Anna Karenina

Media Type
Fictional Character
Parent Resource
Link
Media
Type Relevance
T&W
4w3
Trifix
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Stacking
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Entry Date
Jun 8, 2022 2:27 AM
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Public Domain
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Trifix+Overlay

4w3... really on the line, but core 4 seems stronger.

  • admired for her beauty and charm; her quick, skillful, feminine movements; her cultivated demeanor
  • Convinces Dolly to stay with Stepan after he cheats, with the social skillfulness and slippery nonchalance characteristic (3-ish polish) of her early on in the novel
  • goes mad with with jealousy, in love with Vronsky, a shamed society woman, loses all her friends, has no way out

"Yes, especially as I can’t stay very long with you. I’m forced to go on to old Madame Vrede. I’ve been promising to go for a century," said Anna, to whom lying, alien as it was to her nature, had become not merely simple and natural in society, but a positive source of satisfaction. Why she said this, which she had not thought of a second before, she could not have explained. She had said it simply from the reflection that as Vronsky would not be here, she had better secure her own freedom, and try to see him somehow. But why she had spoken of old Madame Vrede, whom she had to go and see, as she had to see many other people, she could not have explained; and yet, as it afterwards turned out, had she contrived the most cunning devices to meet Vronsky, she could have thought of nothing better.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (p. 304). Kindle Edition.

Vronsky gave a hardly perceptible shrug. He was at a complete loss to understand what Anna was about. What had she brought the old Princess Oblonskaya home for, what had she made Tushkevitch stay to dinner for, and, most amazing of all, why was she sending him for a box? Could she possibly think in her position of going to Patti’s benefit, where all the circle of her acquaintances would be? He looked at her with serious eyes, but she responded with that defiant, half-mirthful, half-desperate look, the meaning of which he could not comprehend. At dinner Anna was in aggressively high spirits—she almost flirted both with Tushkevitch and with Yashvin. When they got up from dinner and Tushkevitch had gone to get a box at the opera, Yashvin went to smoke, and Vronsky went down with him to his own rooms. After sitting there for some time he ran upstairs. Anna was already dressed in a low-necked gown of light silk and velvet that she had had made in Paris, and with costly white lace on her head, framing her face, and particularly becoming, showing up her dazzling beauty. "Are you really going to the theater?" he said, trying not to look at her. "Why do you ask with such alarm?" she said, wounded again at his not looking at her. "Why shouldn’t I go?" She appeared not to understand the motive of his words. "Oh, of course, there’s no reason whatever," he said, frowning. "That’s just what I say," she said, willfully refusing to see the irony of his tone, and quietly turning back her long, perfumed glove. "Anna, for God’s sake! what is the matter with you?" he said, appealing to her exactly as once her husband had done. "I don’t understand what you are asking." "You know that it’s out of the question to go." "Why so? I’m not going alone. Princess Varvara has gone to dress, she is going with me." He shrugged his shoulders with an air of perplexity and despair. "But do you mean to say you don’t know?..." he began. "But I don’t care to know!" she almost shrieked. "I don’t care to. Do I regret what I have done? No, no, no! If it were all to do again from the beginning, it would be the same. For us, for you and for me, there is only one thing that matters, whether we love each other. Other people we need not consider. Why are we living here apart and not seeing each other? Why can’t I go? I love you, and I don’t care for anything," she said in Russian, glancing at him with a peculiar gleam in her eyes that he could not understand. "If you have not changed to me, why don’t you look at me?" He looked at her. He saw all the beauty of her face and full dress, always so becoming to her. But now her beauty and elegance were just what irritated him. "My feeling cannot change, you know, but I beg you, I entreat you," he said again in French, with a note of tender supplication in his voice, but with coldness in his eyes. She did not hear his words, but she saw the coldness of his eyes, and answered with irritation: "And I beg you to explain why I should not go." "Because it might cause you..." he hesitated. "I don’t understand. Yashvin n’est pas compromettant, and Princess Varvara is no worse than others. Oh, here she is!"

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (pp. 545-546). Kindle Edition.

Anna was not embarrassed now. She was perfectly composed and at ease. Dolly saw that she had now completely recovered from the impression her arrival had made on her, and had assumed that superficial, careless tone which, as it were, closed the door on that compartment in which her deeper feelings and ideas were kept.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (pp. 618-619). Kindle Edition.

Only Anna was sad. She knew that now, from Dolly’s departure, no one again would stir up within her soul the feelings that had been roused by their conversation. It hurt her to stir up these feelings, but yet she knew that that was the best part of her soul, and that that part of her soul would quickly be smothered in the life she was leading.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (p. 642). Kindle Edition.

Vronsky and Anna spent the whole summer and part of the winter in the country, living in just the same condition, and still taking no steps to obtain a divorce. It was an understood thing between them that they should not go away anywhere; but both felt, the longer they lived alone, especially in the autumn, without guests in the house, that they could not stand this existence, and that they would have to alter it. Their life was apparently such that nothing better could be desired. They had the fullest abundance of everything; they had a child, and both had occupation. Anna devoted just as much care to her appearance when they had no visitors, and she did a great deal of reading, both of novels and of what serious literature was in fashion. She ordered all the books that were praised in the foreign papers and reviews she received, and read them with that concentrated attention which is only given to what is read in seclusion. Moreover, every subject that was of interest to Vronsky, she studied in books and special journals, so that he often went straight to her with questions relating to agriculture or architecture, sometimes even with questions relating to horse-breeding or sport. He was amazed at her knowledge, her memory, and at first was disposed to doubt it, to ask for confirmation of her facts; and she would find what he asked for in some book, and show it to him.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (p. 643). Kindle Edition.

She heard Vronsky’s abrupt ring and hurriedly dried her tears—not only dried her tears, but sat down by a lamp and opened a book, affecting composure. She wanted to show him that she was displeased that he had not come home as he had promised—displeased only, and not on any account to let him see her distress, and least of all, her self-pity. She might pity herself, but he must not pity her. She did not want strife, she blamed him for wanting to quarrel, but unconsciously put herself into an attitude of antagonism.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (p. 701). Kindle Edition.

"Well, was it nice?" she asked, coming out to meet him with a penitent and meek expression. "Just as usual," he answered, seeing at a glance that she was in one of her good moods. He was used by now to these transitions, and he was particularly glad to see it today, as he was in a specially good humor himself. "What do I see? Come, that’s good!" he said, pointing to the boxes in the passage. "Yes, we must go. I went out for a drive, and it was so fine I longed to be in the country. There’s nothing to keep you, is there?" "It’s the one thing I desire. I’ll be back directly, and we’ll talk it over; I only want to change my coat. Order some tea." And he went into his room. There was something mortifying in the way he had said "Come, that’s good," as one says to a child when it leaves off being naughty, and still more mortifying was the contrast between her penitent and his self-confident tone; and for one instant she felt the lust of strife rising up in her again, but making an effort she conquered it, and met Vronsky as good-humoredly as before.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (p. 737). Kindle Edition.

"Yes ... oh, no, wait a minute! The day after tomorrow’s Sunday, I have to be at maman’s," said Vronsky, embarrassed, because as soon as he uttered his mother’s name he was aware of her intent, suspicious eyes. His embarrassment confirmed her suspicion. She flushed hotly and drew away from him. It was now not the Queen of Sweden’s swimming-mistress who filled Anna’s imagination, but the young Princess Sorokina. She was staying in a village near Moscow with Countess Vronskaya. "Can’t you go tomorrow?" she said. "Well, no! The deeds and the money for the business I’m going there for I can’t get by tomorrow," he answered. "If so, we won’t go at all." "But why so?" "I shall not go later. Monday or never!" "What for?" said Vronsky, as though in amazement. "Why, there’s no meaning in it!" "There’s no meaning in it to you, because you care nothing for me. You don’t care to understand my life. The one thing that I cared for here was Hannah. You say it’s affectation. Why, you said yesterday that I don’t love my daughter, that I love this English girl, that it’s unnatural. I should like to know what life there is for me that could be natural!" For an instant she had a clear vision of what she was doing, and was horrified at how she had fallen away from her resolution. But even though she knew it was her own ruin, she could not restrain herself, could not keep herself from proving to him that he was wrong, could not give way to him.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (pp. 738-739). Kindle Edition.

^ Showing her 4 wing here, being taken over by her very strong emotion

"You don’t love your mother. That’s all talk, and talk, and talk!" she said, looking at him with hatred in her eyes. "Even if so, you must..." "Must decide, and I have decided," she said, and she would have gone away, but at that moment Yashvin walked into the room. Anna greeted him and remained. Why, when there was a tempest in her soul, and she felt she was standing at a turning point in her life, which might have fearful consequences—why, at that minute, she had to keep up appearances before an outsider, who sooner or later must know it all—she did not know. But at once quelling the storm within her, she sat down and began talking to their guest. "Well, how are you getting on? Has your debt been paid you?" she asked Yashvin.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (p. 744). Kindle Edition.

^ As she disintegrates, and goes mad with jealousy, becomes more provocative and in the style of 4s. But then soon as another walks in, the mask goes on from her 3 wing. 3

Never before had a day been passed in quarrel. Today was the first time. And this was not a quarrel. It was the open acknowledgment of complete coldness. Was it possible to glance at her as he had glanced when he came into the room for the guarantee?—to look at her, see her heart was breaking with despair, and go out without a word with that face of callous composure? He was not merely cold to her, he hated her because he loved another woman—that was clear. And remembering all the cruel words he had said, Anna supplied, too, the words that he had unmistakably wished to say and could have said to her, and she grew more and more exasperated. "I won’t prevent you," he might say. "You can go where you like. You were unwilling to be divorced from your husband, no doubt so that you might go back to him. Go back to him. If you want money, I’ll give it to you. How many roubles do you want?" All the most cruel words that a brutal man could say, he said to her in her imagination, and she could not forgive him for them, as though he had actually said them. "But didn’t he only yesterday swear he loved me, he, a truthful and sincere man? Haven’t I despaired for nothing many times already?" she said to herself afterwards. All that day, except for the visit to Wilson’s, which occupied two hours, Anna spent in doubts whether everything were over or whether there were still hope of reconciliation, whether she should go away at once or see him once more. She was expecting him the whole day, and in the evening, as she went to her own room, leaving a message for him that her head ached, she said to herself, "If he comes in spite of what the maid says, it means that he loves me still. If not, it means that all is over, and then I will decide what I’m to do!..." In the evening she heard the rumbling of his carriage stop at the entrance, his ring, his steps and his conversation with the servant; he believed what was told him, did not care to find out more, and went to his own room. So then everything was over. And death rose clearly and vividly before her mind as the sole means of bringing back love for her in his heart, of punishing him and of gaining the victory in that strife which the evil spirit in possession of her heart was waging with him.

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: Illustrated (The Evergreen Classics) (pp. 745-746). Kindle Edition.

^ 4. Fantasy and imagination stirring and intensifying, cementing feelings. And this push away with the secret hope that he comes after her, even after all the damage she has caused, the storm of needles he must walk through, and she will take it as a sign that he doesn’t love her if he obeys her