Chapter 84 — Anna Karenina

Anna wakes into the morning after confession and cannot believe the coarse words she spoke to Karenin. Last night's clarity is gone. Shame floods her when she remembers she saw Vronsky and told him nothing. Her position now feels not simplified but absolutely hopeless. She imagines disgrace proclaimed to the world, her husband's silent departure turning into expulsion, and Vronsky growing cold. She cannot face the household or call her maid.

Annushka brings clothes and Betsy's croquet invitation, a grotesque summons to perform morality for society. Anna sits listless, pulls her hair, and finds religion as remote as Karenin because faith would require renouncing the love that still defines her life. A doubling in her soul leaves her unsure what she fears or wants. Only Seryozha breaks the paralysis: news of a stolen peach recalls him as her one secure bond apart from husband or lover.

She goes down, dismisses the governess, kisses her son through tears, and flees the terrace's cold judgment. In her boudoir she writes Karenin that she is leaving with the boy, tears up the appeal to his unknown generosity, rewrites the letter stripped of sentiment, starts a note to Vronsky, tears that apart in shame and anger, and orders Moscow packing on the evening train with Annushka and Seryozha.