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Like Dmitri, Anna also goes through an impressive transformation over the course of the story. Initially the epitome of gentrified morality—she worries that Dmitri no longer respects her after they became lovers—Anna soon realizes that she would sacrifice everything to be with the man with whom she has fallen in love. Anna is consistently described as an innocent young woman throughout the story. Chekhov is quick to link Anna’s youth to her innocence, implying that her naïveté is, in part, attributed to her lack of experience in the real world. Anna is the very antithesis of her lover; her innocence and her youth can be juxtaposed with Dmitri’s advanced age and experience with deception. This contrast is particularly highlighted during the many instances in which Anna laments that Dmitri must think less of her since she betrayed her husband. These scenes are slightly ironic because Dmitri is a serial adulterer who does not understand why Anna is so upset by the recent turn of events. However, over the course of the story, Anna’s loneliness climbs to such an extreme that she is willing to fully abandon the principles that she was initially so desperate to cling to. She agrees to come to Moscow every few months to continue the affair even though she was initially keen for it to end. As a result, Anna’s plight is meant to represent the many women who sought liberation after they found themselves trapped within the confines of the domestic sphere.
