Anna Karenina

The narrative returns to Karenin and his secret inability to cope with a woman weeping, as Anna does after confessing her affair. He feels a strange kind of relief, deciding Anna is damned and he need no longer concern himself with her or Serezha. He considers other cuckolded husbands from his social world, wondering what to do. To his consternation, he cannot face the idea of dueling Vronsky. He reminds himself his social position and statesman role also precludes it. Karenin’s other dilemma is that divorce is only possible if Anna’s adultery becomes public knowledge, which would humiliate him. He decides divorce would give Anna too much freedom: He wants her punished, saying, “I cannot be happy, but neither should she and he be happy” (282). The narrator insists that Karenin cannot openly acknowledge his desire for vengeance; instead, he claims that this state of affairs is what Christianity dictates.

Karenin returns home and writes Anna a letter in French describing his new vision for their future, namely, that she abandon Vronsky and restore their marriage—at least in society’s eyes. He summons her back to Petersburg. He has the letter sent and goes to his study. He finds himself absorbed in a portrait of Anna and imagines her mocking him. In an attempt to out-maneuver his opponents trying to make a scandal out of the state of agriculture in Southern Russia, he embarks on a new government project to form a commission about the state of minorities in the Russian empire. He goes to bed content.

Anna is briefly relieved to have told Karenin the truth, but does not tell Vronsky about her revelation. She realizes she did not do this because she feels “hopeless” (287), as Karenin may retaliate and she doubts Vronsky’s dedication to her. She, unlike Karenin, cannot turn to God, as a true repentance would require giving up Vronsky. When the maid reminds Anna of her son, she imagines taking him and leaving. She briefly sees him, overcome with an indecision Tolstoy calls “things beginning to go double in her soul” (290). She writes to Karenin that she is taking their son away and packs for Moscow, deciding not to inform Vronsky.

Anna receives Karenin’s letter, angered by his moralizing. With horror, she recalls her former life, as loveless marriage was a betrayal of herself. Imagining life as Vronsky’s mistress and as social outcast, she begins to “weep as punished children weep” (292-93). Anna is particularly tortured knowing she has no custodial rights to her child unless she remains married to Karenin. She sends Karenin an acknowledgment of his letter, abandons her travel plans, and goes to Betsy’s to look for Vronsky.

At Betsy’s, a croquet party is in progress, and Anna invents a fictitious visit to an acquaintance as cover for meeting Vronsky. Betsy helps her by posting a letter for Vronsky, to which Anna adds the meeting place and time at the end. Betsy suggests Anna is merely too sober about her own life and the matter of marriage and fidelity—especially compared to others present at the party.

The narrative turns to Vronsky, who, like Oblonsky, has debts compounded by his generosity to his brother and his mother’s withdrawal of financial support due to his affair. He feels he is Anna’s protector and defender, and accepts Karenin’s right to duel him. But Anna’s pregnancy is more complicated than anything he has encountered. He decides Anna is more important than his ambitions, even as he might, like his friend Sepukhovskoy, rise to an exalted rank if he devoted himself to the military. This friend knows of Vronsky’s affair with Anna and does not, precisely, disapprove. Sepukhovskoy gently suggests that marriage is better for a man’s career than a legally ambiguous affair.

On his way to meet Anna, Vronsky feels pleased with his life and the professional compliments Sepukhovskoy has paid him; he joyfully takes in the passing landscape. Anna is serious and sober, telling Vronsky Karenin now knows the full truth. The narrator says Vronsky anticipates a duel, not knowing Anna is thinking instead of her custody dilemma. Anna notes that Vronsky is not inviting her to run away with him and becomes anxious and irritable, insisting he read Karenin’s note. She says she will return to Karenin, and sees the situation as unresolvable. Vronsky sees she is upset but cannot share her dread over the loss of her son.

Karenin returns home, finding his professional success marred by Anna’s arrival. He reminds her of her duty to avoid scandal, and is particularly offended when she asks if he still expects physical intimacy. He angrily assures her he does not, but that he does expect socially irreproachable conduct.

The narrative returns to Levin and his farm. Levin is newly distracted and frustrated with the peasants, and his constant struggle to get them to work with modern methods and at the pace and schedule he thinks best. He is irritable and no longer happy with his work, and preoccupied with thoughts of Kitty’s proximity. Levin is angry at the idea of being Kitty’s second choice, and considers the idea of showing her he has forgiven the past degrading to both of them.

On his journey to visit a neighbor and forget his past worries, Levin stops with a prosperous peasant family. He is impressed with the man’s results and techniques on his farm, and is told that free peasants working for a landlord never produce as well. Unlike his brother, Levin’s friend Sviyazsky does not idolize the peasants and considers Russia backwards, but he peacefully works with his peasants and participates in local office. This apparent set of contradictions is surprising yet admirable to Levin.

Levin agrees that the emancipation of the serfs has harmed profits and the entire countryside—especially the argument that reforms could only be introduced “by authority alone” (331), as in the Russian state itself. The men debate the state of peasant society and economics. Levin is disconcerted to realize that Sviyazhsky is content to explore questions without resolving them. Levin decides to try a new system on his own farm, and leaves early to test it. He decides farming must be in accordance with national character, which is why European methods will not work.

Levin’s new plan is to make all his workers take shares in the farm profits, but finds his workers do not trust him or have time to hear the proposals. Levin decides existing European views of politics and economics, including philosophy, do not apply to Russia, so he focuses on his new book about traditional national methods and how they operate. His housekeeper urges him to marry.

He is unhappy and relieved when a guest arrives. It is his brother Nikolai, clearly very ill, but determined to talk of moving to Moscow for a civil service post. Their meeting makes it clear to Levin that all of his projects mean nothing as he will eventually die. Levin despairs of what to say or do for Nikolai.

Because the brothers cannot honestly speak about what troubles them, they quarrel over Levin’s farming and his politics. Nikolai accuses Levin of being a socialist but lacking the conviction to truly become one. The two men part from each other with fondness. Levin resolves to go to Europe to research his book, feeling that his work is his only escape from his newfound dread of mortality.