Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication Symbol in Anna Karenina

For all of the novel’s verbosity, Tolstoy ultimately distrusts language, believing that actions speak louder than words. When Levin proposes to Kitty, they have such a deep connection that they do not even need to speak the words: he presents her with a code, and she replies in kind. In contrast, Anna and Karenin send letters back and forth about the divorce, but each written correspondence only heightens their failed communication. Anna also writes hectic notes to Vronsky with increasing frequency as their relationship disintegrates. The language in which characters speak also indicates their level of hypocrisy: when people want to pretend they’re members of high society, they speak in French, the intellectual and cultural language of Western society, rather than in their own native Russian. Tolstoy’s distrust in the written word is also apparent with Levin’s book project: although Levin spends a great deal of time writing about the state of the Russian peasant, agriculture, and humanity in general, he ultimately realizes that attending to his own family’s needs and dealing with the practical, pragmatic, physical considerations of his individual life are more important than writing about grand philosophical concerns.

Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication Quotes in Anna Karenina

The Anna Karenina quotes below all refer to the symbol of Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Anna Arkadyevna read and understood, but it was unpleasant for her to read, that is, to follow the reflection of other people’s lives. She wanted too much to live herself.

Related Characters: Anna Arkadyevna Karenina

Related Symbols: Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication

Page Number and Citation: 100

Explanation and Analysis:

“Don’t you know that you are my whole life? But I know no peace and cannot give you any. All of myself, my love...yes. I cannot think of you and myself separately. You and I are one for me. And I do not see the possibility of peace ahead either for me or for you. I see the possibility of despair, of unhappiness... or I see the possibility of happiness, such happiness!...Isn’t it possible?” he added with his lips only; but she heard him.

Related Characters: Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky (speaker), Anna Arkadyevna Karenina

Related Symbols: Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication

Page Number and Citation: 139

Explanation and Analysis:

She strained all the forces of her mind to say what she ought to say; but instead she rested her eyes on him, filled with love, and made no answer.

Related Characters: Anna Arkadyevna Karenina

Related Symbols: Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication

Page Number and Citation: 140

Explanation and Analysis:

“Not a word more,” she repeated, and with an expression of cold despair on her face, which he found strange, she left him. She felt that at that moment she could not put into words her feeling of shame, joy, and horror before this entry into a new life, and she did not want to speak of it, to trivialize this feeling with imprecise words. But later, too, the next day and the day after that, she not only found no words in which she could express all the complexity of these feelings, but was unable even to find thoughts in which she could reflect with herself on all that was in her soul.

Related Characters: Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (speaker), Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky

Related Symbols: Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication

Page Number and Citation: 150

Explanation and Analysis:

“What was that? What? What was that terrible thing I saw in my dream? Yes, yes. The muzhik tracker, I think, small, dirty, with a disheveled beard, was bending down and doing something, and he suddenly said some strange words in French. Yes that’s all there was to the dream,” he said to himself. “But why was it so horrible?”

Related Characters: Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky (speaker)

Related Symbols: Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication, Dreams and Spiritualism

Page Number and Citation: 355

Explanation and Analysis:

“And this something turned, and I saw it was a muzhik with a disheveled beard, small and frightening. I wanted to run away, but he bent over a sack and rummaged in it with his hands...” And she showed how he rummaged in the sack. There was horror on her face. And Vronsky, recalling his dream, felt the same horror filling his soul.

Related Characters: Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (speaker), Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky

Related Symbols: Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication, Dreams and Spiritualism

Page Number and Citation: 361

Explanation and Analysis:

“Here,” he said, and wrote the initial letters: w, y, a, m: t, c, b, d, i, m, n, o, t? These letters meant: “When you answered me: ‘that cannot be,’ did it mean never or then?” ... She wrote, t, I, c, g, n, o, a ... And he wrote three letters. But she was reading after his hand, and before he finished writing, she finished it herself and wrote the answer: “Yes.”

Related Characters: Konstantin (Kostya) Dmitrich Levin (speaker), Princess Katerina (Kitty) Alexandrovna Shcherbatsky (speaker)

Related Symbols: Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication

Page Number and Citation: 397-398

Explanation and Analysis:

“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be. But if you don’t love me, it would be better to say so.”

Related Characters: Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (speaker), Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky

Related Symbols: Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication

Page Number and Citation: 744

Explanation and Analysis:

Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication Symbol Timeline in Anna Karenina

The timeline below shows where the symbol Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication appears in Anna Karenina. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...is happy to see Oblonsky. Oblonsky orders an elaborate meal, speaking in Russian rather than French. Though Levin eats the meal, he would have been more comfortable with plain bread and... (full context)

Physical Activity and Movement Theme Icon

...him, but he continues to keep up his work on the farm. He receives a letter saying that his brother Nikolai is ill, and Levin persuades Nikolai to go to a... (full context)

...both know that he is also going to visit Anna. First, however, Vronsky reads a letter from his mother reproaching him for not visiting and a note from his brother that... (full context)

...warns him to be calm before the race. In the carriage ride, Vronsky reads the letters from his mother and brother, and for the first time since the start of the... (full context)

Vronsky speaks to Anna in French, as “you” in Russian is either too intimate or too cold. He asks Anna what... (full context)

...crowd, deliberately avoiding Princess Betsy and Anna. Vronsky’s brother tells him to answer his mother’s letter. Vronsky sees his only real rival in the race, a huge stallion named Gladiator. Vronsky... (full context)

...Koznyshev about finishing the meadow. Levin eats a late supper, and Koznyshev gives Levin a letter from Oblonsky, which asks Levin to help Dolly on her country estate. Koznyshev tells Levin... (full context)

...thinks that Dolly is giving him false hope. Dolly’s daughter comes in, and Dolly speaks French with her, which makes Levin think that she’s being insincere. After tea, Dolly is no... (full context)

When he arrives in Petersburg, Karenin goes straight to his study and writes Anna a letter in French, requesting that she return to Petersburg and enclosing money. He sends the letter... (full context)

...will go to Moscow that day, taking only themselves and Seryozha’s nurse. Anna writes a note to Karenin explaining that she is leaving for Moscow with their son. She begins a... (full context)

As the house is preparing for Anna to leave for Moscow, Karenin’s letter arrives, and Anna is horrified when she reads that he demands that she return to... (full context)

...company, she knows that Vronsky is waiting at the rendezvous she has arranged on Betsy’s note. (full context)

Vronsky receives a note from Anna one evening requesting that he meet her at her home while Karenin is... (full context)

...describes a dream she had about a peasant with a dirty beard who speaks in French, just like Vronsky’s dream. Although she is horrified, all at once her face changes from... (full context)

...has disobeyed his orders. The next morning, Karenin goes into Anna room and snatches Vronsky’s letters away from her. Karenin speaks cruelly to Anna, and she protests, but he is telling... (full context)

...wants to prove adultery, says the lawyer, he will need witnesses, not just the love letters Karenin took from Anna. Karenin says he will inform the lawyer soon of his decision,... (full context)

...Karenin receives a delegation from the racial minorities in the provinces; he also writes a letter to the lawyer to act at his discretion, enclosing the love letters from Vronsky to... (full context)

...knows Kitty is, and they communicate in a nearly wordless fashion. Levin writes the initial letters of each word of a sentence on the table in chalk. Kitty understands him precisely... (full context)

...both of these with the Prince, and with the father’s permission, he gives Kitty a diary that explains both of these matters. Kitty accepts him, though tearfully, and Levin feels even... (full context)

...conversation about infidelity, in particular one man’s praise of dueling. A valet brings Karenin two telegrams. One tells him that a rival of his at work has received the promotion Karenin... (full context)

...to talk to Karenin. Oblonsky begins to talk about Anna, but Karenin hands him a letter that says that even though it is extremely painful, he will grant Anna whatever she... (full context)

...his life. To hide his conversation from the servants, Vronsky speaks to his friend in French, saying that he is traveling with Anna; the friend looks at it in the right... (full context)

At tea, Kitty reads a letter from Dolly. Levin has a letter from Marya, Nikolai’s on-again mistress, saying that Nikolai is... (full context)

...and Anna are in Petersburg, but hides the fact from Karenin. Anna sends Lydia a letter asking Lydia to arrange a meeting between Anna and Seryozha. Lydia is irritated and tells... (full context)

Lydia shows Karenin Anna’s letter, and Karenin is willing to grant Anna’s request, but Lydia talks him out of it.... (full context)

...extremely difficult to do. Anna, learning that Lydia and Karenin are close, writes Lydia the letter, but Lydia sends no reply, which hurts Anna; the eventual reply makes her angry. Anna... (full context)

...them to be. Vronsky’s country estate is very luxuriously and lavishly appointed. Anna speaks in French to Vronsky and Veslovsky when they arrive, and though she apologizes for the quality of... (full context)

...is wryly amused by the fight between Veslovsky and Levin, because Veslovsky, she says in French, seems so simple and nice. (full context)

...now, but Vronsky sees himself and Anna as bound together. Anna needs to write a letter to Karenin requesting a divorce, which she hasn’t done yet. Dolly promises to talk to... (full context)

...men prepare to go out for more amusement after dinner. Vronsky’s butler brings in a letter from Anna, which already annoys him, since he knows it will be a message that... (full context)

...That night, she writes to Vronsky in fear of losing him and sends the contradictory letter immediately; when she re-reads it the next day, she regrets the sentiment but is pleased... (full context)

...there’s business in Moscow, she will go with him. Anna says she will write the letter to Karenin asking for a divorce. Although Vronsky says that he doesn’t wish to be... (full context)

...is speaking about Landau, not him. Through his sleep (or feigned sleep), Landau says, in French, that the person who came in last wants something and should leave. Oblonsky, completely perplexed... (full context)

...as he sleeps in his study. Anna has her recurring nightmare with the peasant muttering French words. When Anna wakes up, she initially feels better, but then she sees the young... (full context)

...also visiting, but Dolly comes out alone to receive Anna. Anna asks to read the letter that Karenin sent Oblonsky refusing the divorce, but when she reads it, she says nothing.... (full context)

...his duty to respect Vronsky for going to war. Koznyshev offers to write Vronsky a letter introducing him to influential people, but Vronsky says that his life has no value to... (full context)

Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy

Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication Symbol Analysis

Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication Quotes in Anna Karenina

Written Language, Foreign Language, and Communication Symbol Timeline in Anna Karenina