Anna Karenina Society and Class Quotes Page 7
Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph). We used Constance Garnett's translation in the "Quotes" section, but referred to Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's translation in other parts of the guide.
| Quote #19 "Divorce, you mean?" said Anna. "Do you know, the only woman who came to see me in Petersburg was Betsy Tverskaya? You know her, of course? At bottom she's the most depraved woman in existence. She had an affair with Tushkevitch, deceiving her husband in the basest way. And she told me that she did not care to know me so long as my position was irregular. (6.23.20) |
Princess Betsy lives a false life, and is accepted by society. Anna is frustrated that Betsy can get away with adultery through deceit, while she herself is ostracized as a result of being honest and making her love public.
| Quote #20 In solitude afterwards, thinking over that glance which had expressed his right to freedom, she came, as she always did, to the same point – the sense of her own humiliation. "He has the right to go away when and where he chooses. Not simply to go away, but to leave me. He has every right, and I have none. But knowing that, he ought not to do it." (6.32.2) |
One of the biggest conflicts in Vronsky and Anna's relationship is that he's free to go about in society, and she is not. In other words, he can basically keep up the same lifestyle, while her life is irreversibly changed. Would Vronsky have been able to endure the complete social isolation that Anna suffers?
| Quote #21 [Kitty:] "Put on your frock coat, so that you can go straight to call on Countess Bola." |
Levin feels uncomfortable paying social calls, in part because the interactions seem so superficial to him.
