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Part 5, Chapter 27
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
Vronsky and Anna stay in separate hotel suites in Petersburg. Vronsky has been deluding himself regarding how Russian society will treat Anna. Although society will still receive Vronsky, everybody ostracizes Anna. Even those closest to her, like Betsy, refuse to speak with her until there is an official divorce. Vronsky hopes his sister-in-law, Varya, will visit Anna, but Varya refuses on grounds of societal impropriety. Vronsky and Anna spend their stay in Petersburg as though it is a foreign city. Karenin’s name seems to arise everywhere.
Upon Vronsky and Anna’s return to Petersburg, Anna no longer has a place in Petersburg society: any social clout she once held has come crashing down, now that her “secret” affair with Vronsky has been made public, and since she has explicitly flouted conventions, Anna has been shunned. Vronsky, on the other hand, is treated normally: men do not face the same stigma as women.
Themes
