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Part 3, Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Anna Karenina, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Marriage and Family Life
Adultery and Jealousy
Physical Activity and Movement
Society and Class
Farming and Rural Life
Compassion and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
Even though Vronsky appears to be a frivolous social gadabout, he actually keeps his affairs in scrupulous order, and to do so, he goes into seclusion about five times a year and straightens out all his accounts. According to the in-depth explication of Vronsky’s financial situation, he is in debt. Moreover, his mother has been withholding money, because she does not approve of his affair with Anna. Instead of asking his mother for money, he resolves to borrow money from a moneylender and to sell his racehorses.
Although Vronsky is treated in much of the novel as a fairly stereotypical handsome rake, he does have an extremely scrupulous, calculating, businesslike side, much like Karenin himself. Tolstoy never allows the reader to come as close to Vronsky as to Anna: his motives remain somewhat opaque throughout.
Themes
