Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin A -A Anna ‘s hubby, a high-level authorities curate and one of the most of import work forces in St. Petersburg. Karenin is formal and duty-bound. He is cowed by societal convention and invariably presents a unflawed facade of a cultivated and capable adult male. There is something empty about about everything Karenin does in the novel, nevertheless: he reads poesy but has no poetic sentiments, he reads universe history but seems unusually shockable. He can non be accused of being a hapless hubby or male parent, but he shows small tenderness toward his married woman, Anna, or his boy, Seryozha. He fulfills these household functions as he does other responsibilities on his list of societal duties. Karenin ‘s primary motive in both his calling and his personal life is self-preservation. When he out of the blue forgives Anna on what he believes may be her deathbed, we see a intimation of a deeper Karenin ready to emerge. Ultimately, nevertheless, the bland administrative official remains the lone Karenin we know.
Alexei Kirillovich VronskyA -A A wealthy and darting military officer whose love for Anna prompts her to abandon her hubby and boy. Vronsky is passionate and caring toward Anna but clearly disappointed when their matter forces him to give up his dreams of calling promotion. Vronsky, whom Tolstoy originally modeled on the Romantic heroes of an earlier age of literature, has something of the idealistic lone wolf in him. Yet there is a dark topographic point at the nucleus of his personality, as if Tolstoy refuses to allow us acquire excessively close to Vronsky ‘s true nature. Indeed, Tolstoy gives us far less entree to Vronsky ‘s ideas than to other major characters in the novel. We can ne’er rather bury Vronsky ‘s early jilting of Kitty Shcherbatskaya, and we wonder whether he feels guilt about about destroying her life. Even so, Vronsky is more saintly than diabolic at the terminal of the novel, and his intervention of Anna is faultless, even if his feelings toward her cool a spot.
Konstantin Dmitrich LevinA -A A socially awkward but generous-hearted landholder who, along with Anna, is the co-protagonist of the novel. Whereas Anna ‘s chase of love terminals in calamity, Levin ‘s long wooing of Kitty Shcherbatskaya finally ends in a happy matrimony. Levin is rational and philosophical but applies his thought to practical affairs such as agribusiness. He aims to be sincere and productive in whatever he does, and resigns from his station in local authorities because he sees it as useless and bureaucratic. Levin is a front man in the novel for Tolstoy himself, who modeled Levin and Kitty ‘s wooing on his ain matrimony. Levin ‘s declaration of religion at the terminal of the novel sums up Tolstoy ‘s ain strong beliefs, taging the start of the deeply spiritual stage of Tolstoy ‘s life that followed his completion of Anna Karenina.
Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya ( Kitty ) A -A A beautiful immature adult female who is courted by both Levin and Vronsky, and who finally marries Levin. Modeled on Tolstoy ‘s real-life married woman, Kitty is sensitive and possibly a spot overprotected, shocked by some of the petroleum worlds of life, as we see in her horror-stricken response to Levin ‘s private journals. But despite her indifference to rational affairs, Kitty displays great bravery and compassion in the face of decease when caring for Levin ‘s deceasing brother Nikolai.
Stepan Arkadyich Oblonsky ( Stiva ) A -A Anna ‘s brother, a pleasure-loving blue blood and minor authorities functionary whose matter with his kids ‘s governess about destroys his matrimony. Stiva and Anna portion a common inclination to put personal fulfilment over societal responsibilities. Stiva is incorrigible, continuing from his matter with the governess-which his married woman, Dolly, uprightly forgives-to a affair with a danseuse. For Tolstoy, Stiva ‘s moral laxness symbolizes the corruptnesss of big-city St. Petersburg life and contrasts with the powerful moral scruples of Levin. However, despite his evildoings, the amiable Stiva is a hard character to contemn.
Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya ( Dolly ) A -A Stiva ‘s married woman and Kitty ‘s older sister. Dolly is one of the few people who behave kindly toward Anna after her matter becomes public. Dolly ‘s sympathetic response to Anna ‘s state of affairs and her restrained esteem for Anna ‘s effort to populate her life to the full intimation at the positive facets of Anna ‘s experience. Well acquainted with the adversities of marriage and maternity, Dolly is, more than anyone else in the novel, in a place to appreciate what Anna has left behind by go forthing with Vronsky. The fresh clears with the painful disclosure that Dolly ‘s hubby has betrayed her, and her even more painful consciousness that he is non really penitent.
Sergei Alexeich Karenin ( Seryozha ) A -A Karenin and Anna ‘s immature boy. Seryozha is a good-natured male child, but his male parent treats him in cold blood after larning of Anna ‘s matter. Anna shows her devotedness to Seryozha when she risks everything to mouse back into the Karenin family merely to convey birthday nowadayss to her boy.
Nikolai Dmitrich LevinA -A Levin ‘s sickly, thin brother. The rationalism Nikolai is mostly estranged from his brothers, but over the class of the novel he starts to pass more clip with Levin. Nikolai is representative of broad societal idea among certain Russian intellectuals of the period ; his reformed-prostitute girlfriend, Marya Nikolaevna, is populating cogent evidence of his unconventional, radically democratic point of view.
Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev A -A Levin ‘s stepbrother, a celebrated rational and author whose believing Levin has trouble following. Koznyshev embodies cold intellectualism and is unable to encompass the comprehensiveness of life, as we see when he can non convey himself to suggest to Varenka.
Agafya Mikhailovna A -A Levin ‘s former nurse, now his sure housekeeper.
Countess Vronsky A -A Vronsky ‘s judgmental female parent.
Alexander Kirillovich Vronsky A -A Vronsky ‘s brother.
Varvara Vronsky A -A Alexander Vronsky ‘s married woman.
Prince Alexander Dmitrievich Shcherbatsky A -A The practical blue blood male parent of Kitty, Dolly, and Natalie. Prince Shcherbatsky favours Levin over Vronsky as a possible hubby for Kitty.
Princess Shcherbatskaya A -A Kitty, Dolly, and Natalie ‘s female parent. Princess Shcherbatskaya ab initio urges Kitty to prefer Vronsky over Levin as a suer.
Countess Lydia Ivanovna A -A A morally unsloped adult female who is ab initio Anna ‘s friend and subsequently her fiercest critic. Hypocritically, the spiritual Lydia Ivanovna can non convey herself to forgive or even to talk to the “ fallen adult female ” Anna. Lydia Ivanovna harbors a secret love for Karenin, and induces him to believe in and trust on psychics.
Elizaveta Fyodorovna Tverskaya ( Betsy ) A -A A affluent friend of Anna ‘s and Vronsky ‘s cousin. Betsy has a repute for wild life and moral diarrhea.
Marya Nikolaevna A -A A former cocotte saved by Nikolai Levin, whose comrade she becomes.
Madame Stahl A -A A apparently devout invalid adult female whom the Shcherbatskys meet at a German watering place. Madame Stahl appears righteous and pious, but Prince Shcherbatsky and others doubt her motives.
Varvara Andreevna ( Varenka ) A -A A pure and exalted immature adult female who becomes Kitty ‘s friend at the German watering place. Varenka, who is a protegee of Madame Stahl, about receives a matrimony proposal from Koznyshev.
Yashvin A -A Vronsky ‘s wild friend from the ground forces. Yashvin has a leaning for losing big amounts of money at chancing.
Nikolai Ivanovich Sviyazhsky A -A A friend of Levin who lives in a faraway state.
Fyodor Vassilyevich Katavasov A -A Levin ‘s rational friend from his university yearss.
Vasenka Veslovsky A -A A immature, pleasant, slightly dandified adult male whom Stiva brings to see Levin. The attendings Veslovsky lavishes on Kitty make Levin jealous.
LandauA -A A Gallic psychic who instructs Karenin to reject Anna ‘s supplication for a divorce.