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Part 5, Chapter 13
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
After being married for three months, Levin is happy, but the reality of marriage is nothing like the way he’d imagined it, which was as nothing but the enjoyment of love. But Kitty, like Levin, needs to work, and she hurls herself into domestic tasks. He and his old servants chuckle at her zeal. Kitty and Levin quarrel often and over extremely small things, which tortures him. However, after three months, things are beginning to run more smoothly.
Levin has to learn how to live in the real world again, not in the state of a constant paroxysm of emotion—being passionately in love is terrific, but it’s not a sustainable way to live. Levin must also adjust his way of life to work with the rhythms of another human being. He is comfortable with the state of being in love, and he is comfortable living alone, but living permanently with a partner takes adjustments.
Themes
