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“It isn’t right… You will never respect me any more.”
Anna delivers this line to Dmitri shortly after they have begun their affair. Here, she questions Dmitri and claims that he cannot possibly respect her after she has slept with him and been unfaithful to her husband. This line highlights Anna’s innocence and her moral code because she is consumed with guilt over what she has done and is confident that her actions will reflect poorly on her character.
“My husband is no doubt an honest, worthy man, but he’s a flunkey. I don’t know what it is he does at his office, but I know he’s a flunkey. I was only twenty when I married him, and I was devoured by curiosity, I wanted something higher. I told myself that there must be a different kind of life. I wanted to live, to live. . . . I was burning with curiosity . . . you’ll never understand that, but I swear to God I could no longer control myself, nothing could hold me back, I told my husband I was ill, and I came here. . . . And I started going about like one possessed, like a madwoman . . . and now I have become an ordinary, worthless woman, and everyone has the right to despise me.”
Here, Anna attempts to justify why her husband drove her into Dmitri’s arms. She expresses how unhappy she is with her husband and how she tried to be faithful to him until she physically could not take it anymore. It is worth mentioning that while Anna is explaining to Dmitri why she did what she did, she never excuses her behavior. Instead, she refers to herself as a “worthless,” out of control “madwoman” who is not deserving of anybody's respect or kindness.
