Anna Karenina · Chapter
VI explained
Levin and Kitty are married in a church ceremony.
What happens
Levin and Kitty are married in a church ceremony. The chapter details the rituals, prayers, and the overwhelming happiness that infects both of them and seems to spread to everyone present. The ceremony culminates with the priest instructing them to kiss, and they leave the church with a new sense of unity before departing for the country.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
The entire chapter is a direct depiction of the sacrament of marriage, focusing on the spiritual union, joy, and the formal transition into married life.
Family and Domesticity
The wedding prayers explicitly invoke fruitfulness, looking upon sons and daughters, and the creation of a new family unit, leaving parents to cleave to one another.
Characters to notice
- Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin
Overwhelmed with joy and disbelief during the wedding ceremony; feels a new, strange sense of closeness to Kitty after the kiss.
- Kitty Shcherbatskaya
Radiant with happiness, her feeling of triumph floods her soul; she smiles unconsciously, infecting everyone with her joy.
- Prince Shcherbatsky
Holds the wedding crown above Kitty's head with a shaking hand, urged by others to 'Put it on!'
- Tchirikov
Along with Prince Shcherbatsky, supports the crowns and stumbles over the bride's train, smiling and seeming delighted.
Key passages
“They prayed: 'Endow them with continence and fruitfulness, and vouchsafe that their hearts may rejoice looking upon their sons and daughters.'”
The prayer asks God to grant the couple self-control, many children, and the joy of seeing them.
Highlights the societal and religious expectation for marriage to be productive and centered on children.
“The spark of joy kindled in Kitty seemed to have infected everyone in the church.”
Kitty's radiant happiness spread to and affected everyone present at the ceremony.
Emphasizes the transformative and communal power of genuine emotion in a formal social setting.
“It was only when their wondering and timid eyes met that he believed in it, because he felt that they were one.”
Levin only believed the marriage was real when he and Kitty looked at each other and he felt their unity.
Shows that the true validation of their union comes from their personal connection, not just the ceremony.