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Part 7, Chapter 14
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
As Kitty’s labor continues, Levin grows more and more frantic; after her final, loudest shrieks, all he wants is for the suffering to end. Suddenly, it does: her screams cease, and the midwife says that they have a baby boy. The baby starts to cry, and Levin marvels at the sudden joy of the ordinary. He’s ecstatic—but he can’t grasp yet that this child, who hadn’t existed the day before, is now in his life. The son almost seems superfluous to the fact that Kitty is alive and healthy.
Levin grows more and more frantic and fraught with his own delirium as Kitty’s labor continues—he is so empathetic with her that he cannot keep himself composed while she is in pain. Finally, when the pain abruptly ceases and the baby is born, Levin enters the normal world again, which seems like utter bliss now. Levin is so in sync with Kitty, and their bond is so deep, that the presence of their son is too much to comprehend at once: he has to regain his normal life one step at a time.
Themes
