Anna Karenina · Chapter
Chapter II explained
Levin and Kitty discuss their day in Moscow.
What happens
Levin and Kitty discuss their day in Moscow. Levin is reluctant to make a social call to Countess Bola but agrees at Kitty's urging. They discuss their finances, with Kitty expressing worry about money flying away and Levin reassuring her. Levin remembers Kitty's pregnancy, and they share a tender moment. Kitty also asks Levin to intervene with Stiva regarding Dolly's dire financial situation. Levin then leaves, reflecting on the ease and expense of city life compared to the country, and his growing detachment from the value of money.
Themes in this chapter
Family and Domesticity
Centered on Levin and Kitty's married life: managing schedules, finances, and anticipating their child, showing the everyday realities and worries of building a household.
Love and Marriage
Demonstrated through Levin and Kitty's affectionate, supportive interaction and their shared concern for Dolly's marriage troubles, contrasting functional partnership with marital discord.
Social Conventions vs. Individual Desire
Levin's intense shame and reluctance to perform obligatory social calls ('a horrible thing to do') clashes with Kitty's insistence on following social norms.
Characters to notice
- Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin
Reluctant to make social calls, worries about finances but reassures Kitty, preoccupied with his intellectual pursuits and meeting with Metrov.
- Kitty Shcherbatskaya
Manages the household schedule, expresses concern over their spending and Dolly's financial troubles, shares a tender moment with Levin about her pregnancy.
- Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya
Mentioned as being in an 'utterly impossible' financial position, in debt and without money, prompting Kitty and her family to plan an intervention.
- Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky
Implicitly the cause of Dolly's financial distress; Levin is to be sent to talk to him about the situation.
- Professor Katavasov
Levin is going to see him to be introduced to the savant Metrov, showing Levin's continued intellectual engagement.
- Metrov
A distinguished scientific man from Petersburg whom Levin is eager to meet to discuss his work.
Key passages
“"It’s such a horrible thing to do! A complete outsider walks in, sits down, stays on with nothing to do, wastes their time and worries himself, and walks away!"”
Levin finds the ritual of formal social calls absurd and deeply embarrassing.
Highlights Levin's discomfort with high-society conventions and his outsider status.
“"I seem to spend nothing unnecessary, but money seems to fly away simply. We don’t manage well, somehow."”
Kitty worries their money disappears despite their efforts to be careful.
Shows the financial anxiety of setting up a new household in the expensive city.
“Only one thing was essential: to have money in the bank, without inquiring where it came from, so as to know that one had the wherewithal to buy meat for tomorrow.”
Levin's philosophy has shifted to merely ensuring there is cash available for immediate needs, detached from its source or value.
Illustrates his moral and practical disorientation in the city, contrasting with his careful estate management in the country.