Anna Karenina · Chapter
V explained
Vronsky, waiting at a railway station to depart as a volunteer for the Serbian war, encounters Sergey Ivanovitch Koznishev.
What happens
Vronsky, waiting at a railway station to depart as a volunteer for the Serbian war, encounters Sergey Ivanovitch Koznishev. Vronsky is in deep despair, seeing life as worthless and himself as a wreck, and views the war as a means to a useful death. A conversation about the conflict triggers a vivid, agonizing memory of Anna's suicide, which haunts him and poisons all past happiness. He regains composure to discuss military telegrams before they part.
Themes in this chapter
Search for Meaning
Vronsky seeks meaning and a worthy death in the Serbian war, stating his life is 'not simply useless but loathsome' and that delivering others from bondage is 'an aim worth death and life.'
Isolation and Misunderstanding
Vronsky is utterly isolated in his grief and self-loathing. Despite Koznishev's attempt to connect and offer service, Vronsky remains locked in his private anguish, unable to be reached.
Characters to notice
- Count Alexey Kirillovitch Vronsky
In profound despair, viewing his life as loathsome and himself as a wreck. He is joining the Serbian war seeking death, and is haunted by a traumatic, recurring memory of Anna's corpse at the train station.
- Sergey Ivanovitch Koznishev
Meets Vronsky at the station, views him as a man engaged in a great cause, and offers encouragement and practical help, which Vronsky declines.
- Anna Arkadyevna Karenina
Present only in Vronsky's tortured memory and flashback of her bloody, lifeless body at the train station after her suicide, which poisons all his past memories of her.
Key passages
“"My use as a man is that life’s worth nothing to me. And that I’ve enough bodily energy to cut my way into their ranks, and to trample on them or fall—I know that."”
Vronsky states his only value lies in his willingness to die, as his own life is worthless to him.
Highlights his suicidal despair and desire for a violent, purposeful end.
“He suddenly recalled her — that is, what was left of her when he had run like one distraught into the cloak room of the railway station—on the table, shamelessly sprawling out among strangers, the bloodstained body so lately full of life...”
He is violently reminded of finding Anna's dead body at the train station after her suicide.
A traumatic flashback that shows the source of his torment and the impossibility of moving past her death.
“He tried to recall his best moments with her, but those moments were poisoned forever.”
He attempts to remember happy times with Anna, but finds they are now forever tainted by the memory of her death.
Illustrates how grief and guilt have destroyed even his past happiness, leaving him with nothing.