All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

The book or the adventure begins by telling us about the colossal quarrel that was taking place within the Oblonsky’s household, and all the chaos that emerged from The Prince Steve (Stephen)’s affair with the French governess. In the first chapters, we come across many interesting and contrasting characters, each of them holding a wide range of ideas, that in one way or another, struggle among them. We must remember, that each person has a soul, and our souls will rule over us. That is why, even within our own family we have disputes and arguments and there are moments that, no matter how hard we try, we just cannot bury the hatchet. This happened here, between Princess Darya (Dolly) and her husband.

She read one of the letters that reflects and reveals his untruthfulness towards her. However, for some reason, Oblonsky cannot feel guilty, even though he said there is no reason for him to be blamed since he had already stopped loving her, and that to a certain degree, she ought to be lenient to him.

“Yes, she won’t forgive me, and she can’t forgive me. And the most awful thing about it is that it’s all my fault—all my fault, though I’m not to blame. That’s the point of the whole situation.”

But why he does not feel guilty or there is not any trace of remorse about what he has done to his wife? Mostly because she was getting older. He had even supposed that she, a worn-out woman no longer young or good-looking, and in no way remarkable or interesting, merely a good mother, ought from a sense of fairness to take an indulgent view. He knew he could not be forgiven for what he did to her, he knew as well he was guilty of what I name as a moral crime. However, despite all of these matters, what was tormenting him the most, was the naïve and I daresay silly smile that was drawn on his face when he faced Dolly in the studio. Why? Probably, because it was a reflection that a some degree he had stopped loving her, but he did not want to change his life. Like trying to live two different lives. Thus, he was like overlapping himself since he had stopped loving her, then he is “free”, there is no “moral tie” to her, however, to a certain extent it was challenging for him to accept this since he did not want to accept or to take all the changes and consequences that his behavior would lead to.

This can be manifested by the fact that he used to read liberal papers, but it was not because he felt or his thoughts were liberal, it was mostly because those ideas were the best ideas that suited his lifestyle. “Why do we need marriage? Marriage is meaningless nowadays”. He only changes his thoughts or his ideals when those held by the majority change.

I’m sure, dear reader that everyone knows at least one person who resembles Prince Stephen. Those who intrinsically are looking for some sort of moral justification for their acts; just because something or some idea or moral precept is held or shared by the majority, it does not make it correct. He is looking for his benefits, to feed his ego, just because he thinks he has the authority to run over her wife’s dignity, to consider that he owes some sort of weird and non-existent right that his wife does not possess. That is why his justification laid merely on those liberal papers, but look, not too liberal, those were not of his interest, they laid out of his interest, yearnings, and desires, therefore they were not useful for him.

It caught my attention the fact that, despite everyone being aware of the whole conflict and treachery and dispute between Steve Oblonsky and Dolly, they sided with Oblonsky, even the nurse who was Dolly´s “best friend” in the house. Nevertheless, here I want to state the following question. Why? Were they scared by something? Or is it that women were not allowed to suffer dreadfully? Is there any kind of “right” that should be endowed to us in order to suffer and to feel?

“Dolly, what can I say?…. One thing: forgive…Remember, cannot nine years of my life atone for an instant….’ —an instant of passion?”

Searching for forgiveness through the story they have built and lived, now that he is facing the edge and abyss of his life, of the life that had fit so well his desires and caprices. Here, we touch on a crucial point. “Passion” (Nevertheless, in some English translations we might read “infatuation”). Once more, he thinks his will is more important than his wife’s feelings and love; he is only concerned about himself, “My life”, what about hers?

“Dolly!” he said, sobbing now; “for mercy’s sake, think of the children; they are not to blame! I am to blame, and punish me, make me expiate my fault. Anything I can do, I am ready to do anything! I am to blame, no words can express how much I am to blame! But, Dolly, forgive me!”

The Social Discrepancies | Oblonsky and Levin.

We’ll begin with another short description extracted from the book, to lay out Oblonsky’s contradiction between his inner life and exterior life. He is briefly presented as someone holding an honorable and respected charge; he was the president of one of the government boards in Moscow. Nevertheless, he did not obtain this position thanks to the work of his impeccable performance, none of that. He pulled some strings with his brother-in-law Alexey Karenin. The latest holds one of the most important and highest positions in all of Moscow.

However, dear reader, do you remember what I mentioned about how swiftly he changed or modified his ideals and moral axion, in order to make them match with his current feelings and his current circumstances? In contrast, here we come across the face of the coin. His respectability was bestowed thanks to his real liberalism, the real one, the liberalism that ran through his veins, not that sort of liberalism that was read in the newspaper that the only and real purpose was to abolish the social construction and conditions of that precise epoch. The liberalism that ran through his veins made him treat all men equally and exactly the same, whatever their social position was or what income they had.

He held a rather political charge, however, due to his indifference towards his charge or towards his job, he made no decisions taken by his guts, rather after pondering their ideas and weighing them out. So he never was carried away, and never had any kind of quandary, problem, or moral-political conflict in this regard.

Being a good person does not mean being a good citizen or a good politician.

I had the imperious necessity to reach this point for one reason. Once more, we’ll take a look at Oblonsky’s personality and the actions he’s done so far. He betrayed his wife’s confidence, he burned his relationship out, he threw Dolly’s love down the drain, and he had an affair with the French mistress. He did all of this and more than that, he felt no blame nor responsibility, and despite all of the moral baseness and calamities he committed, he was still an honorable man in people’s eyes due to his abilities and skills to get agreements, due to the “purity” and “transparency” of his political acts and performance.

And this is where the next question arises. Why can’t a good politician be a good person, or vice versa? We must understand that, on many occasions, ethics and morality will be involved in disputes with politics itself, but why does this happen? Politics is mainly based on reaching agreements with two or more participants, that is, seeking a common good for both even if, in the process, this hurts some particular interest of a person; falling in this way, to what I call “hypocrisy made philosophy”, that is, “utilitarianism”, achieving the most “greatest” benefits, although, along the way, acts are committed, which in their own individuality are nefarious, but, since that “great or greater benefit”, the “price” is worth it.

A Look Through Levin’s Soul.

Levin is undoubtedly one of the most solid characters in the individual, but nevertheless, his very perception, led him to address others in an authentic way, but what, with it, dragged the fact that, he was not the best of politicians, especially if we take a look at Oblonsky or Karenin.

This a priori can be something good or something bad, it will be the reader himself who will provide the interpretation that he thinks is the most accurate.

Due to his very moral axis, or values, there lay in him a strong backbone that made him act on most occasions somewhat, peculiar, predictable, and perhaps, socially awkward.

However, that “social awkwardness” that prevented him from being as sociable and jovial as Betsy, Vronsky, or as bureaucratic as Karenin and Oblonsky; it saved him from falling into one of the most disgusting conditions known to human beings, hypocrisy.

He knew what he was looking for, he knew who he loved, and he knew he wanted a future with Kitty. But it did not come out of spontaneity. That, it was engendered with the passage of time, slowly. The love he felt crossed personal barriers, even going so far as to love Kitty’s family, knowing the displeasure of Kitty’s mom who categorically refused any attempt to materialize that which still rested inside that abstract and beautiful world, in that same place where our feelings are born and formulated to each other, the heart.

For Kitty’s family, especially for her mom, Levin turned out to be insufficient. He was neither a politician, nor a military officer, nor a high official of some committee in St. Petersburg or Moscow. He was just one of the bunch according to Princess Shcherbatskaya. So how could he, a nobody, woo his beloved Pincer Kitty?

Family, home, loving someone, sharing and learning. Something I had always longed for. He dreamed of writing a future by Kitty’s hand because, for him, there were only two groups of women; the first, where all the women were, and the second, where only Kitty lived, because while both tortoises were skating in that formidable reunion, he told her “I trust more in me when you learn from me”…

As the reading progresses, I will continue to write about the most memorable details of how each of the actors is evolving…