The main characters of Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy features two parallel storylines centered on contrasting personal journeys amid Russian high society and rural life. The main characters drive themes of love, duty, and morality.

Central Figures

• Anna Karenina: A beautiful, passionate aristocrat married to Karenin; her affair with Vronsky leads to social ostracism and personal tragedy.

• Alexei Karenin: Anna's reserved, high-ranking government husband who prioritizes duty and propriety over emotion.

• Count Alexei Vronsky: A charming cavalry officer whose intense romance with Anna defies conventions but strains under societal pressure.

Key Supporting Characters

• Konstantin Levin: A thoughtful landowner seeking meaning through marriage to Kitty and rural reform, contrasting Anna's urban downfall.

• Kitty Shcherbatskaya: Levin's eventual wife; initially infatuated with Vronsky, she grows into a devoted family woman.

• Stiva Oblonsky: Anna's charming, adulterous brother whose scandal sparks the plot; carefree and sociable.

• Dolly Oblonskaya: Stiva's long-suffering wife and Kitty's sister, embodying domestic resilience.

The plot

Anna Karenina intertwines two contrasting narratives set in 19th-century Russia, exploring love, infidelity, society, and personal fulfillment.

Anna's Storyline

Anna Karenina, a sophisticated St. Petersburg aristocrat married to the dutiful bureaucrat Alexei Karenin, visits her brother Stiva Oblonsky in Moscow after his affair. There, she meets the dashing officer Count Vronsky and embarks on a passionate affair that defies social norms.

Pregnant with Vronsky's child, Anna faces her husband's initial forgiveness, public scandal, ostracism, and loss of her son Seryozha, leading to isolation, jealousy, and her tragic suicide by train.

Levin's Parallel Arc

Konstantin Levin, a principled landowner, proposes to Kitty Shcherbatskaya (Stiva's sister-in-law), faces rejection due to her infatuation with Vronsky, but eventually marries her after personal growth.

Their rural life contrasts urban decadence, as Levin grapples with faith, agriculture, and family, ultimately finding spiritual peace amid everyday joys and struggles.