Chapter XVII explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Hypocrisy and Social Pretense

  Levin launches a fierce critique of false aristocracy, attacking those like Vronsky (in his view) who gain status through wealth, favor, and intrigue rather than honorable lineage and independence. He defines true nobility against social pretense.

• Isolation and Misunderstanding

  Levin feels isolated in his principles, misunderstood even by his friend Stiva. His emotional wound from Kitty's rejection isolates him further, making him unable to share his true feelings and leading to his general irritability.

Characters to notice

• Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin

  Deeply out of temper, his mood stems from the painful memory of Kitty's rejection and a sense of insult from Vronsky's perceived slight. He passionately argues his definition of true aristocracy (based on honorable ancestry and hard work) versus the new moneyed class, and is exasperated by Stiva's casual business dealings.

• Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky

  In excellent spirits after the profitable forest sale and good shooting. He tries, with good-natured humor, to dissipate Levin's ill-humor, joking with Agafea Mihalovna and attempting to give Levin advice about Kitty and Vronsky. He is the pragmatic foil to Levin's ideological fervor.

• Agafea Mihalovna

  Serves supper and interacts briefly, highlighting the difference between Stiva's appreciative praise and Levin's austere, indifferent nature towards food.

• Count Alexey Kirillovitch Vronsky

  Not present, but a central subject of Levin's bitter thoughts. Levin questions his aristocratic credentials and sees him as a rival and enemy. Stiva reveals Vronsky is in Petersburg and did not ultimately marry Kitty.

• Kitty Shcherbatskaya

  Discussed indirectly. Levin learns she did not marry Vronsky but is ill, which he interprets as being ill from love for the man who slighted her, compounding his own sense of humiliation.

• Ryabinin

  The merchant who bought the forest from Stiva. Levin despises him as a representative of a corrupt, predatory class and is furious that Stiva made him a 'present' of thirty thousand roubles through a bad deal.

Key passages

• “"I consider myself aristocratic, and people like me, who can point back in the past to three or four honorable generations of their family... and have never curried favor with anyone, never depended on anyone for anything... We are aristocrats, and not those who can only exist by favor of the powerful of this world, and who can be bought for twopence halfpenny."”

  Levin defines true aristocracy as based on multi-generational honor and independence, contrasting it with those who buy their status through wealth and servility.

  Core expression of Levin's social philosophy and personal pride, directly challenging the status of men like Vronsky.

• “"Kitty was not married, but ill, and ill from love for a man who had slighted her. This slight, as it were, rebounded upon him. Vronsky had slighted her, and she had slighted him, Levin. Consequently Vronsky had the right to despise Levin, and therefore he was his enemy."”

  Levin's tangled logic: Vronsky's rejection of Kitty becomes a rejection of Levin himself, making Vronsky his personal enemy.

  Reveals the psychological root of Levin's bad mood—a transferred sense of humiliation and rivalry.

• “"I tell you straight out, if I were you, I should go back with me to Moscow, and..." "No; I don't know whether you know it or not, but I don't care. And I tell you—I did make an offer and was rejected, and Katerina Alexandrovna is nothing now to me but a painful and humiliating reminiscence."”

  Stiva advises Levin to return to Moscow, likely to pursue Kitty again, but Levin sharply refuses, stating the rejection is a closed and painful chapter.

  Shows Levin's stubborn pride and the depth of his wound, even as new information (Kitty's illness) complicates the situation.