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Part 6, Chapter 28
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
In the room for smoking and refreshments, the men are talking excitedly. Levin doesn’t want to join in, and he doesn’t want to talk to his own people, because Vronsky is with them. Levin sees a landowner of his acquaintance, whom he had met while visiting Sviyazhsky, and they discuss how obsolete and unimportant the elections seem to be. They also discuss how difficult farming is: they’re always scrambling just to try not to lose money.
Levin only feels comfortable in conversation when he can talk about faming and peasant life, as the affairs of the city are anathema to his character. Ironically, the same Sviyazhsky whom Levin found hypocritical earlier now becomes a lifeline, a point of contact from the countryside in the political quagmire.
Themes
