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 Levin’s house is large, he heats and occupies all of it. He wants to recreate the house to be exactly as it was when his mother was alive, and marriage is the center of his plan; now that Kitty has refused him, however, he feels he must renounce all his hopes. Agafya, Levin’s old nurse and now his housekeeper, tells him the neighborhood gossip, and he begins to think about the scientific reforms he wants to implement. Laska nuzzles him, and he begins to think things will be all right again.
Levin idolizes his mother and lives on his estate in accordance not with his present state of being but with his future hopes: since he wants to have a family and run a grand household, he already is beginning to conduct himself in this manner. Even though he is initially despondent upon his return, he soon get settled in again.
Themes
