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Contents
The central figure. She's intelligent, magnetic, and trapped in a cold marriage. She pursues Vronsky knowing the cost and pays it fully. Her arc moves from liberation to paranoia to destruction, and Tolstoy makes her sympathetic even as her behavior becomes harder to watch.
A cavalry officer who falls genuinely in love with Anna but can't give up his need for social standing and purpose. He's not a villain, but his emotional limits make him a poor partner for someone as all-or-nothing as Anna.
Anna's husband. A senior government official who values order and appearances above feeling. He's easier to dislike than to understand, but his forgiveness scene shows real moral effort. His later rigidity, influenced by a religious mystic, traps Anna legally.
A landowner and the novel's moral center. He's awkward, earnest, and obsessed with questions of faith and work. His slow path to marriage with Kitty and his eventual spiritual peace form the counterpoint to Anna's tragedy.
Levin's eventual wife. She starts the novel as a young woman who makes a bad romantic bet on Vronsky, suffers for it, and grows into a grounded, capable partner. Her recovery and marriage to Levin give the novel its domestic warmth.
Anna's brother. His affair opens the novel and his easy charm lets him escape consequences that would ruin a woman. He's likable and morally careless, and Tolstoy uses him to show how lightly society judges men.
Stiva's long-suffering wife. She forgives him but never fully recovers her happiness. Her visit to Anna abroad is one of the novel's most honest scenes — two women comparing the different traps their lives have become.
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