Chapter 173
Darya Alexandrovna carries out her intention to see Anna though she...
Darya Alexandrovna carried out her intention and went to see Anna. She was sorry to annoy her sister and to do anything Levin disliked. She quite understood how right the Levins were in not wishing to have anything to do with Vronsky. But she felt she must go and see Anna, and show her that her feelings could not be changed, in spite of the change in her position. That she might be independent of the Levins in this expedition, Darya Alexandrovna sent to the village to hire horses for the drive; but Levin learning of it went to her…
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Now let's explore the literary elements.
Key Quotes & Analysis
"if you don’t want to wound me, you’ll take mine."
Context: Protesting Dolly's plan to hire village horses for Anna
Hospitality as loyalty test.
In Today's Words:
Levin tells Dolly that even if he disliked her visiting Anna he would dislike more her hiring village horses, and if you don't want to wound me you will take mine. Tolstoy turns moral distance from Vronsky into brotherly duty: the Levins share her pecuniary worry and refuse letting her pay twenty roubles. The phrase makes accepting help a kindness rather than dependence.
"Anna did quite right, and certainly I shall never reproach her for it."
Context: Answering whether she grieved for her buried baby
Child loss named as release.
In Today's Words:
Asked about children the handsome young woman says she had a girl but God set me free and buried her last Lent, adding the old man has enough grandchildren and it was only a trouble. Dolly finds the answer revolting yet cannot forget it during her motherhood monologue. Tolstoy plants brutal peasant truth inside Dolly's tally of agonies.
"God set me free; I buried her last Lent."
Context: After reviewing fifteen years of marriage and childbearing
Maternal despair summarized.
In Today's Words:
Dolly thinks through pregnancy, nursing, illness, education, and death until she cries one's whole life ruined, recalling the inn woman's cynical words again. Tolstoy makes the carriage a confessional without listener: respectable duty appears as endless toil for merely decent children. The exclamation prepares her turn toward Anna's different choice.
"One’s whole life ruined!"
Context: Near the end of her journey reverie
Scandal forgiven inwardly.
In Today's Words:
After envying peasant women and comparing Natalia, Varenka, and Anna, Dolly thinks Anna did quite right and she will never reproach her, constructing a parallel love affair with a sly smile. Tolstoy shows moral shift born from exhaustion not ideology. The visit's purpose deepens from loyalty to tacit solidarity.
Thematic Threads
Loyalty across scandal
In This Chapter
Dolly visits Anna despite Levins' distance.
Development
Judgment softens into Anna did quite right.
In Your Life:
Old ties can survive positions your circle rejects.
Motherhood's cost
In This Chapter
Monologue from Masha fears to pink coffin.
Development
Contrasts Anna's reported happiness ahead.
In Your Life:
Unbroken caregiving can feel like a ruined life.
Class envy
In This Chapter
Bridge peasant women look happy and free.
Development
Dolly feels let out of prison briefly.
In Your Life:
Others' ease can sharpen your own tally of toil.
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
This is not a test. Five prompts guide you through the chapter, from how it opens to how it closes, so you notice context and rhythm rather than facts to memorize. Sit with each question in your own words. When you see "One way to read it," treat it as a starting point, not the only answer.
- 1
Why does Levin insist Dolly take his horses?
analysis • surfaceOne way to read it
Hiring village horses offends him and may fail; he frames using his teams as avoiding wounding him while sharing her financial strain.
- 2
What does God set me free mean in the inn conversation?
analysis • mediumOne way to read it
The young woman says burying her baby last Lent freed her from trouble and lost work, shocking Dolly yet returning during her monologue.
- 3
Why does Dolly think one's whole life ruined?
application • mediumOne way to read it
She tallies pregnancies, nursing, illness, education, deaths, and poverty, fearing even decent children cost agonizing toil without respect for her husband.
- 4
How does she arrive at Anna did quite right?
application • deepOne way to read it
Comparing her loveless endurance with Anna's chance at happiness and other women's freedom, she stops reproaching Anna and imagines her own romance.
- 5
When has travel made you rethink someone you were sent to judge?
reflection • deepOne way to read it
The carriage reckoning pattern names how solitude converts loyalty into revised moral sympathy.
Critical Thinking Exercise
Map Dolly's Interior Drive
Chart the visit's outer logistics and inner monologue. Where does judgment of Anna shift?
Consider:
- •Include if you don't want to wound me
- •Include one's whole life ruined
- •Include Anna did quite right
Journaling Prompt
Write about a long trip when counting your own costs changed how you saw someone else.
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 174
The coachman will pull up near rye-field peasants to ask directions just as Anna's riding party returns from the reaping machine. Near Vozdvizhenskoe the coachman stops by a rye field and the counting-house clerk shouts at barefoot peasants for directions to the count's manor. Uncle Gerasim eagerly confirms they are at home after yesterday's visitors and will not let the carriage go until he.
