Anna Karenina

Quotes

Part Four

Part Four opens and closes by describing the way everyone involved in Anna's love triangle is experiencing a loss of will, and simultaneously giving way to irrational behavior for the sake of love (though there are as many loves involved as their are hearts).

Here's the opening, which shows how absurd everyone's inaction is:

The situation was distressing for all three of them; not one of them could have lived through a single day in this situation if it were not for the expectation that it would change, that it was only a painful temporary ordeal that would pass away. Karenin was waiting for this passion to pass away, as everything does, for everyone to forget about it, and for his name to cease being dishonored. Anna, on whom the situation depended and for whom it was more painful than for anyone else, endured it because not only did she expect, she felt absolutely certain thtat soon it would all be settled and cleared up. She had no idea at all of what was going to settle it, but she was absolutely sure that whatever it was it was going to happen very soon. Vronsky, obedient to her in spite of himself, was also expecting something independent of himself that was sure to clear away all the difficulties.

Part 4 Chapter 1, p. 425

and by the time the chapter closes, Tolstoy has returned to Vronsky and Anna, where he closes Part 4 with a bookend passage in which we see exhibited more irrational behavior, this time when Anna and Vronsky go abroad to live in Italy, without Anna getting a divorce from Karenin:

According to Vronsky's previous views it would have been shameful and impossible to refuse the flattering, dangerous post in Tashkent. But now, without a moment's hesitation, he refused it, and noticing that his superiors disapproved of his action he resigned at once.

A month later Karenin was left alone in the house with his son, while Anna and Vronsky went abroad; they had not received a divorce, having firmly refused it.

Part 4 Chapter 23, p. 522

Here's a brilliant passage describing Vronsky's (Anna's lover) accidental encounter with Karenin (Anna's husband) at Karenin's house, on his way to see Anna there:

The door opened and the hall porter with a rug on his arm called the carriage. Vronsky wasn't used to noticing details, but now he noticed the expression of surprise with which the hall porter looked at him. In the very doorway he almost collided with Karenin. The gaslight fell directly on Karenin's bloodless, worn face under his black hat, and the white necktie gleaming against the beaver collar of his coat. Karenin's motionless, dull eyes were fastened on Vronsky's face. Vronsky bowed, and Karenin, pressing his lips together, raised a hand to his hat and passed by.

Part 4 Chapter 1, p. 428

Part Six

When Dolly goes to see Anna, and decides to leave early, there's a passage describing Anna's sadness:

Only Anna felt sad. She knew that with Dolly gone there would be no one to stir up in her soul those feelings that had shown themselves during their talk. It was painful for her to have these feelings stirred up; nevertheless she knew that these were the best part of her soul and that this part of her soul was quickly becoming smothered by the life she was leading.

Part 6, Chapter 24, p. 768

The lives we lead can kill off old parts of our selves. This is what's happening to Anna, by living in emotional prisons. She becomes emotionally trapped in her relationship with her husband Karenin, and escapes with her lover Vronsky; but now she is experiencing emotional imprisonment in the relationship with Vronsky. She begins to hide her emotions from Vronsky the same way she hid her emotions from Karenin. They begin to feel a sense that things cannot continue as they are, and that some major change must take place, just as, at the beginning of Part Four, everyone in the love triangle has the same sense, that something must change, but no one is able to act to bring about changes.

There's further mystery about her divorce, which Anna refuses before departing abroad at the end of Part Four. This mystery continues throughout much of the book. Why isn't she getting a divorce, and when will it happen? It is as if she's trying to perpetuate some feeling of rebellion or spark of illicitness in her relationship with Vronsky, to kindle desire, which is why she does not divorce Karenin, keeping the legal status of her marriage questionable. But it seems completely illogical.

As Anna might put it: "It is very simple; I'm married to Alexis."

Part Seven

In Part 7, the two main characters, Levin and Anna, finally meet. The meeting is interesting because of the way it highlights how easily Levin becomes sucked in by superficiality; we don't realize until after the meeting that Anna is toying with Levin to prove to herself that she can still command the attention of men. She then wonders why she can't command Vronsky's attention:

But though she liked [Levin] very much [...], the moment he left the room she stopped thinking about him.

There was one thought and one thought only that in different forms pursued her implacably. If I have this effect on others, on that loving husband and family man, why is it that he's so cold toward me? Not coldness; he loves me, I'm sure of it. But there's something new now that divides us.

Part 7, Chapter 12, p. 842

She is essentially asking herself, if I could have an honest fellow in a happy marriage wrapped around my little finger, ready to be seduced, why can't I attract Vronsky's attention?

The parallels between Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Dostoyevsky's The Idiot are remarkable. In one sense it is almost like they are sharing characters and plot details (AK was published about a decade after TI, so it is possible). But the parallels between Levin's meeting with Anna (Anna Karenina) and Myshkin's meeting with Nastassya (The Idiot) are abound. One of the most significant, I think, is Levin's initial impression after leaving his meeting with Anna:

What a wonderful, sweet, pathetic woman, thought Levin as he went out into the frosty air with Oblonsky.

Part 7, Chapter 11, p. 839

One of the chief characteristics of the love Myshkin feels for Nastassya is the pity he feels for her; likewise, Levin's love for Anna is fed by his feelings of pity for her situation.