91 pages • 3 hours read
Leo TolstoyAnna Karenina
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1879A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4, Chapters 1-12 Summary
Anna, Karenin, and Vronsky exist in a kind of holding pattern. The Karenins observe outward formalities but are otherwise totally estranged. Vronsky serves as a tour guide for a visiting prince and finds he is reminded of his own character; the narrator describes him as Vronsky’s “unpleasant mirror” (355).
Vronsky awakens from a nightmare of a peasant, similar to Anna’s earlier dream on the train to St. Petersburg. He goes to find Anna and accidentally meets Karenin in passing, lamenting that Karenin will not duel him. He tries to assure Anna of his devotion, as she is worried he has been unfaithful.
Vronsky dislikes Anna’s new tendency toward jealousy and he misses their early romance. Anna does an impression of Karenin and tells Vronsky her husband has no feelings, which is how he can endure their strange situation. Vronsky asks after Anna’s health and the coming birth of their child. Anna assures him she would be different and more at ease if she could openly be his partner. She tells him she will liberate him by dying in childbirth. The two discover to their mutual “horror” (361) that they have both dreamed of a peasant, who, for Anna, symbolizes her coming death. Anna has a brief moment of joy when she feels fetal movement.
Karenin is outraged he has met Vronsky, seeing this as a sign of Anna’s contempt for him; he resolves to seek a divorce and custody of his son. Karenin finds Anna and demands her letters from Vronsky, chastising her for living on his money but failing to observe his rules. He accuses her of having no regard for his “suffering” (364), and tells her he will take their son, who he no longer loves.
Karenin is uncomfortable with engaging in Russia’s new modern legal system. The lawyer explains divorce is only possible with proof of adultery. He explains that in most cases of adultery, the case arises by “mutual consent” (368); that is, both parties agree to expose themselves to the scandal, arranging for one spouse to be found unfaithful. He explains to Karenin letters are insufficient, and Karenin informs him he will decide later. During a stop in Moscow on business, he meets Oblonsky and Dolly, to whom he does not wish to speak of Anna or accept their invitation to dinner.
The narrative shifts to Oblonsky, who is combining leisure with errands. He visits his new mistress at the ballet and then shops for the planned dinner party, which will include Levin, Kitty, and Levin’s brother Sergei. Oblonsky is pleased to be combining noted intellects and political figures while engaging in matchmaking for his friend. He is somewhat anxious about his sister’s situation and the possibility that his new supervisor may be more demanding of him. Stiva stops at Levin’s hotel and learns Levin is still preoccupied with political philosophy and mortality. Levin agrees to come to dinner, privately curious about Kitty.
Karenin attends to some professional responsibilities and is newly resolved to pursue divorce. Oblonsky visits him at his hotel, and is stunned to hear of his plans to end his marriage and dissolve their social relationship. Oblonsky convinces him to not be hasty and to speak with Dolly; Karenin reluctantly agrees.
Stiva arrives home to find the conversation among his guests is at a standstill until he starts an argument between Sergei Koznyshev and Karenin about Polish policy. Levin arrives, overwhelmed at the prospect of seeing Kitty. Kitty is nervous but happy, and Levin tells her he saw her at a distance during her journey in the country. Kitty asks Levin about bear hunting, and his meeting with Karenin on the train. He sees in her manner that she cares for him and regrets her past refusal. They ignore the political debate and talk of more personal matters.
The men turn to discussing adultery law and how it privileges men, despite Oblonsky’s effort to prevent Karenin from engaging in the conversation since it closely concerns him. Karenin pretends to be unmoved by news of a recent duel. Dolly takes him aside and discusses her belief in Anna’s innocence. Karenin protests that Anna’s refusal to observe propriety shows she is beyond redemption. Karenin insists that forgiveness is impossible, ignoring Dolly’s appeals to religion, and leaves.
Part 4, Chapters 13-23 Summary
Levin and Kitty discuss the pointless nature of the intellectual arguments in which the other guests are engaged. They decide that the key is to understand what truly inspires another person’s feelings and motivations. They play a spelling game in chalk where she tells him she wants to forget their past and move on. He assures her of his devotion, and she realizes he has proposed; tomorrow, he will tell her parents that they will marry.
Levin, overjoyed, does not speak of his new plans. He accompanies Sergei to a political meeting. Levin is kindly disposed toward everyone there. Levin stays up all night, even talking with the hotel’s night watchman. He rises too early to call on Kitty or her parents, and wanders through the city, full of love for all men. Finally, he arrives, knowing the Scherbatsky servants are pleased for him. Kitty hears him arrive and they embrace.
Her parents give them their blessing, and Levin is filled with affection. He is unable to realistically speak of wedding preparations, eventually accepting they cannot marry the next day. Kitty is briefly dismayed when Levin forces her to read his diary. She is not concerned with his confession of atheism, but by his past with other women. Levin continues to feel Kitty is a morally superior being.
The narrative shifts to Karenin, unhappy of recent reminders of his situation. He receives a telegram from Anna that she is dying, and he assumes this is an elaborate ruse. He decides, however, that he must verify for himself, as to deny her the forgiveness requested in the telegram would mean “everybody would condemn [him], and it would be stupid on [his] part” (410).
He briefly wishes for Anna’s death as a solution to his problems. He arrives to find she is ill and asking for him, as the baby was born yesterday. He finds a weeping Vronsky at the bedside. Anna deliriously babbles, recalling that both men in her life share a first name. She begs Karenin’s forgiveness and also speaking as though she has lived as two women: one of whom was the adulteress who loves Vronsky. She forces the two men to meet and hold hands, begging forgiveness for them both and calling Karenin a “saint” (412). Karenin tells Vronsky all his thoughts of vengeance are gone.
Vronsky leaves feeling that Karenin’s new posture has made him the weaker party, the lesser man who can make no claims to goodness. He dreads the prospect of Anna’s death, forgetting their earlier arguments. He attempts to shoot himself, but is found by a servant and brought to a doctor.
Karenin realizes he has a new dilemma: He has forgiven Anna, but she has survived, leaving him living with a woman who does not want to remain married. He even comes to love Anna’s baby, despite knowing it is Vronsky’s. Karenin knows he is a figure of mockery. Left alone with Karenin, Anna finds every aspect of his presence difficult. She weeps at remaining alive. Karenin, considering his position, reflects that his peers seem to expect something different than his new forgiving approach, which would even allow the affair to continue if he were not subject to gossip. He sees “he would be forced to do what was bad but seemed to them the proper thing” (425).
Oblonsky arrives in Petersburg and meets Betsy, informing her he is trying to arrange Anna’s divorce. Betsy tells him that Karenin’s middle path is making Anna’s anguish more intense. Finding Anna, she explains that Karenin’s generosity stings, as she has come to “hate him for his magnanimity” (427). Anna hints that she is still suicidal, and Stiva attempts to soothe her. He tells her it is not her fault she entered into a loveless marriage without realizing what else was possible, and assures her he will do his best to arrange a divorce.
Stiva goes to Karenin, who hands him a letter, insisting that Anna must choose. Stiva tells him he should pursue divorce, but this seems impossible to Karenin, as he would have to invent adultery on his part or expose Anna, and he is trying to let go of his former anger. He tells himself he would be “casting her into perdition” (431), that is, giving her a future with Vronsky, who he feels certain will abandon her. Stiva, too, feels self-congratulatory, thinking he has settled matters.
The narrative turns to Vronsky, recovering from his injury. He assures his sister-in-law he will not attempt to die by suicide again, and feels deep despair thinking Anna no longer loves him. He initially resolves to leave for Tashkent without seeing Anna, but when Betsy tells him Karenin will allow a divorce, he rushes to her. She and Vronsky passionately reunite, deciding to go to Italy. Vronsky does not understand why Anna even mentions what will happen to her son, or her decision to abandon divorce, as he is concentrating only on their “reunion” (435). Vronsky resigns from the military and Anna goes to Europe with him, leaving her son with Karenin.
Part 4 Analysis
This part features an episode of domestic harmony—Levin’s engagement to Kitty—which is likely meant to contrast with Anna’s increasingly fraught situation and tense relationships with both the men in her life. Karenin drives much of the action in this part. At the beginning of this part, he submits to the fullness of his rage with Anna, and both are so alienated from one another that she does not even try to explain to him that his encounter with Vronsky was accidental—not a conscious desire to thwart him.
Karenin continues to reproach himself, however unconsciously, for his inability to duel Vronsky. He fears both physical and social death, as no exit from his marriage other than Anna’s death is truly appealing to him. It is somewhat difficult for the reader to interpret Karenin’s abrupt change of mood— he is ready to believe Anna is faking her death, then suddenly forgives her and even accepts Vronsky’s presence in his home. Yet even during his moral transformation, Karenin does not repent of his loathing for his son, who he regards as a pawn in his original divorce plan.
Karenin seems convinced his changed attitude toward Anna is a spiritual encounter at work, exalted by the new depths of love he finds. Yet he also uses religion to justify keeping Anna legally bound to him: He persuades himself he is her spiritual protector even when she does not wish to be in the same room, or, eventually, the same country. Betsy suggests Karenin could more decisively act—demand his marriage be restored or choose divorce—and he chooses his vision of holiness over a more certain future.
For his part, Vronsky remains unprepared for fatherhood. His encounter with the visiting prince reminds him of his own immaturity and easy life of leisure; he seems momentarily tempted to discard Anna, whose jealousy of his freedom and fears about his fidelity make him uneasy and unhappy. Yet he and Anna learn they have the same disturbing nightmare: a mumbling peasant who seems to remind them both of death. Anna dreams of the peasant in Part One on a train journey that marks her impetus of temptation. Vronsky’s dream comes just as he is, perhaps, falling out of love, and Anna openly speaks of her own death. Both of them are reminded that their affair may bring forth a new life—their daughter—but will possibly doom them both to more suffering. A broken man, Vronsky weeps at the prospect of Anna’s death in childbirth, no longer the figure Karenin fears dueling. He fails to die by suicide, which may be read as failure to live up to his own moral code and expectations of himself. He abandons the military for Anna—perhaps another death of masculinity.
Though he remains fundamentally unchanged, Oblonsky serves a key narrative piece in this part of the novel, since he is the bridge between the two halves of the narrative: Levin’s and Anna’s. He knows that for Levin and Kitty, marriage is happiness, so he brings them together at his dinner party which results in their happy engagement. Yet at the same dinner, he confronts the reality of Anna’s situation, bringing Dolly and Karenin together to learn the truth of the brewing tragedy. Oblonsky presents divorce as a salvation for both Anna and Karenin, though his vision does not transpire. Levin returns from Europe, still preoccupied with mortality, yet newly able to embrace his dream of marriage. He resents practical details, seeing only his grand romance. Where marriage has made Karenin angry and cynical, Levin is more open and gentler toward others as he decides to embrace Kitty in matrimony. His decision to open his entire past to her starkly contrasts to both the men in Anna’s life. Where they do not understand her or fully explain themselves, Levin makes himself an open book. Kitty, like Dolly, is stunned to learn of his sexual past, yet this does not mar her love for him nor their future together.
Anna is more reactive at this stage of her life, knowing her child’s birth will change things. Her delirious ramblings suggest she understands some truths about her life even if she avoids them: The men in her life share a first name, and her adultery has somehow divided her nature and irrevocably changed her. The fact that she turns to Oblonsky during her time of struggle underscores her departure from traditional morality and her embrace of a kind of radical domestic vision—much like his where he pursues mistresses while remaining married. Anna’s loath of Karenin is understandable, even as Tolstoy takes pains to establish that Vronsky is not necessarily the better partner. He is outside her moment of bliss as she feels their daughter move, and does not understand why she still thinks of her son or her legal situation as they prepare to leave for Europe.
Since she chooses Vronsky over her son, Anna essentially determines a temporary resolution of the dilemma that has haunted her since their affair began. After Levin and Kitty, she is the third character to leave for Europe. By this point Tolstoy has already indicated the continent’s function in the novel: Characters go there and learn things about themselves, but they always return to Russia.
This is one of the novel’s rare sections were all of the action takes place in either Moscow or St. Petersburg. Anna belongs to the capitals, and even Levin must go there to pursue marriage with a woman of his own class who meets his idealistic demands of a wife.
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By Leo Tolstoy
