Vronsky’s conversation with Anna at the country house
is the first hint at a decline in the intimacy of their relations.
For the first time in the novel we are aware of Vronsky having a
thought that he fails to share with Anna—his memory of Serpukhovskoy’s
warning about the dangerous effects of women on men’s ambition.
Tolstoy heightens the drama of this moment at the country house
by showing us Vronsky’s thought and then telling us of his inability
to communicate it to Anna. Serpukhovskoy’s advice itself is not
necessarily valid, for Anna has proved herself a capable wife to
the extremely ambitious Karenin. What is more important is that
the advice cannot be shared, which signals the formation of a boundary
between Vronsky’s mind and Anna’s. As the novel progresses, this
boundary becomes increasingly insurmountable and foreshadows the
end of their union. Another hint of a bleak future comes in Vronsky’s
reference to Anna’s “humiliation,” a very public form of shame.
Anna rightly rejects this term, saying she does not feel humiliation.
She is aware only of love, a private emotion. Vronsky’s focus on
humiliation suggests that he feels beholden to the pressure of social
values—a pressure that represents a clear danger to their love.
Just as Vronsky’s rationality comes as a surprise, so
do Levin’s thoughts of mortality and of his own death. Though Levin
is a healthy and vigorous man ablaze with future plans, Tolstoy
has him meditate on death for several reasons. First, Levin’s thoughts
reveal his deep empathy with his critically ill brother. Like Anna,
Levin is unable to distance himself from the suffering of anyone
close to him. Second, Levin’s reflections on mortality endow him
with a wise humility that other characters, such as Karenin and
even Vronsky, lack. Levin is no frailer than they, yet some vainglorious
quality about those other men makes it hard to imagine either of
them contemplating his own demise. Even Vronsky, who has come near
death in the horse race, has not let the experience noticeably alter
his views. Levin is different: his closeness to his ailing brother
causes him to realize and accept his human nature and limited life
span. Finally, Levin’s thoughts of death align him with Anna, who
thinks about death the first moment we meet her, after the casualty
in the train station. Levin and Anna are linked not only in the
intensity of their lives but also in their recognition of the closeness
of death.
