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Anna and Karenin live together as though nothing were wrong.
Of course, Anna continues to see Vronsky, and Karenin knows it.
His one condition is that Vronsky never come to their house.
One night, however, Anna begs Vronsky to come while Karenin
is to be at a meeting. Karenin comes home unexpectedly, meets
Vronsky on his doorstep, and bows to him politely. But beneath
his polite exterior, he is boiling mad. Karenin tells Anna he
plans to divorce her and to arrange for Seriozha to be raised by
his aunt.
Soon after, Anna tells Vronsky she has had a dream that told
her she will soon die. It is the dream in which a small peasant
fumbles in a sack, muttering, near railway tracks. This dream
will recur throughout the rest of the novel.
Why do you think Anna first has the dream after Karenin tells
her they will divorce? What does divorce mean to Anna, and why
does she--even subconsciously--connect it to her death? You
might think back to the epigraph, and Tolstoy\'s insistence that
\"the bitter things come from God.\" Has Anna set in motion her
own destruction by transgressing God\'s commandments? You may
not be able to answer at this point in the book, but keep the
question in mind as you read.
The Oblonskys\' finances are as shaky as ever, but Stiva still
entertains his friends at restaurants and gives parties at his
home. At one of his get-togethers, Levin, who happens to be in
town, unexpectedly meets Kitty. He recognizes that she loves
him by the look in her eyes. He proposes to her, using secret
signals that only she understands.
Kitty and Levin are able to come together not because one
makes a declaration to the other, but because, as soon as they
see each other, they communicate their feelings by their
expressions, postures, and so forth. They relate to one another
intuitively.
Contrast this harmony between Levin and Kitty with the ways
in which words often bring Anna to cross purposes with Vronsky
as well as with Karenin.
Also contrast Anna\'s indecision--her inability to create a
clear situation for herself with either Vronsky or Karenin--with
Levin\'s clarity of feeling and decisive action with Kitty.
Levin asks formally for Kitty\'s hand, although the young
woman has already accepted him. The prince and princess are
both delighted. Take note that Kitty has brought her mother
around to her point of view on Levin.
Levin feels he must ask Kitty\'s forgiveness for the fact that
he is not a virgin. He gives her his diary, which recounts
certain episodes of his youth. She reads it and is horrified,
but in the end forgives him.
NOTE: Tolstoy places those women who seem cut out by nature
to be wives and mothers on a higher moral plane than other
women, to whom such roles in life might seem burdensome.
Levin\'s investing Kitty with the power to forgive and absolve
drives home Tolstoy\'s point. The gesture also serves to
underscore that marriage must be sanctified, that one must
prepare and cleanse oneself for it.
What do you think of Levin\'s confession to Kitty? Is this
something you would wish to do? Would you expect this of your
prospective husband or wife? Do you think Kitty should have
refused to read the diaries?
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