Anna Karenina Ch. 145: Chapter 145

Summary

From talks with Betsy and Stiva, Karenin understands he must leave Anna in peace without burdening her, and that she wants this. He cannot decide anything himself and assents to those glad to manage his affairs. Only when Anna has left and the English governess asks whether to dine with him does he grasp his position and feel appalled. He cannot connect tender care for his sick wife and her child with being now alone, shamed, laughed at, needed by no one.

For two days he preserves composure at committee and dinner, answering about Anna's rooms as if events were ordinary. On the second day a draper's bill Anna forgot breaks him. He sends the clerk away, sinks his head in his hands, cancels the carriage, and skips dinner. He feels universal contempt, hatred not because he is bad but because he is repulsively unhappy. In all Petersburg he has no one to receive his sorrow as a man, only as an official.

His orphan childhood and uncle's upbringing produced medals and ambition but no close friend. Women, especially Countess Lydia Ivanovna, are terrible and distasteful to him. Work will become refuge; breakdown comes alone. The chapter turns the Anna plot toward Karenin's despair before Lydia's visit.

In this chapter: Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Seeing Breakdown Behind Composure

Public figures often perform normal life while grief has nowhere to go. Karenin holds together committee and dinner until a forgotten shop bill for his absent wife leaves him alone with his head in his hands, knowing Petersburg will punish visible pain rather than listen to it.

When someone rigid suddenly cancels everything, look for the small humiliation that pierced a life with no close friend.

Coming Up in Chapter 146

Countess Lydia Ivanovna will walk unannounced into his study and offer spiritual comfort that becomes another kind of dependence. Karenin had forgotten Lydia Ivanovna; she had not forgotten him. At his bitterest moment she enters the study without announcement and finds him with his head in his hands..

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Original text

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Chapter 145

From talks with Betsy and Stiva, Karenin understands he must leave ...

From the moment when Alexey Alexandrovitch understood from his interviews with Betsy and with Stepan Arkadyevitch that all that was expected of him was to leave his wife in peace, without burdening her with his presence, and that his wife herself desired this, he felt so distraught that he could come to no decision of himself; he did not know himself what he wanted now, and putting himself in the hands of those who were so pleased to interest themselves in his affairs, he met everything with unqualified assent. It was only when Anna had left his house, and the…

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Critical Thinking Exercise

10 minutes

Map Karenin's Isolation

List people Karenin might have told and why each channel fails. End with what he does instead of friendship.

Consider:

•Include draper's bill
•Include Sludin
•Include women distasteful

Journaling Prompt

Write about performing okay while having no one safe to tell.

Master this chapter. Complete your experience

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Chapter 145

Summary