Anna

Also known as: Anna Arkadyevna / Anna Arkadyevna Karenina / Anna Karenina / Madame Karenina / baby daughter · Family: Karenin · Role: sister · First appears: PART ONE · Chapter 2

Anna Arkadyevna was Stepan Arkadyevitch’s sister and had been brought up by her aunt, Katerina Pavlovna. After her aunt pressed Karenin to make an honorable offer, he became her husband. When Anna arrived in Moscow, she helped Darya Alexandrovna by telling her that Stepan Arkadyevitch was ashamed and still loved her. Anna made a strong impression on Kitty, who admired her beauty and youth, while Anna admired Kitty in return; at the ball, Vronsky asked Anna for the mazurka before Kitty, and Anna deliberately ignored him to dance with Yegorushka Korsunsky.

After the ball, Anna left Moscow early, disturbed by the effect of Vronsky’s attention on her and on Kitty. Vronsky followed her, declaring that he had come to be where she was, and Anna gradually recognized that his pursuit had become the central interest of her life. She moved away from serious-minded society toward Betsy’s fashionable circle, while Karenin warned her that their marriage could be severed only by a crime. Their relations changed inwardly, Anna and Vronsky consummated their liaison, and society came to know of their connection. When Anna became pregnant, Vronsky urged her to leave her husband, but she resisted because she remained Karenin’s wife and would not give up her son, Seryozha. At the races she confessed to Karenin, “I love him, I am his mistress; I can’t bear you; I’m afraid of you, and I hate you....”

Anna gave birth to a daughter, also named Anna, and developed puerperal fever. Karenin forgave her and Vronsky, but Anna continued to say that she could not live with him. She eventually accepted Vronsky completely, and they went abroad together without obtaining a divorce, leaving Karenin with Seryozha. Abroad, Anna lived openly with Vronsky, was portrayed by Mihailov, and later returned with him to Russia, where she tried to see Seryozha and was refused permission by Countess Lidia Ivanovna. She reunited with her son on his birthday, told him to love his father, and admitted that she had wronged Karenin. Her friendship with Darya Alexandrovna endured, though Kitty regarded her with hostility, and Anna later took an English girl named Hannah into her household and worked on a children’s book.