy," despite the fact that she
has abandoned her unhappy husband and child and ruined her
good name, which seemed perfectly natural to Golenishchev.
Summary
In Chapter 8, Anna avoids remembering the painful details of
her previous life so that she can enjoy her happiness with In Chapter 11, Mikhailov feels excited to show the visitors his
Vronsky: "To possess him fully was a constant joy for her," the work, especially a new religious painting of Jesus before Pilate,
narrator says. Vronsky, however, is less than happy because of which he is particularly proud. His guests compliment him,
he is used to having more occupations. He also has to avoid but Golenishchev criticizes his interpretation of Christ. This
going out with old acquaintances when he cannot bring Anna. upsets the painter in Chapter 12, and Anna and Vronsky
For this reason, he has taken up an old hobby—painting. In attempt to change the subject. Mikhailov later agrees in
Chapter 9, Golenishchev shows up one day and suggests they Chapter 13 to paint a portrait of Anna. As the painting
go to look at the work of another painter and Russian progresses, it becomes apparent that the artist perceives
expatriate, Mikhailov, who has been praised in the Russian Anna's "special beauty." Vronsky also has tried to paint Anna,
newspaper. Because he is known for painting portraits, but his work pales next to Mikhailov's; nevertheless, he cannot
Vronsky thinks he can ask him to paint Anna. When they reach see that he is a much inferior painter. Eventually, Vronsky gets
the artist's house in Chapter 10, they ask to see his studio. bored with painting, and he and Anna decide to return to
Russia. He plans to finally divide the family property with his
brother, and Anna will see her son.
Analysis
Back in Russia in Chapter 14, Levin is adjusting to married life.
Vronsky and Anna need to escape from the very painful recent Although quite happy, Levin is surprised that there are
past and get away from the prying eyes of Petersburg society, difficulties and occasional quarrels. He is also surprised that
which is why they go to Italy. Thus begins a pattern in which Kitty throws herself into housekeeping. Work for Levin is still
men of Vronsky's acquaintance will meet Anna and accept important, but it is no longer his "center of gravity" in Chapter
their relationship in "the right way," while women will shun her, 15. He has begun to write his book, and Kitty distracts him
even though they are happy to socialize with Vronsky. The while he is writing, initially delighting him, but then annoying
effect of this social excommunication is that Anna becomes him. Levin is also bothered that Kitty seems to have no "serious
isolated from everyone but Vronsky, which makes her even interests," but then excuses her by thinking she is preparing for
more dependent on him. the momentous tasks of becoming mistress of the house and
mother of her children.
In Italy they are still in their "honeymoon" period, but this
problem of being cut off from society will become
compounded as time goes on. Vronsky will also experience Analysis
some isolation as a by-product of people shunning Anna.
Moreover, as she becomes more and more dependent on him Painting is Mikhailov's vocation, and he is somewhat disgusted
for her socialization, he will begin to feel more burdened. Two with the ignorance of his guests. He needs to work, however,

and of course agrees to paint Anna's picture. Vronsky is an travel to Nikolai's hotel, which is actually a flophouse. Levin is
amateur and does not recognize the difference between the mortified to have brought his wife to a pigsty, but Kitty
artistry of Mikhailov and his own mediocre work. He brings his immediately takes charge.
attitude of aristocratic privilege to the study of painting and
finds it hard to admit he just does not cut it as a painter. While Levin cannot bear the sick room in Chapter 18, Kitty
Eventually, he gives up this new hobby and decides to return to naturally takes on the role of caretaker and "the pity in her
Russia and real life—and a more meaningful occupation. woman's soul produced none of the horror and squeamishness
it did in her husband, but a need to act." She sends for the
The need for work is highlighted in these chapters, showing doctor and works with the maid and Marya Nikolaevna to clean
that although love and marriage are significant aspects of Nikolai's room. Levin begins to think in Chapter 19 that,
human life, they are not the end-all of human existence. As although he is more intelligent than his wife and has thought
Gayle Greene (1977) points out, Tolstoy demonstrates that this more deeply about death, he "did not know a hundredth part of
is true for women as well as men, but falls short of following what his wife ... knew about it." He admits to her that he is glad
this idea to its logical conclusion that women should be able to she accompanied him. Nikolai receives the last rites in Chapter
work outside the home. Levin loves Kitty and is delighted to be 20, and they begin the death watch. Kitty gets slightly ill in the
married, but he also needs to work, and suddenly married life is second week of the visit, and the doctor confirms she is
taking him away from his farming and writing. Eventually, Kitty pregnant. As Nikolai dies, Levin's horror of mortality comes
will settle into her life as a farmer's wife, but initially she also back with a vengeance, but Kitty's presence helps to calm him.
has little to do. In the city, she has other entertainments (like
skating) as well as family members, but in the country, she has
only Levin. Like Anna's dependence on Vronsky, she is too Analysis
dependent on Levin for her entertainment.
In these chapters, Kitty shows her fitness as Levin's wife, first
Her husband is surprised to find she has a narrow range of insisting that he take her along for the visit to his brother and
interests. Clearly, she is not his intellectual equal, and she is then taking charge of the sick man. Initially, he does not want
also younger than he and much less educated. Surprisingly, to bring her because she will be exposed to a "fallen" woman
Levin did not consider any of that before he married, probably (Marya Nikolaevna) and rough conditions. It is to Levin's credit
because he believes a woman's sole reason for being is to that he gives in and easily puts these social restrictions aside
produce children and raise a family. Of course, Kitty is to please his wife. Kitty's insistence also shows that she is not
concerned about setting up and running the house, because a doormat and can stand up to the formidable Levin.
she has nothing else to do. Once she begins having children,
she will be much more occupied, Levin thinks. He will soon Once they get to the hotel, Levin is overwhelmed, but Kitty
learn how her dignity and resourcefulness bear fruit outside saves the day with her organizational and housekeeping skills.
her own household. Levin is amazed that she seems to have a natural ability to
comfort the sick and does not shy away from death and
attributes this to the special qualities of her woman's soul. As a
Part 5, Chapters 16–20 woman, Kitty also has a more natural relationship to death than
Levin does. Levin loves his brother and must grieve in losing
him. Still, his fear of death is unnatural and linked to his
atheism. At least Levin now has Kitty to comfort him.
Summary Significantly, as Nikolai dies, Kitty learns that she will be
bringing a new life into the world.
In Chapter 16, Levin's old housekeeper, Agafya Mikhailovna, is
getting used to the new regime under Kitty. Levin gets a letter
from Marya Nikolaevna, his brother Nikolai's mistress, which
says his brother is dying. Levin must go and then gets into an Part 5, Chapters 21–27
argument with Kitty because she believes it is her duty to
accompany him. Levin gives in, and in Chapter 17 he and Kitty

disastrous. As the reader has seen, Karenin is not a gregarious

Summary man. He has put most of his attention to building a brilliant
career, because this is an arena in which he can excel and in
In Chapter 21, Karenin is a broken man. He cannot reconcile his
which he feels most comfortable. He had already lost ground
tender treatment of his sick wife and Vronsky's child with his
at work because he was so distracted—evidenced by the fact
wife's abandonment and the derision of society. He cannot
that his rival Stemov was able to outmaneuver him and win the
cope with the fact that people hate him, not because he is bad,
post that Karenin had expected to get—and now he has
but that "he was shamefully and repulsively unhappy."
destroyed his career because of his unconventional behavior
Karenin grew up as an orphan, and even his only brother has with regard to Anna's affair. No one has fired Karenin; they
died. He ended up married to Anna despite his doubts about simply do not pay attention to him anymore, and he will no
the marriage. But Anna's aunt made him feel like he longer be promoted.
compromised young Anna with his attentions and was "honor-
Even Karenin's true act of Christian charity, performed in a
bound to propose." Once married, he felt no need to cultivate
moment of transcendence, has been punished by society. The
other relationships, so he has many acquaintances and
man who found the meaning of his life as a well-connected
associates, but not one real friend. In Chapter 22, Countess
bureaucrat and has always cared about public opinion cannot
Lydia Ivanovna now steps into the vacuum left by Anna. She
help but be crushed by this outcome. When Lydia steps in to
tells him he should not be ashamed of his forgiveness, which
validate him, however, she replaces his true Christianity with
was put in his heart by God. She offers to help him look after
her own distorted ideas. Although she praises his behavior with
his son, and immediately tells Seryozha his mother is dead.
his wife, she does not think Anna deserved to be treated so
Lydia begins indoctrinating her friend in a new brand of
kindly. She follows a creed that allows her to think that
Christianity in which only faith is necessary for salvation.
salvation is guaranteed simply by being a believer, and she
Lydia lives apart from her husband, the reader learns in gradually instills Karenin with her half-baked notions. Karenin is
Chapter 23, who abandoned her in the second month of their inclined to let his wife see Seryozha and even says, "Who will
marriage. Now she latches onto Karenin. Back in town, Anna throw a stone?" But Lydia convinces him that a visit from Anna
writes to Lydia and asks her to intervene with Karenin so that would be bad for his son, especially because she has told him
she may see her son. Although Karenin is still working, "his his mother is dead. Lydia is a vindictive and petty woman who,
official career had ended," and in Chapter 24 he is clearly over time, drags Karenin down to her level, because he has no
becoming more dependent on Lydia. In Chapter 25, she one else to whom he can turn for comfort.
advises him to refuse Anna's request, although he is initially
inclined to grant it. Lydia writes a nasty letter back to Anna,
conveying his refusal. Karenin continues to suffer shame and Part 5, Chapters 28–33
remorse, wondering if he is to blame for being different from
men like Vronsky and Stiva.
In Chapter 26, Seryozha is having a lesson with his tutor on the

Summary
day before his birthday. This lesson is followed by one with his
In Chapter 28, Anna and Vronsky settle in a hotel in
father in Chapter 27, and while he waits, he thinks about his
Petersburg, and Vronsky's brother comes to see Anna. To
mother, whom he knows is not dead. He is waiting for her to
Vronsky's disappointment, however, society is open to him but
come back to him. That night, he prays that she will come for
not Anna. Betsy visits, although only briefly, and considers it a
his birthday.
great favor. Vronsky's sister-in-law, Varya, tells him in Chapter
29 she cannot receive her. Anna has been in an irritable mood,
but she does not tell Vronsky what is making her
Analysis miserable—that she desperately wants to see her son—for fear
that he will act coldly about this grief. When she gets Lydia's
Karenin is on the road to moral and psychological ruin as a
letter, she is infuriated and determines to see her son for his
result of Anna's abandonment. The social pressure for them to
birthday. She buys many toys for him and arrives early in the
marry pushed both of them into a union that has proved

morning. After the hall porter Kapitonych lets her in, Anna sends her own lover to deliver this message.
wakens Seryozha, and the narrator describes a heartbreaking
reunion between mother and son: "'Mama,' he said, moving Anna has not told Vronsky about how distraught she is over
under her arms, so as to touch them with different parts of his Seryozha, which reveals a deep fissure in their relationship.
body." Anna looks her son over "greedily" and as she touches This is a part of herself that she cannot share with Vronsky,
different parts of him, she weeps. In Chapter 30, the tutor, who and it is almost as if he does not accept the fact that she is the
is supposed to help get the child dressed, waits discreetly on mother of a son. Perhaps because of his own distant
the other side of the door. Before preparing to rush out, Anna relationship with his mother, he does not realize the
tells her son to love his father and that he is better than her. importance of the bond between Anna and her son. And Anna
"No one's better than you," he says, and begins crying. Karenin almost acts as if her motherhood is a liability she needs to
comes in just as she is leaving, and she neglects to give shield Vronsky from, lest he become disenchanted with her.
Seryozha his toys. The more society rejects Anna, the more dependent she
becomes on Vronsky's protection and regard.
Anna is devastated by the visit, and when the wet nurse brings
her little Anna in Chapter 31, she feels no love for her. After In perhaps one of the most heartbreaking scenes in literature,
thinking about her son, she begins to wonder if Vronsky has Anna violates the prohibition to see her son and surprises him
stopped loving her. He goes to her rooms to visit her with his on his birthday. The child knows his mother is not dead and, in
old friend Yashvin, whom she invites to dinner. In Chapter 32, fact, has prayed the night before that she will come. The
Anna returns to the hotel later in the day with her spinster aunt, reunion is highly emotional for both of them, and the narrator
Princess Varvara Oblonsky, who stays for dinner with Yashvin. stresses the physicality of it, as Seryozha unconsciously tries
Betsy's lover Tushkevich brings a message for Anna to stop by to touch his mother with every part of himself and Anna looks
that evening, at a specific time, obviously to avoid the other at him "greedily," noticing how he has grown and changed
guests, and Anna declines. Tushkevich stays for dinner and since her absence—touching his hair and his feet. The novel
volunteers to get Anna a box at the opera. After dinner, has stressed the importance of motherhood, and Anna was no
Vronsky attempts to talk Anna out of going but cannot. exception. Anna realizes Seryozha is not sure how to think
about his father, which is why she tells him to love Karenin, but
In Chapter 33, Vronsky mentally fumes over Anna's decision to no one can take the place of a mother. Anna can stay only a
go to the theater with the notorious princess. He finally short time, and as she rushes out she forgets to give her son
decides to join her and the others at the opera, arriving after the toys she so carefully picked out for him—another blow.
the first act. As he looks up at Anna, who is speaking to
Yashvin, he sees the woman sitting in the box next to Anna When Anna returns, she needs to recover. She feels no love for
hastily leaving. Vronsky learns that Madame Kartasova has the second child, and this remains true until the end of the
insulted Anna. The theater is buzzing with this piece of gossip. novel. Annie is the product of her "criminal" union, and perhaps
Vronsky enters Anna's box to greet her, but she leaves soon Anna feels guilty about loving and caring for her when
after, getting home before him. She irrationally blames Vronsky Seryozha is now motherless. Annie is also a constant reminder
for what has happened, and while he feels pity for her and of her untenable position, which might be another reason she
reassures her that he loves her, he stills feels angry. rejects her. In defiance of society's rejection of her, she is
determined to go to the opera and even dresses provocatively
for the occasion. Vronsky is furious, knowing she will be
Analysis scorned and rejected, and angry that Anna has put him in an
awkward position. When he arrives late at the opera, she
Anna and Vronsky return to Russia, finding it the way that they blames him for the treatment she receives, but his presence or
left it. Anna is still barred from society, and even Vronsky's absence is beside the point. Anna now has full confirmation of
sister will not receive her at home, although she is willing to where she stands.
visit Anna at the hotel. Her fair-weather friend Betsy shows up,
thinking she is performing a great service, and she stays a very
short time. She invites Anna to her own house at a time when
she knows no one else will risk running into her. Ironically, she

Kitty is learning to master. These distinctions are made explicit

Part 6, Chapters 1–5 by Dolly's comment that Dolly, of course, speaks from
experience, married to a poor husband herself.
Summary The secondary scene in these chapters is the courtship

between Koznyshev and Varenka. Levin rightly guesses that
The next chapters return to Kitty and Levin in the country. The his brother will not trade his bachelorhood for a spouse, and he
reader learns in Chapter 1 that Dolly and her children are expresses some envy that his brother does not have "the
spending the summer with the Levins, because her own weakness necessary" to fall in love. What he really means is
country house is falling to pieces. Stiva comes only that Koznyshev can remain free because he can live without
occasionally. Also visiting is Varenka, Kitty's religious friend; sex and female companionship. When Kitty asks for
Koznyshev, Levin's brother; and Kitty's mother, because Kitty is clarification, he dissembles, saying that he envies Koznyshev's
now quite pregnant. Levin feels somewhat overwhelmed by all devotion to duty, for which he has sacrificed his life. But, in
the guests but is making the best of it. The children, their fact, both Koznyshev and Levin are following their own
governess, and Varenka make plans to go mushrooming, and inclinations, and the single and married states have both
Koznyshev asks to come along. Kitty and Dolly have detected benefits and drawbacks.
Koznyshev's interest in Varenka and are hoping for a happy
outcome.
The Shcherbatsky women stay behind with Agafya Mikhailovna
to make raspberry jam in Chapter 2, and they talk about
courtship. Dolly observes that it was lucky for Kitty that Anna
turned up and diverted Vronsky. Kitty and Levin go for a walk in
Summary
Chapter 3, and she asks whether he thinks there is a chance
Both Varenka and Koznyshev feel let down that no proposal
Koznyshev and Varenka might become a couple. He reminds
came about, and the rest of the company tries to cover it up in
her that his brother was in love many years ago with a girl who
Chapter 6. Stiva then arrives with Vasenka Veslovsky, a distant
died and that he "lives only a spiritual life" and is entirely
Shcherbatsky cousin. Levin is disappointed that his father-in-
devoted to duty. In the woods in Chapter 4, Koznyshev is
law has not come and that this too-gallant cousin has kissed
thinking Varenka has all the qualities "he could wish for in a
his wife's hand. He now feels repulsed by everyone and goes
wife" and determines to propose. Varenka feels herself in love
to his office away from the house.
with Koznyshev in Chapter 5, and when he approaches her,
she feels both nervous and excited. However, they have only a When Levin goes home for dinner in Chapter 7, he is in a bad
desultory conversation because Koznyshev changes his mind. mood but agrees to take Stiva and Veslovsky hunting. At
dinner, Stiva reveals that Anna is staying not far from them,
and Dolly agrees to visit her. Levin is in the grip of severe
Analysis jealousy, thinking that Kitty is in love with Veslovsky, who
thoughtlessly continues to pay too much attention to her. Levin
Kitty opens her home to her sister because Dolly's husband is verbalizes his jealousy to Kitty when they go to bed but then
less and less attentive and responsible. Stiva has allowed their asks for forgiveness. The next day, Chapter 8, Levin takes
country house to go to ruin, no doubt because he has spent Stiva and Veslovsky on a two-day hunting trip. Levin feels he's
the money he should have used to keep it up. Levin is been unfair to Veslovsky, who seems to be a harmless fellow,
somewhat resigned to the stream of house guests he now has and makes an effort to be pleasant to him. In Chapters 9 and
to put up with as a married man. It is fortunate that he loves the 10, Veslovsky's ignorance of hunting interferes with shooting
Shcherbatsky family, which makes their presence less of a the snipe, and Stiva selfishly contrives to separate himself from
hardship. The small differences of opinion, such as the one Levin and Veslovsky so that he can bag more birds. Levin's
between Agafya Mikhailovna and the Shcherbatsky women in shooting for the whole trip is especially bad, even when he
how the jam should be made, highlight the torment that finally gets free of Veslovsky.
Karenin and Anna endure as well as the domestic role that

was something "indecent ... in his tone," and she has to agree.
Analysis Levin talks to Dolly about his distress in Chapter 15, and she
explains that Veslovsky's flirtatious behavior is simply how
Stiva once again shows his selfishness by bringing Vasenka
young men nowadays act. Levin then goes to Veslovsky's room
Veslovsky to his friend Levin's house. Levin immediately
and tells him he's harnessed the horses and he needs to leave,
dislikes his demeanor, and this unwelcome guest is the last
although both Stiva and the old princess object.
straw that drives Levin to seek his own company. Nonetheless,
he agrees to take Stiva and Veslovsky hunting. Levin feels
jealous of Veslovsky because he acts in a flirtatious manner
toward Kitty, which Levin perceives as an insult. It is hard for
Analysis
any woman not to be gratified by male attention, and pregnant
In these chapters, Stiva and Levin have a discussion that
Kitty is no exception. Of course, she has no interest in this
continues to reveal how far apart they are in their moral values.
cousin, and Levin's jealousy is completely unfounded. He
Levin objects to Stiva's friendship with a railway
knows that with his mind, but he cannot seem to rein in his
magnate—someone who is buying up land and holding it in
emotions. However, the fact that he and Kitty can talk these
reserve until the time comes when it can be used to lay railroad
things over openly immediately serves to dissipate the intensity
track. Levin objects to this form of capitalism—making money
of Levin's feelings. Thus, he agrees to take Veslovsky and Stiva
at a profit without doing any actual work. But Stiva calls Levin a
hunting, but he is still out of sorts, which is why he keeps
hypocrite because he is much richer than his peasants. He tells
missing his shot. In addition, Veslovsky is an amateur, so he
his friend to "either admit that the present social arrangement
tends to impede the progress of the hunt, which is why Stiva
is just and then defend your own rights, or admit that you enjoy
foists him on Levin.
certain unjust advantages, as I do, and enjoy them with
pleasure." While Stiva's argument is insightful, Tolstoy does not
appear supportive, appearing sympathetic with the status quo.
Stiva is no more sensitive about his philandering now that his
friend is married, even to his wife's sister. He scolds him for
Summary being too much at the service of Kitty, and justifies the
freedoms that he takes by saying, "My wife will be none the
In Chapter 11, the hunters stay in the hay barn of a muzhik worse for it ... The main thing is to preserve the sanctity of the
(peasant) who always feeds Levin and puts him up when he home." Of course, he violates the sanctity of his home on a
goes hunting. Stiva and Levin get into a friendly argument regular basis, but Stiva is like the society people who now shun
about whether the railroad magnates are dishonest to amass Anna: he and they are not interested in how things are but only
huge fortunes without actually doing any work. Stiva counters in how they appear.
that his friend's position is somewhat hypocritical, because the
While Stiva is amoral, Levin often succumbs to moral rigidity,
peasants work a lot harder than Levin does. Stiva also remarks
which is why he throws the foppish but harmless Veslovsky out
that Levin is too considerate of his wife because he discussed
of his house. Veslovsky has the manners of a society
with her whether he should go hunting. "A man must be
gentleman, and it was common in society for single men to flirt
independent," he says. Levin sarcastically asks him if that
with married women. But Levin is having none of it, and this
includes courting farm girls, which is what Veslovsky is
cousin's behavior is so intolerable for Levin that he is forced to
doing—and, indeed, Stiva joins him while Levin goes to sleep.
take drastic measures and violate the rules of hospitality.
The next day, Chapter 12, Levin gets up before the others and
hunts with more success, and in Chapter 13 he returns mid-
morning with a bagful of game.
The next day, in Chapter 14, Princess Shcherbatsky presses
Levin to agree to take Kitty to Moscow for her confinement
and her child's birth. Meanwhile, Veslovsky continues to act
with too much familiarity toward Kitty. Levin asks her if there

From a moral perspective, she is exemplary and perhaps

Summary heroic. First, she does not lie to herself about her life. Second,
even though she has had opportunities to conduct extramarital
In Chapter 16, Dolly goes to see Anna, and on the carriage ride
relations (for example, Stiva's friend Turovtsyn is in love with
thinks about marriage and children. The young peasant at the
her and even helped take care of the children when they had
inn who recently lost her child says it was a release from
scarlet fever), she soldiers on honorably in wifehood and
bondage. Though shocked by this reply, Dolly admits the truth
motherhood. Third, she stays a true friend to Anna by visiting
in it. She has lost her looks and sees the same thing already
her, and she accepts her as she is without condemnation or
happening to Kitty as a result of marriage. She thinks of the
judgment. She even sympathizes with her, thinking she did the
pain of breast-feeding, the fear of the children's illnesses, the
right thing to choose happiness. Tolstoy elevates Dolly as the
deaths of some of her children, financial worries, and the
Virgin Mary of mothers, a holy martyr who can do no wrong.
thousand other sufferings of marriage and motherhood. She
loves her husband, but at the same time wonders if she should
have left him when she learned of his infidelity and perhaps
had a chance with a man who loved her. She thinks that Anna
acted "splendidly," and she will not reproach her for choosing
happiness. She even fantasizes about doing the same thing.
Summary
When Dolly arrives in Chapter 17, she finds Anna and Veslovsky
riding with Vronsky. Also in the party are Sviyazhsky, the In Chapter 21, Vronsky makes an opportunity to speak to Dolly
provincial marshal of the district and Levin's friend; Princess privately: he is worried about the future. His daughter does not
Varvara Oblonsky, now living on the largesse of Vronsky; and belong to him legally, and neither will any other children he has
Tushkevich, Betsy's cast-off lover. Anna is glad to see Dolly with Anna, which is why he wants her to get a divorce. Then he
and tells her in Chapter 18 that she is "unforgivably happy." In can petition the tsar about adopting his child. He asks Dolly to
Chapter 19, Dolly asks Anna about Annie, who still carries help talk Anna into writing to Karenin.
Karenin's name. When Dolly is taken to see the child, she can
tell that Anna has little to do with her raising, which is left to the The party assemble for dinner in Chapter 22, and the
wet nurse, nanny, Russian maid, and disagreeable English conversation ranges over a number of subjects. At one point,
governess. In Chapter 20, Dolly tries to make herself at home Sviyazhsky says Levin is "cracked" because he does not
among the guests, and Vronsky takes her around the estate, believe in the zemstvo and thinks machines are "harmful for
showing her a hospital he is building for the use of the Russian farming." Vronsky, who has become a justice of the
peasants. peace and hopes to be elected to a council position, says
landowners have an administrative responsibility to the state.
Dolly defends Levin, saying he is an educated man, "strict in
Analysis fulfilling his responsibilities."
While Dolly is getting ready for bed in Chapter 23, Anna comes
Chapter 16 provides the reader with a privileged view of Dolly's
to chat with her. She asks about what Vronsky said, and Dolly
most secret thoughts, which show how marriage and
conveys his concerns about legitimizing his children. Anna says
motherhood are an oppression for women. Dolly's body has
there will be no more children and then tells Dolly how she is
been battered by several pregnancies, and motherhood is
preventing pregnancy. She wants to retain her good looks, and
difficult. Tolstoy boldly goes where other 19th century novelists
also does not wish to bring additional "unfortunate children"
would not dare to tread, mentioning "nausea, dullness of mind,
into the world. In Chapter 24, she argues that Karenin will no
indifference to everything, and, above all, ugliness ... [she]
longer give her a divorce because he is being influenced by
shuddered at the mere recollection of the pain from cracked
Lydia. Anna also mentions that she has to take morphine to fall
nipples she had endured with almost every child." Dolly admits
asleep. Even if Karenin agreed to a divorce, he would not allow
to herself that it all amounts to "[a] whole life ruined" and the
her to have her son. "I love only these two beings," Anna says,
peasant woman is not entirely wrong.
"and the one excludes the other. I can't unite them, yet I need

only that. And if there isn't that, the rest makes no difference." has determined to stop having children who will be subject to
The next day, Dolly leaves and is relieved to return to her own the scorn of society. She also does not want children because
home and problems. she will lose her looks, and she feels that she needs to remain
beautiful to hold onto Vronsky. Dolly sighs when she says this
Chapter 25 recounts how Anna and Vronsky stay in the because she knows from experience that it is always possible
country through the summer and part of autumn, and Anna to find a woman more beautiful than the one at home, and
spends a lot of her time reading novels and nonfiction. She Anna's strategy is a precarious one. Now that Anna is cut off
studies subjects Vronsky is interested in, including from society, Vronsky is the center of her world, and if she
architecture, agronomy, and even horse-breeding, so that she loses him, she has nothing.
can talk to him and advise him. Vronsky feels somewhat
burdened by Anna's excessive attention. Highly successful in To keep herself busy as well as to maintain Vronsky's favor,
managing his estate at a profit, he has promised Sviyazhsky he Anna is reading many books and keeping up on all of his
will attend the elections in Kashin province. He expects Anna interests so that she can speak intelligently about these
to put up a fight about the proposed trip, but she accepts his subjects. Sadly, in one sense she has replaced herself with
departure without making a fuss. Vronsky in her own soul. Thus, it is no wonder that Anna is
anesthetizing herself on a regular basis with morphine, to ward
In Chapter 26 it is September, and Levin moves to Moscow off anxiety, to keep herself from being overcome by strong
with Kitty as they await the birth of their first child. Levin is emotions, and to be able to sleep. The reader does not find out
doing nothing, so he decides to go with his brother Koznyshev how Anna is practicing birth control, and clearly Vronsky is not
to the elections, because he has a ballot and also has business aware of it, because he mentions they will have more children.
there. Levin finds it hard to follow the machinations of the Tolstoy inserts a long ellipsis where that information should
elections, and his brother explains the progressives support appear.
public education and the zemstvo and want to oust the current
provincial marshal to help spread reform. Sviyazhsky is elected
unanimously as the district marshal for Seleznev.
Analysis
Summary
Vronsky has settled into life as an estate manager,
philanthropist, local administrator, and gentleman farmer. He is Provincial elections are held the next day, in Chapter 27. The
good at what he does and contented in his work. Still, he is progressives (which include Sviyazhsky, Stiva, Koznyshev, and
concerned about his children, who legally belong to another Vronsky) are now maneuvering to get their candidate elected.
man, and Dolly cannot blame him. When she broaches the When the vote comes up in Chapter 28, Levin cannot
subject with Anna, however, she learns that Anna has a remember for whom he is supposed to vote, but the
different view. Anna knows that Karenin will not at this point progressive party prevails in the first part of its strategy to oust
grant her a divorce because he has reverted back to his the current provincial leader. In Chapter 29, Levin runs into one
previous rigidity under the influence of Countess Lydia. Even if of the landowners he met previously at Sviyazhsky's house,
he did agree to a divorce, she knows he will name her as the and they discuss how they both do not make much money at
adulteress, and now that she is living with Vronsky, there is farming. Levin is brought over to meet Vronsky in Chapter 30,
plenty of proof. Although she does not see Seryozha, their whom he can no longer avoid. Their meeting is somewhat
connection is not completely severed; once she gets a divorce, awkward, and Levin and Vronsky discuss the local courts,
she will lose Seryozha forever, and she cannot bear that which Levin says are idiotic. Stiva interrupts the conversation
thought. She sees herself as having to choose between because they are calling for a vote, and Levin's brother scolds
Vronsky and Seryozha, and she does not want to choose him for his lack of political tact. The progressives win the day,
Vronsky over her son. as their candidate for provincial marshal is elected.
Because she does not expect her situation to improve, Anna Vronsky is enjoying his new role as a political man, and in

Chapter 31 hosts a dinner for the victors. At the end of the Everyone is quite nervous, except for Kitty, who is "calm and
dinner, Vronsky gets a letter from Anna. Vronsky has promised happy." In Chapter 2, Kitty meets Vronsky again at her
to return Friday, but it is now Saturday, so he is not surprised godmother's house, and although she has a few moments of
that Anna reproaches him. She also says the baby is sick. discomfort, she is able to treat him with politeness and
Vronsky is struck by the contrast between the "innocent indifference. In Chapter 3, Levin intends to pay a call on his
merriment" of the election celebration and the "gloomy, university friend, Professor Katavasov, and later goes to a
oppressive love" he has to return to, but he takes the first train concert and a public service meeting with his sister-in-law,
home. Upon arriving in Chapter 32, he discovers that their baby Natalie. Kitty also asks him to pay a return call on an
is not so sick and Anna is in a petulant mood. He reassures her aristocratic family, the Bohls, and to talk with Natalie's
again and tells her he cannot live without her, although she husband, Prince Lvov, about the deteriorating situation of Dolly
sees in his eyes "the cold and angry look of a persecuted and and her family.
embittered man." Anna agrees to write to Karenin for a divorce,
and she moves with Vronsky to Moscow. The sisters want their husbands to jointly admonish Stiva for
his financial recklessness. Levin meets with a well-known
scholar at Katavasov's house, who has been invited so that
Analysis Levin can discuss his book with him. But the scholar is not
especially interested in Levin's ideas, nor is Levin with his. In
Levin has tagged along with his brother mostly because he is Chapter 4, the three men attend a lecture together, and then
bored with his dull life in Moscow; he also has some business in Levin goes to Lvov's house, remembering Stiva's money
the area on behalf of his sister. His total disinterest in the problems only when he and Natalie are leaving for the concert.
proceedings is somewhat comical, and at one point he Levin does not enjoy the concert in Chapter 5, which is based
embarrasses his brother when he cannot remember for whom on the work of Shakespeare, but he meets Count Bohl there,
he is supposed to vote. When he meets Vronsky, he feels whom he has forgotten to visit.
awkward and unintentionally insults him by saying he thinks the
local courts are idiotic; Vronsky himself is a justice of the
peace. Analysis
Anna has accepted that Vronsky needs to spend a few days Kitty meets Vronsky with some trepidation at her godmother's
away from her, and he is having a good and wholesome time house but quickly recovers herself and is able to fully put their
participating in the elections and then hosting a dinner for a past behind her. Levin is back from the election and spends a
new circle of friends, but she cannot let him enjoy himself. She day as an urban gentleman, but he is out of his element in the
sends him a nagging letter and even says that the baby is sick city and thus has some trouble keeping track of his itinerary.
to give him more incentive to run home. Vronsky is finding his Levin does not enjoy the concert, which mixes two genres (the
relationship with Anna more and more oppressive, and her music is based on Shakespeare's work). This is not surprising
clinginess and jealousy are having the opposite effect: they are because Tolstoy has very definite opinions about art and does
driving him away emotionally. Still, he remains committed to not approve mixing genres; he also had a strong aversion to
her, but she finally sees the necessity of asking Karenin for a Shakespeare.
divorce.

Summary
Summary
In Chapter 6, Levin reluctantly leaves Natalie to visit the Bohls.
In Chapter 1, Levin and Kitty are in the third month of their He stays only long enough to fulfill the requirements of
Moscow residency, and she appears to be past her term. politeness and then returns to his sister-in-law and takes her

home. Levin then goes to the men's club in Chapter 7 and eats
dinner with Stiva. When he calls Vronsky over, Levin has a Part 7, Chapters 11–15
pleasant conversation with him; he feels less strain with his
former rival because Kitty has met Vronsky with equanimity.
Levin then meets his father-in-law in Chapter 8, who takes him Summary
for a stroll around the club.
In Chapter 11, Levin declares Anna "an extraordinary woman ...
After he leaves the prince, he finds Stiva in conversation with not just her intelligence, but her heart." When he gets home, he
Vronsky. Stiva calls Levin his best friend and says he wants him begins thinking "that there was something not right in the
to meet Anna, to which he agrees. In the carriage in Chapter 9, tender pity he felt for Anna. When he tells Kitty about his day,
Stiva talks about how much his sister is alone. Levin says she he blushes when he mentions meeting with Anna." Kitty begins
must be preoccupied with her child, but Stiva responds that crying, accusing him of falling in love "with that nasty woman."
she is not merely a "broody hen"; rather, she is writing a Levin says his compassion and the wine threw him off and
children's book that a publisher has deemed "a remarkable made him "yield to Anna's cunning influence." The couple
thing" and has been helping an English family down on its luck. reconcile before going to sleep.
When the men get to Anna's in Chapter 10, she is extremely
happy to see them. Levin is quite taken with Anna, who seems After Levin leaves, Anna admits to herself in Chapter 12 that
not only beautiful, but also intelligent, graceful, and truthful. she tried to get Levin to fall in love with her, as much as was
Whereas before he "judged her so severely," he now feels pity possible for a faithful man. But she soon forgets him and
for her and wonders if Vronsky can fully understand her. begins fretting about Vronsky. When he gets home, she begins
nagging him for staying out late, and he feels helpless to
appease her.
Analysis
In Chapter 13, Levin is disgusted with how far he has fallen in
In the previous chapters, Kitty reconciled with Vronsky, and his own estimation by being only three months in the big city:
now it is Levin's turn. After Kitty tells him about her meeting living a senseless life, overspending, getting drunk, and even
with him, he feels more at ease and able to also forgive feeling attracted to a "fallen" woman. His thoughts are
Vronsky his sins against Kitty as well as the sin of being his interrupted when Kitty goes into labor in the early morning. In
former rival. Chapter 14, Levin runs to get the doctor, who wants to finish
his breakfast, so the distracted husband runs back home, and
On the way to Anna's, Levin is surprised to learn she minds the midwife tells him not to worry. Levin is horrified to hear
spending so much time alone, because she has a small child. screaming and howling coming from Kitty's room in Chapter 15
Levin cannot imagine a woman who does not devote herself and suffers emotional torment. Following many hours of labor,
entirely to her child or children, and Stiva indignantly informs Kitty delivers a boy.
him that there's more to her than being a mother hen. He is
proud of his sister's intelligence, beauty, and talent. When Levin
meets her, he has to agree that she is remarkable, and indeed, Analysis
as the novel progresses, the reader feels the same way. Anna
seems to have used her exile to become a cultured and Levin begins to feel uncomfortable after he leaves Anna's
accomplished woman. Anna also employs all of her skills to win house because she has aroused in him something beyond pity
Levin over, and he is thoroughly charmed. Clearly, he does not and compassion—he feels sexual attraction toward her. In War
scorn Anna as he does other "fallen women," and he feels "a and Peace, Tolstoy creates an irresistible character in the form
tenderness and pity for her that surprised him." of Natasha, and in Anna Karenina, the title character has the
same effect. The reader loves Anna because of her honesty
and empathy and because she feels life intensely; this is her
strong attraction. Kitty is devastated when Levin indicates
embarrassment because she immediately understands that her
husband has been seduced—albeit temporarily—by Anna's

charms. This is Kitty's worst nightmare. Anna first took Vronsky guidance" and give him an answer in two days. Stiva asks to
away from her, and now Levin is charmed by her spells. While see his nephew in Chapter 19. Seryozha, who has not seen his
Tolstoy tests his theory on Anna that women might be better mother in a year, has worked hard to forget her, and when his
off with a vocation in addition to or instead of motherhood, his uncle asks him, "Do you remember your mother?" he says "No,
novel undermines his attempt, showing through Kitty and Levin I don't." After Stiva leaves Karenin, he visits Betsy and learns in
the evil that might result. Ultimately, Levin is awed by the primal Chapter 20 that Karenin and Countess Lydia have taken up
power of motherhood. with a clairvoyant named Landau, in whose hands Anna's fate
rests.
Anna has no interest Levin, but she tests her charm on him
because she feels so insecure about Vronsky and needs to
know that she is still an attractive woman with sexual power. Analysis
She feels that Vronsky is growing cold toward her and does
not seem to realize that her possessiveness and jealousy are Levin experiences his new baby as an alien and at the same
driving a wedge between them. When they argue (and she time immediately feels a strong, protective urge for the tiny,
always begins the arguments), she has a need to triumph, helpless creature. He is surprised at how proud he is to hear
perhaps to readjust the balance of power between them. She the boy sneeze because it is such a little thing. Yet it is a sign
feels powerless because she is entirely dependent on him, and that he is in the world and a reminder that Dmitri belongs to
when he bends during or after an argument, she feels him.
vindicated. But this is also driving him away. Vronsky is not
comfortable with emotional scenes like the ones being played Stiva has gotten into such deep financial trouble that he now
out in his house every day, which is also hurting the needs a second job to cover his expenses and debt. Of course,
relationship. being the lazy man that he is, he is applying for a job in which
the government will essentially give him money for doing
nothing. This sinecure is made available by a corrupt
Part 7, Chapters 16–20 government, and Stiva knows enough people to give him a
good chance to get it. He is now hoping to persuade Karenin to
finally give Anna a divorce. He alludes to Karenin's original
promise, which is that Karenin would take the blame for the
Summary adultery, but he also tells him he can keep Seryozha. Thus, it is
hard to know what Stiva is actually asking for. Karenin's taking
In Chapter 16, Levin is in a state of awe following the birth of
the blame for adultery seems unlikely at this point, and he may
his son. When he sees tiny Dmitri, he is surprised to feel
not be able to given that Anna is living with her lover. Also
squeamish, and "[t]he fear lest this helpless being should
uncertain is how much of a pariah she would continue to be as
suffer was so strong ... he scarcely noticed the strange feeling
a divorced mistress if she were not able to marry Vronsky.
of senseless joy and even pride he experienced when the baby
Certainly, Vronsky would be able to adopt his child by
sneezed."
petitioning the tsar.
Chapter 17 shifts to Stiva who, because of his money troubles,
The falseness of Karenin's position as well as his pride in his
is applying for "a cushy bribery post" for which he would not
perceived social status have seeped into the child's life as well.
have to leave his current job. He goes to Petersburg to work
Certainly a boy of 11 or 12 would remember the mother with
his connections and also to speak to Karenin about Anna's
whom he lived for the first nine years of his life. Still, he claims
divorce. In Chapter 18, Karenin says he thought Anna had
not to remember her.
"renounced divorce" to keep her connection with Seryozha.
Stiva responds that earlier she felt too guilty to avail herself of
her husband's mercy, but now she is tormented. Anna no
longer expects to have her son, and Stiva leans heavily on Part 7, Chapters 21–25
Karenin to keep his earlier promise. Karenin says he cannot
"act contrary to Christian law" and tells Stiva he will "look for

an intellectual and spiritual morass is shocking for the reader,

Summary appearing to be a mere shadow of the man he was at the
beginning of the novel: confident, capable, intelligent,
In Chapter 21, Stiva accepts Karenin's invitation to Countess
responsible, and respectable. In fact, he has not changed
Lydia's that same evening. When he gets there, he finds
much. He has always followed society's dictates. Now he is
Karenin and Landau. Lydia begins to spout quasi-mystical and
simply further removed from respectable society and is
religious mumbo-jumbo. She tells Stiva, "There is no sin for
following social "norms" that are far less normal.
believers, since they are already redeemed." Karenin seconds
her pronouncements and offers some of his own. In Chapter Meanwhile, Anna's jealousy has reached pathological levels.
22, Stiva begins to fall asleep listening to Lydia, and when he Vronsky himself told her about his mother's idea for him to
shakes himself he sees that Lydia and Karenin are delighted marry Princess Sorokin, so he hardly has plans to pursue her
because Landau has fallen asleep, too. The French clairvoyant as a love interest. All indications are that he loves and cares for
begins speaking in his sleep and says Stiva should get out. The Anna, but he is worn down by her fear, insecurity, and periodic
next day he gets a letter from Karenin, refusing to grant Anna a rages. Anna deliberately provokes Vronsky, and is often
divorce. unreasonable. There is no reason she cannot wait another day
to leave Moscow, but she insists on it as a point of pride.
In Chapter 23, it is clear that Vronsky and Anna have remained
Moreover, she does not need to insult his mother when he has
too long in Moscow and are not getting along. Anna's jealousy
asked her not to speak about her disrespectfully.
is increasing, especially because she learned Vronsky's mother
wants him to marry Princess Sorokin. She is angry about her She reads into all of his remarks meanings that are only in her
isolation and also misses her son, and takes it out on Vronsky. head, and projects onto Vronsky her own self-hatred. She
In an argument about women's education, Vronsky says her despises herself for abandoning her son and because she has
interest in her English ward Hannah is "unnatural," and Anna become a woman who is dependent and craven. Some of her
takes this as an oblique reference to her indifference toward behavior can be attributed to drug addiction. She has been
Annie. Later in Chapter 24, she decides they should go back to taking opiates on a regular basis for a year or more, and is
the country, and Vronsky readily agrees. She wants to leave probably dosing herself now every day. This class of drug can
the next day, but he has some business with his mother and trigger paranoia in some people. Anna does seem to be
needs to wait an additional day. Anna begins arguing again and experiencing paranoia—for example, she thinks she sees "cold
telling him he does not care about her. It crosses her mind that hatred" in Vronsky's eyes, that he does not love her, and that
dying now would solve her problems. She accuses Vronsky of he is conspiring to betray her.
loving another woman, and he says he loves her "more than
ever" and there is no reason for her jealousy. Thus, they
temporarily reconcile.
In Chapter 25, Anna begins packing to leave. A telegram from
Stiva, saying there is no news about the divorce, triggers
another argument. They are soon quarreling again, and she Summary
believes she sees "cold hatred" in Vronsky's eyes. She begins
berating his mother, and when he asks her to stop, she says he After Vronsky leaves in Chapter 26, Anna convinces herself he
does not love his mother anyway. Yashvin comes in and hates her and loves another woman. Vronsky is gone the whole
interrupts the quarrel, and Vronsky leaves with him on the day, and she thinks that her death will be a way to get his love
business of selling his horse. back and to vanquish him "in the struggle that the evil spirit
lodged in her heart was waging with him." When Vronsky
comes back, he sleeps in the study, and Anna returns to her
Analysis room and takes a second dose of opium. Toward morning, she
again dreams of the disheveled peasant and awakens in a cold
In his spiritual confusion, Karenin now takes direction from a sweat. In the morning, she tells Vronsky she is not leaving with
fake prophet who calls himself Landau. His descent into such him. "This is becoming unbearable," he says, and she tells him

he will regret it. In Chapter 27, she immediately regrets her

words after he leaves and writes him a note of apology, asking
Analysis
him to come home. The effects of the opium have not worn off,
These chapter contain the climax of the novel—Anna's suicide.
and Anna's thoughts are confused. The messenger comes
Tolstoy skillfully draws a portrait of a woman in the throes of a
back to say he has missed Vronsky at the stables, so she asks
mental breakdown. Under the influence of opiates, Anna's
him to deliver the message to his mother's house and also
paranoia becomes stronger and stronger. After she argues
sends a telegram saying she must talk to him at once. Anna
with Vronsky and sends him a note of apology, she is not
then sets off for Dolly's house in Chapter 28. In the next
thinking clearly enough to realize he has not ignored her first
chapters, the narrator provides passages of Anna's stream-of-
note—he simply has not received it. After she cannot
consciousness, which contain bitter and confused thoughts.
immediately reconcile with Vronsky, her mental state becomes
Kitty is at Dolly's when Anna arrives, and reluctantly comes out more and more unbearable to her. To distract herself, she goes
to meet her. Anna maliciously brings up Levin's visit to to Dolly's house, and when she sees Kitty there, she
embarrass Kitty and then takes her leave of the sisters. Once unnecessarily and spitefully tries to make her feel jealous.
in the carriage in Chapter 29, she feels that Kitty has insulted
Her immediate need for reassurance from Vronsky forces her
her and imagines both women wish her ill. When she gets
to drive to the train station with the idea of taking the train to
home, there is a note from Vronsky saying he cannot come
his mother's house—not far from Moscow—and meeting him
back before 10 p.m. She's now determined to meet Vronsky at
there. As before, the train symbolizes a shifting state, the start
his mother's house, not realizing he has not received the first
of a new life for Anna. As before, a peasant plays a pivotal role
note. She intends to take the evening train at eight. In Chapter
in the experience. And as before, a violent death figures
30, brooding in the carriage, Anna ascribes the worst motives
prominently.
to Vronsky, thinking he pursued her to satisfy his vanity. "The
zest is gone" in their relationship, she tells herself. A divorce As she rides around all day, her thoughts become darker and
and marriage to Vronsky will not appreciably change her social darker. Much of what she thinks has truth in it—for example,
situation, she thinks. She also feels disgust with herself for she thinks that Vronsky pursued her for his vanity. Certainly
exchanging her love for Seryozha for Vronsky's love, and that is true, but it is also true that he loves her and has
cynically tells herself that people are born "to hate each other." committed himself to her. She also feels despair as she thinks
When she gets to the train station, at first she cannot a divorce will not make much of a difference in her social
remember why she is there, but then buys a ticket. standing. Moreover, she now feels the full force of her self-
hatred for leaving her son for the sake of being with Vronsky.
In Chapter 31, now on the train but still brooding, she sees a
Anna sees no way out of her dilemma and no way to ease the
dirty peasant through the window, remembers her dream, and
crushing emotional pain she is suffering. She also wants to
becomes terrified. Anna continues to have dark thoughts. "I'm
punish Vronsky, and what better way to triumph over him finally
unable to think up a situation in which life would not be
and irrevocably than by killing herself and leaving behind the
suffering ... But if you see the truth, what can you do?" It then
wreckage for him to clean up? And that is what she does.
occurs to her that she can "put out the candle." At the next
stop she gets off, looking for her coachman, who brings her That day, she has dreamed of the peasant again, and shortly
another note from Vronsky saying he's sorry to have missed before she dies she sees the image of the peasant in the flesh
the first note. She sees a goods train passing on the other side of a real person, which terrifies her. At the moment of her
of the platform and remembers the man who died under the death, a peasant appears again, working his iron. The peasant
wheels of the train on the day she met Vronsky. She walks is an omen, and the chaos that he represents has come to
downstairs and climbs down from the platform and puts claim her at last.
herself beneath the wheels of that passing train. At the last
moment, she wants to take her action back, but it is too late.
As Anna dies, "[a] little muzhik, muttering to himself, was
working over some iron. And the candle ... flared up brighter
than ever, lit up for her all that had once been in darkness,
sputtered, grew dim, and went out for ever."

for the most part, they do so to run away from their own
Part 8, Chapters 1–5 problems.
Summary Part 8, Chapters 6–10

In Chapter 1, it is the summer of 1876. Koznyshev gets involved
with the Slavophiles' defense of the Christian Serbians against
the Ottoman Turks as a way to distract himself, because his
Summary
new book, six years in the making, is virtually ignored by the
Koznyshev and Katavasov are greeted by Kitty upon their
press or the public. But he takes his customary break to visit
arrival in Chapter 6. She asks Dolly to entertain them until
Levin in the country, bringing Katavasov along. When they get
Levin comes, because she has to nurse Dmitri. As she rocks
to the station in Chapter 2, they speak to Princess Lydia, who
the baby in Chapter 7, she thinks about her husband,
is seeing off the volunteers on their way to the war. She tells
tormented by his lack of belief. She smiles when reflecting on
them that Vronsky is among the soldiers.
his unremitting kindness and care of everyone. Recently, he
Stiva also appears in the crowd and asks Koznyshev to carry suggested she give up part of her estate to pay for Stiva's
to his wife the message that he has been appointed to the post debts so that Dolly would not have to give up more of her
for which he has been lobbying. When Stiva looks for Vronsky, property.
he finds a man aged and suffering. In Chapter 3, Koznyshev

In Chapter 8, Levin is struggling with the meaning of life and
and Katavasov take their places on the train; Katavasov,
death, and he cannot find answers in Christianity. It bothers
curious about the volunteers, speaks to some of them and
him that he had believed and prayed when he thought he might
finds them to be a motley crew going to war mostly out of
lose Kitty, but now he does not. Levin has been reading
desperation. Koznyshev runs into Vronsky's mother in Chapter
philosophy to find a "non-materialistic explanation of life," but is
4, who is going part of the way with her son. She calls Anna "a
not able to come up with a coherent and enduring framework
bad woman," ruining "herself and two fine men" for a
to rely on. Although happy with his family life, Levin is "close to
"desperate passion." Vronsky's daughter has gone to Karenin.
suicide" and "hid a rope lest he hang himself with it." He does
Koznyshev, on the countess's urging, then searches out
not. Chapter 10 emphasizes that when Levin does not worry
Vronsky in Chapter 5. He seems resigned and even hopeful to
about the meaning of life, he knows what he is and what he is
give his life for the cause. Vronsky begins thinking of Anna but
living for. When he only lives, he is conscious of "the presence
can recall no good memories—just her vengeful threat at the
of an infallible judge" who immediately knows the best course
end, and he begins to cry.
of action. Thus, Levin seems to be two men—one with
existential angst and the other with the security of an active
man firmly placed in the world.
Analysis
The author ties up some loose ends in these chapters.
Koznyshev finishes his book, but his effort is wasted because
Analysis
he does not get a hearing, validating Lenin's (and Tolstoy's)
While Kitty has found the security and fulfillment that eluded
opinions about the impotence of revolutionary measures. Stiva
Anna, Levin remains unmoored. So long as he possesses a
lands on his feet, procuring a nonjob for a lot of money. This is
vocation, he seems to be on solid ground. When he is forced to
not surprising, because Stiva is very skilled at getting what he
reflect, he drifts. Again, Tolstoy seems to suggest that if Anna
wants. Countess Vronsky's anger at Anna is more of a
had only had a purpose, she might have found a reason to live,
personal vendetta than a sign of motherly devotion. Anna not
while simultaneously depicting motherhood as women's sole
only won her battle with Vronsky, but she eviscerated him just
purpose.
as she eviscerated Karenin. He will not likely return from the
war he goes to fight. Tolstoy comments, through Katavasov, on The ending is reflective of the author's personal spiritual crisis
people who go off to unnecessarily fight a war and shows that, that he endured while writing the end of Anna Karenina. But

Tolstoy's crisis lasted for some years and did not have a neat, war, and as expected, the liberals think that fighting a partisan
packaged ending. Ultimately, he rejected not just the novel's war for fellow Slavs is a good thing, while Levin and his father-
conclusion but the novel itself. in-law argue that only desperate men go off to fight somebody
else's war. Katavasov has talked to some of the volunteers,
and he knows that is true, but he has conveniently forgotten
Part 8, Chapters 11–15 what he learned and does not contradict Koznyshev.
Summary Part 8, Chapters 16–19

In Chapter 11, the company arrives at Levin and Kitty's house at
the most inopportune time, during the mowing and reaping. Summary
While he works, Levin is considering the big questions of life.
Something a peasant says inspires Levin in Chapter 12, and he In Chapter 16, Koznyshev asserts that the "intelligentsia" of the
thinks people must live for God and not for their own needs. world are now all of the same mind. The prince strongly
But this brings him back to the problem of God, who is disagrees, saying it is only the newspapers saying the same
"incomprehensible." Still, God is an idea of what is good. Levin thing. Koznyshev defends the journalists, and Levin reminds his
concludes in Chapter 13 that the doctrine of the church does brother that war is not just about sacrificing oneself but also
not contradict the idea of "faith in God, in the good, as the sole killing others. Koznyshev uses Jesus's words about bringing
purpose of man." Thus, a person should serve "the good the sword to counter Levin's argument, who withdraws from
instead of one's needs." Such an approach makes life worth the argument, deciding to privately hold his newly acquired
living. "Can this be faith?" Levin wonders, and thanks God, truth, of which war could not be a part.
determining that it is.
The family is outside in Chapter 17, and because it has begun
Dolly's children meet him as he is driving home in Chapter 14, to rain, everyone hurries to get home. Levin suddenly notices
announcing the arrival of the guests. In Chapter 15, Dolly that his wife and child are missing, and as the storm becomes
immediately tells Levin that Koznyshev met Vronsky, who is more furious, lightning strikes an oak and sets it on fire. Levin
going to Serbia with a squadron he financed. The men begin panics, because this is a spot where Kitty often comes, but he
talking about the war, and Prince Shcherbatsky and Levin are finds her at the other end of the wood, under a linden tree. The
disturbed that Russians are fighting as private citizens without family spends the rest of the day at home in Chapter 18. Levin
the permission of the government. Katavasov and Koznyshev explains to Kitty that when he saw his son in danger, he
disagree and support the Russian partisans, but for different realized how much he loved him. Later in Chapter 19, he turns
reasons. Levin also says that there are always reckless or over in his mind his philosophical thoughts and determines that
desperate people ready to go to war, but his brother argues the good, "revealed to me by Christianity and ... verified in my
that the Russian partisans are "the best representatives of the soul" is enough for now, and he does not need to worry about
nation." the beliefs of other religions. From now on, his life will have "the
unquestionable meaning of the good."
Analysis
Analysis
As Levin mulls over the meaning of life, he latches onto
something a peasant says, which is that a person should live The argument among the men continue, and Koznyshev, ever
for God. Because he is not sure that he believes in God, it the political animal, insists that all Russians are on the same
occurs to him that he can change the axiom to say that one page about the Serbian war, but, of course, they are not. The
should live for the good and put the good ahead of one's prince is not wrong to say the newspapers are shaping public
egoistic desires. For now, this is a testament of his faith. opinion to make it look like consensus. Because of Levin's new
theology, he cannot support the violence of war, which cannot
When he gets back to the house, the men begin discussing the

Anna Karenina Study Guide Quotes 48
be the "good," and Koznyshev takes Jesus's words about The narrator is pointing out that happy families are not that
coming with the sword out of context—he surely was not interesting, because they all follow the same blueprint for
talking about killing people, but rather speaking in metaphor. happiness, and there is not much difference among them.
Unhappy families, however, have an individualized dysfunction.
Tolstoy provides an epiphany at the end of the novel, as Levin Contrariness and a refusal to live by necessary rules result in
runs to save his family and realizes how much he loves his son. unhappy families, and each one has their own peculiar way of
He also confirms his new reason for living, confirmed by failing.
Christianity and verified by his own experience. The multiple
conclusions may be a reflection of Tolstoy's wandering
philosophical reflections as he wrote the novel, or they may be
"Marriage ... for Levin ... was the
intended to form a unified vision of faith rooted in purpose and
love. chief concern of life, on which all
The ending of Anna Karenina is unsatisfying for some readers. happiness depended."
In the last section of the novel, Levin is feeling so much
existential despair that he is afraid he will kill himself. However, — Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 27
he comes through the crisis, unlike his counterpart in the novel,
Anna. Anna is ultimately punished for her transgressions.
Levin goes home after his first rejection from Kitty and begins
Various critics have interpreted in different ways the epigraph
thinking about his own parents, who seemed to have a perfect
at the beginning of the novel—"Vengeance is mine; I will repay."
marriage but whom he lost at a young age. He wants to
This quote from the Bible means that vengeance belongs to
recreate that dream of a perfect home and happiness. For him,
God, not to man. So the quote can mean either that people
marriage is absolutely necessary to fulfill the requirements of
should not have judged Anna or that God has judged Anna.
life, and although he will try to make the best of his situation, he
However sympathetic both readers and Tolstoy feel toward will continue to desire marriage to Kitty.
Anna, she is ultimately a character who has violated the moral
code, for which there are consequences. Levin, on the other
hand, is the hero of the story, and he ends up with a happy "I am going in order to be where
family and even a blueprint to live by. Both characters were
searching for a meaningful way to live—one failed and the
you are ... I cannot do otherwise."
other succeeded. What is most unsatisfying is not that Anna
died but that Levin's problems have been wrapped up in a neat — Vronsky, Part 1, Chapter 30
little package. It seems less than credible that a man with such
deep existential anxiety would come through the crisis so
Vronsky says this to Anna when she steps off the train
quickly and easily, but Tolstoy did not set out to write a
between stops on her way back to Petersburg. She has left
conventional novel in penning Anna Karenina.
Moscow early to get away from him because she knows they
are in a dangerous situation. Vronsky sees Anna on the
platform, and when she asks him why he has left Moscow, he
g Quotes freely admits that he is pursuing her. This answer both
frightens her and makes her happy.
"All happy families are alike; each

unhappy family is unhappy in its "'He's a good man, truthful, kind ...'
own way." Anna said to herself ... as if
defending him."
— Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 1

Anna Karenina Study Guide Quotes 49
— Anna, Part 1, Chapter 33

"I love him, I am his mistress, I
Anna says this to herself when she gets back from Moscow
cannot stand you ... I hate you."
and looks at her husband with disappointment. She notices, for
example, how his hat rides on his ears. She is defending her — Anna, Part 2, Chapter 29
husband from the inner critic in her own mind. Part of her now
is ready to admit that she cannot love him and never has. This Anna says this to Karenin when he insists that she leave the
realization has been made possible because the door to arena after Vronsky falls off his horse at the steeplechase.
another relationship has opened. Anna makes a spectacle of herself by showing her concern for
a man who is not her husband. He once again tells her she
acted improperly and again apologizes if his suspicions are
"Her look ... burned him through. unfounded. Anna is exasperated by him as well as by his
response to her adultery, so she tells him bluntly how she feels,
He kissed his palm ... where she not thinking about how he might receive her communication.
had touched him."
— Vronsky, Part 2, Chapter 7 "I want to do something, and I've

forgotten ... everything will end,
Vronsky has just finished talking to Anna at Betsy's salon, and
she tells him that this pursuit must stop, although she also says
that there is – death."
she would not tell him to go away. After she leaves, Vronsky is
so overwhelmed with passion that he continues to feel the — Levin, Part 3, Chapter 31
touch of Anna's hand on his palm, and he kisses his palm in
reverence. Levin is battling with existential angst—anxiety about
existence—and specifically, mortality. He fears death, and
when his brother Nikolai comes to visit him, Levin knows
"This body deprived of life was Nikolai's days are numbered. He listens to his brother
breathing and coughing and thinks how silly it is to make plans
their love, the first period of their when all that awaits him at the end of the road is his own
love." death. After all, his days are numbered, too. It is simply a
matter of degree.
"Trample me in the mud, make me

The narrator says this after Anna and Vronsky consummate
their relationship for the first time. Anna is overwhelmed by the laughing-stock of society, I will
shame, and Vronsky feels like a murderer. What he has
murdered is the idealistic promise of love. Their passion can
not abandon her."
never be as strong as it was in the lead-up to intercourse. In
the days of courtship and seduction, they still had a perfect — Karenin, Part 4, Chapter 17
ideal of love in their minds and hearts and the sharp
anticipation of the physical act. Now, that ideal has been Karenin says these words to Vronsky after he forgives Anna as
turned into reality and has a sordid aspect to it because their well as Vronsky for their adultery. He is ready to start over with
love is illicit. Anna, take her baby, and even allow Vronsky to see her if that
is what she desires. His forgiveness comes from the deepest

Anna Karenina Study Guide Symbols 50
part of himself, and he is no longer afraid of what people will

think or whether he will seem like a fool. He knows that people l Symbols
like Vronsky think husbands are absurd. So he is telling
Vronsky that no matter what he does, he (Karenin) will not
abandon his wife.
Trains
"The question of divorce in her

Trains in the novel symbolize the negative effects of progress,
situation is for her a question of undermining traditional values while seemingly bringing people
together. The train takes people from place to place, so that
life and death."
they can see their friends and relatives more easily. On the
other hand, the train takes people away from home and out of
— Stiva, Part 7, Chapter 18 their families and communities—thus, they represent a breach
of the traditional social order. The train has allowed Vronsky
Much later in the novel, Karenin has hardened. This happens and Anna to meet—which might never have happened
after Anna refuses his divorce and then leaves him and her son otherwise. The Russian literature scholar Gary Jahn also notes
behind so that she can be with Vronsky. In the meantime, that the train symbolizes society. When Anna is returning home
Karenin has come under the strong influence of Countess to Petersburg, she is safe and snug in her carriage, and when
Lydia. He is no longer ready to simply grant Anna a divorce and she goes outside between stops, she meets Vronsky. The
take the blame for the adultery. Stiva is reminding Karenin of danger of the illicit relationship is encountered outside the
his promise and tries to stress how important it is for Anna to train, and Anna and Vronsky's affair will blossom outside the
be set free. confines of legitimacy.
"Levin was ... so close to suicide Frou-Frou

that he hid a rope lest he hang
himself."
Vronsky's horse, Frou-Frou, symbolizes Anna and what will
happen to her as a result of their relationship. Frou-Frou is a
beautiful, high-strung horse that Vronsky hopes will win him the
steeplechase. When he gets to the race, however, he is
Although Levin is happy with his marriage and his work, he still distracted and is not paying sufficient attention. He is actually
cannot discern any overall grand plan, and his intellect and winning the race but wants to come in with a big lead, so he
heart both demand a reason for living—even a likely story will pushes the horse further and allows Frou-Frou to get ahead of
do. He is not about to kill himself, because he is not him so that he unseats himself and falls off the horse—killing
constitutionally made in such a way that he would commit the horse and losing the race. This foreshadows what will
suicide. But he feels despair and is probably being somewhat happen to Anna and Vronsky. Anna, too, is beautiful and high-
melodramatic when he says he had to hide the rope from strung, and Vronsky pays far too little attention to her. In his
himself. race to win her love, he does not foresee the consequences of
their affair, particularly to her. He thinks she can just get away
from Karenin, but it is not that easy. At the end he pushes for a
divorce, which accelerates the deterioration of their
relationship. In some ways, this scene suggests Vronsky is
responsible for Anna's ultimate demise.

Anna Karenina Study Guide Themes 51
Farming m Themes
Farming symbolizes man in harmony with nature as well as his Jealousy

essential function—providing food. The novel identifies
goodness, morality, happiness, and family with rural life. In the
country, Levin lives without pretense and does real
work—unlike Stiva, who lives in Moscow and pushes paper all The destructive effects of jealousy are evident throughout the
day. Petersburg is even worse, because it is the seat of the novel. Once Anna throws in her lot with Vronsky, she feels
government and high society. In Petersburg, Anna and Vronsky helpless and vulnerable. Because he has become her only
have their affair, and Stiva carries on many of his extramarital lifeline, she is desperate to hold onto him. Thus, she becomes
activities. Vronsky begins to be happy when he moves to his more and more wracked with jealousy and doubt, which has
estate and becomes involved with land management, but when the opposite effect of what she desires—it pushes him away.
he returns to Moscow with Anna, the two of them become very During her pregnancy, Vronsky begins to cool because of
unhappy. Anna's neediness, but his passion is reignited when he thinks
he will lose her. When the couple move to Moscow, Anna is
again consumed by jealousy, and toward the end of the novel,
she thinks Vronsky wants to marry Princess Sorokin. Her
Dwarfish, Disheveled Muzhik jealousy creates another separation between herself and
Vronsky. It seems likely that if Anna had lived and continued in
this way, Vronsky would have ended up leaving her.
A dwarfish, dirty, and disheveled muzhik, or peasant, is both a Jealousy also begins to eat away at Levin and Kitty's
symbol and motif in the novel. Vronsky sees a muzhik with a relationship, but because the couple face their jealousy
sack over his shoulder near the railroad tracks at the beginning squarely and talk it out, they can get over it more quickly and
of the story, and Anna sees a dirty peasant near the tracks on move on. And as they grow as a couple and validate each
the day she dies. She has a recurring dream of a peasant, other's love and loyalty, they become less jealous. Levin does
initially rummaging around in a sack, saying he has to pound or throw Veslovsky out of the house because he is flirting with
knead iron. Vronsky also dreams of a dirty peasant on the day Kitty, but he overcomes his jealousy of Vronsky, and Kitty gets
that Anna tells him about her first dream, which she dreamed past her jealousy of Anna.
some time ago. In Anna's dream, Karenin's valet tells her the
dream means she will die in childbirth.
The recurring image of the peasant has been called a symbol Family
of sin, death, or the relentless power of sex. But the peasant
can also be interpreted as an archetype of Trickster. Trickster
is a figure that can be playful and humorous and bring the
elements of spontaneity and creativity into a situation. But the Tolstoy demonstrates that the family unit is the foundation of
dark side of Trickster is that he brings chaos into the world and society, a refuge from the world, and a place to find happiness
initiates a destructive cycle. The peasant is small and and satisfaction. This idea permeates Anna Karenina, even as
grubby—like Rumpelstiltskin and other evil, dwarflike figures the author subverts it with a realistic portrayal of family life.
that are encountered in dreams and fairy tales. He announces Like many artists, Tolstoy experienced a profound
the chaos that is about to ensue as a result of Anna and transformation in his life, in which he changed his ideas about
Vronsky stepping into uncharted territory, and he appears at what was important and meaningful. This change occurred
the end of Anna's story, when she takes her life. while he was writing Anna Karenina, partially explaining the
conflicting views at work in the novel. The novel begins with
the famous lines about how unhappy families are unique in

their unhappiness, while happy families share a common lifestyle. His spending hurts his family and comes close to
blueprint and are, for that reason, alike. Thus, Tolstoy destroying it. He has made a sham of their marriage, which
announces his position as a traditionalist who believes that the does not nurture him or Dolly. The children are nurtured only
success of the family depends on traditional formulas. Levin through Dolly's efforts.
and Kitty represent the ideal of marriage and family life, even
though both spouses suffer jealousy, struggle to adjust to
another's worldview, and must learn to compromise.
Passion
Levin, the hero, knows he will not be happy until he marries
Kitty. As a family man, he works first and foremost for the
benefit of his family and second for the community within his
Anna Karenina explores the limits of passionate love. While the
sphere of influence—his extended family, his friends, and the
novel tries to show that passion alone cannot sustain a
people (particularly the peasants) who work for him. Both
marriage, many readers are drawn to the character of Anna
Tolstoy and Levin assign to Kitty the supreme role of wife and
and feel sympathetic to her because of the depth of her
mother. Although he sympathizes with the plight of women and
passion. The Greeks identified four types of love. First, there is
shows a remarkable ability to empathize with their concerns,
Eros: intense, passionate desire for the object of
Tolstoy did not believe they should relinquish their traditional
affection—usually a person. Eros is usually equated with sexual
roles as the keystone of a successful, happy family. The novel
love, but in its highest form, it is love of transcendent beauty.
ends with Kitty and Levin surrounded by their estate, their
Next is Philia, love between friends and affection for people
family members, their new baby, and the beauty of nature. Kitty
who share similar values, beliefs, and preferences. Philia also
comes to find her husband on the terrace, looking out at the
covers love of one's job or vocation. Third is Agape, a selfless
night sky; his face is "calm and joyful," and she smiles at him.
love that puts a person or a cause ahead of needs or desires
Thus, the novel, which begins in a purgatory of betrayal,
of the self; Agape encompasses love of humanity and a desire
jealousy, and recrimination, ends in an Eden of mother, father,
to do good. Finally, Storge is the love of family and community,
and child.
which inspires dutiful behavior.
Anna and Vronsky's love is mostly Eros. They have a strong

sexual connection, which begins when they dance together at
Loyalty the ball and which is evidenced by the number of times the
narrator shows them displaying physical affection. Moreover,
both Vronsky and Anna are described as good-looking people,
Although it was common for men to find satisfaction outside of and although Vronsky begins to lose his hair, Anna maintains
marriage—and in high society many women followed suit—it is her perfect beauty. The lack of other types of love in their
clear Tolstoy judged adultery harshly. No doubt Anna is a relationship can be seen in Vronsky's and Anna's indifference
sympathetic character, but she ends her life prematurely, to their child, Anna's willingness to give up Seryozha to pursue
seemingly punished by fate or perhaps by her own guilt. Anna her passion, and Vronsky's indifference to Anna's desire to be
begins as a loyal wife but no longer can endure her cold with her son. The two build a cocoon around their forbidden
husband once Vronsky presents an alternative. She is loyal to love, and because it never matures, they are destroyed by it.
Vronsky but disloyal to her son Seryozha when she chooses
Vronsky. In contrast, Kitty and Levin display all four types of love in their
marriage. There is sexual attraction, but Levin also exhibits
While Anna is morally in the wrong from the perspective of the Eros in his love for the land. Moreover, his love for Kitty exists
mores of her time and the Russian Orthodox Church, Stiva is within the community of her family, and he wants to be part of
simply despicable. Stiva tires of his loyal and long-suffering that community when he marries her. Levin has love for his
wife because she is no longer physically beautiful. Thus, he work, as does Kitty—although her work as a wife and mother is
leads a promiscuous life outside the bounds of marriage, and more circumscribed. Kitty and Levin are also friends, and they
recklessly spends money to support his paramours and lavish share their thoughts as well as their feelings—something Anna

and Vronsky do not do. Both exhibit Storge as well as Philia. Tolstoy, that represents a moral failure.
Thus, Levin and Kitty's love is nurtured within a larger
community and has more facets, which makes it a more Vronsky is an example of an aristocrat who struggles to find
enduring love. At the end of the novel, Levin is moving toward his vocation. Because he expects to make a brilliant career in
Agape, as he thinks about how he must put the "good" ahead the military, he generously forfeits his share of the family's
of his own selfish desires. Thus, the novel shows that inheritance to his married brother, saying he doubts he'll ever
passionate love without the other types of love is a destructive marry. But Vronsky's situation begins to change after he takes
force. up with Anna, and he turns down a lucrative promotion to be

with her. Once he quits the military, he must figure out what
else he can do. While he recovers his share of inheritance, he
still needs meaningful work. This is why he begins building a
Social Roles hospital on his estate and becoming involved in politics. He is
never able to find his footing, however, mostly because he is
held back by Anna's demands.
Anna Karenina raises the problem of vocation, the work that Particularly problematic is the female vocation. Discussions
gives meaning to a life and spiritual sustenance. The concept about women's rights in the novel raise the suggestion that
of vocation didn't mean much to the Russian peasants, who women might enter the workforce or have aspirations beyond
were tied to the land and had no choice about being an wifehood and motherhood, but Tolstoy does not develop this
agricultural worker. The peasants derived their meaning from idea much. Situations in the novel regularly demonstrate that
religion and their family and community ties. That changed a women are at their best and highest purpose when they act as
little after the serfs were emancipated in 1861, but their choice mothers. Anna develops herself intellectually because she is
of occupation was still very limited; they could stay on the land cut off from society and has nothing to do, but her neglect of
as tenant farmers or hire themselves out to do some other Annie shows her in a bad light. Anna's love for her son is her
form of manual labor. Few had the opportunity to buy land and most sympathetic character point, but her abandonment of him
work for themselves. brings her downfall. Dolly repeatedly finds comfort in caring for
her children. And Kitty anxiously awaits her first pregnancy so
Vocation, however, is a problem for the aristocratic class. Many
she will have something substantial to do after she becomes a
of the landowners lived a dissipated life, spoiled over the
farmer's wife. The novel makes no effort to reconcile these
generations with too much money and privilege. They left the
conflicts, leaving the reader to wrestle with them.
running of their estates to land managers who were often
corrupt. Most aristocrats had no vocation and spent their time Anna Karenina is also full of discussions on citizenship and
and resources on pleasure. After the emancipation, they had social responsibility. Levin's brother Koznyshev is a liberal, as
the opportunity to take part in reshaping the agrarian are his friends, such as Pestov, and they believe Russia has to
economy, but many were against reform. Serious farmers like change. They want to see the peasants educated, to give more
Levin had to cope with free peasants who were resistant to rights to women, and to increase democratic governance.
modernization. Levin feels frustration with the peasants who Levin, on the other hand, has little faith in politics, which is why
resist using new machinery because they interfere with his he withdraws from the local governing council (the zemstvo).
vocation—to make the land bear fruit and to be its caretaker The novel demonstrate the abuses of political power in
for future generations. In Levin's opinion, Stiva makes a numerous examples, such as the way Stiva gets an additional
mockery of his responsibilities to the land. He thoughtlessly cushy job and the method by which the liberal aristocrats elect
disposes of his wife's property to make fast money to pay his the governor of the province.
debts, the result of extravagant living. Stiva's affairs, his
gambling, his loose spending, and his general state of disarray Levin does not believe educating the peasants is his duty.
are all a result of his lack of vocation. Unlike Karenin, a high- Rather, he sees his social responsibility as extending only as
level bureaucrat who doesn't game the system and takes his far as the people he directly interacts with. Levin is a
responsibilities seriously, Stiva sees his job as a means to an mouthpiece for Tolstoy's views. Tolstoy fought in two wars, but
end and arranges his work life as conveniently as possible. For then came home and retired to the country. Levin believes he

Anna Karenina Study Guide A Problem with Time in Anna Karenina 54
can do good only by involving himself in something that directly Greene, Gayle. "Women, Character, and Society in Tolstoy's
affects him. However, by the end of the novel, he seems to lean Anna Karenina."Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 2.1
toward a wider conception of social responsibility, as did his (1977): 106-25. Print.
creator. Tolstoy continued to steer clear of politics, but his
ideas about what he could do to help the world expanded as Mandelker, Amy. Framing Anna Karenina: Tolstoy, the Woman
he matured in his spiritual thought. Question, and the Victorian Novel. Columbus: Ohio State UP,
1993. Print.
Meek, James. "James Meek: Rereading Anna Karenina by Leo
b A Problem with Time in

Tolstoy."The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2012. Web.
6 Sept. 2016.
Anna Karenina "The Woman Question." Anna Karenina. PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 6
Sept. 2016.
Anna Karenina presents a puzzle to readers who are keeping

Stenbock-Fermor, Elisabeth. The Architecture of Anna
close track of the novel's timeline. Because of Tolstoy's failure
Karenina. Lisse: de Ridder, 1975. Print.
to reconcile the chronology of events in three major plot
threads (the stories of Anna and Vronsky, Kitty and Levin, and
Stiva and Dolly), it is not possible to say with certainty when
events occur in the novel.
According to Vladimir E. Alexandrov, a scholar of Russian

literature and culture, Anna and Vronsky's story elapses over a
period of three years and seven months, while Levin and Kitty's
story unfolds over two years and six months. The footnotes in
the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation provide some
guidance for when the novel begins and ends, but the
beginning date is problematic, and Alexandrov argues that
Tolstoy probably didn't mean to tack the beginning to a real
date. In the early chapters, Stiva is reading a newspaper in
which a famous person visits Wiesbaden in February 1872, but
it makes more sense for the story to begin in midwinter of 1873
so that the other events unfold coherently. For example, Anna
and Vronsky consummate their union at the end of 1873, 10
months after they meet, and then Anna is pregnant in the
summer of 1874 and gives birth at the end of that year. Even in
adjusting the dates for the Anna–Vronsky timeline, there are
problems with the Levin–Kitty timeline, which seems to be
short a year. There are additional discrepancies in the number
of years both Dolly and Anna are married, and in the age of
Seryozha and of Dolly's children.
e Suggested Reading
Alexandrov, Vladimir. "Relative Time in Anna Karenina."The
Russian Review 41.2 (1982): 159-68. Print.

Anna Karenina

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Anna Karenina

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Anna Karenina

Study Guide by Course Hero

a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3

c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 14

professionals of the middle class; or soldiers, artisans, and

followers founded the Society for the Encouragement of humiliation.

Spiritual and Ethical Reading. Tolstoy was in the throes of his

The rigid class structure of Russia, which existed unimpeded

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Anna Karenina has enjoyed widespread acclaim among both

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Other Major Character

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Full Character List Annie Karenina

Character Description Sergei (Kutik or Seryozha)

Count Alexei (Alyosha) Kirillovich Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev is

Princess Ekaterina (Kitty) Kuzma Kuzma is Levin's servant.

Lizaveta Petrovna is Kitty's

Prince Arseny Lvov is the

Kapitonych is the hall porter at

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Princess Natalya Alexandrovna, Alyosha Oblonsky is the son of

Countess Lydia Ivanovna is a

Princess Marya Princess Marya Borisovna is Masha Oblonsky is the daughter

Marya Efimovna is Seryozha's old Nikolenka Oblonsky is the son of

Marya (Masha) Nikolaevna is Tanya Oblonsky is the daughter

Matryona (Matryosha) Princess Varvara Oblonsky is

Matvie Matvie is Stiva's valet.

Mikhailov is a talented Russian

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Princess Shcherbatsky is the Alexander Kirillovich Alexander Kirillovich Vronsky is

Varya (Varvara) Varya (Varvara) Vronsky is the

Captain (or Prince) Yashvin is

Nikolai Ivanovich Sviyazhsky is a

Vasenka (Vaska) Veslovsky is a

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

9. Dolly visits Anna at Vronsky's country estate.

1. Anna and Vronsky meet in a train compartment.

Rising Action 11. Anna throws herself under a train.

2. Stiva and Dolly quarrel about Stiva's infidelity.

3. Levin proposes to Kitty and is rejected.

8. Levin proposes to Kitty again and they marry.

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

15. Levin resolves his spiritual crisis.

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Stiva and Kitty quarrel over Stiva's infidelity.

Kitty turns down Levin's proposal.

Levin experiences timelessness when he mows with the

Vronsky consummates his relationship with Anna.

Anna reveals she is pregnant to Vronsky and Karenin.

Levin proposes to Kitty again.

Anna gives birth to Vronsky's child.

Karenin forgives Anna and Vronsky when she appears to

Vronsky shoots himself.

Anna refuses Karenin's offer of a divorce and leaves for

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.

Levin and Kitty marry.

Dolly visits Anna in the country.

Anna and Vronsky return to Moscow.

Kitty and Levin go to Moscow for her confinement.

Kitty gives birth to a boy, Dmitri.

Karenin refuses to divorce Anna.

Anna throws herself under a train.

Levin determines he will believe in the goodness of God.

Copyright © 2018 Course Hero, Inc.