today I will talk about the horse race scene in anna karenina. it is one of my favorite chapters in all of literature. this will be a long thread with

DOUBLES
PARALLELS
and LAYERS OF MEANING

the entire book is reflected in this one scene like the sky in a drop of dew

first: a summary

Anna Karenina is locked in a loveless marriage to Alexei Karenin. she begins an affair with Count Vronsky, a charismatic young man who is just fooling around. but then she tells him that she is pregnant. Vronsky "stood before her, pale, his lower jaw quivering"

"He felt what a murderer must feel, when he sees the body he has robbed of life"

this scene is powerful too, but it is not the focus. just know that Anna puts herself entirely on Vronsky, and he is shocked by the sudden responsibility, and aware that he has ruined her

Vronsky is a jockey in his spare time, and he is slated to race soon. Anna and her husband Karenin go to watch the races, but Anna watches Vronsky. as she does, Karenin in turn watches her, with deepening suspicions about her affair. this chain is the core dynamic of the scene

Vronsky makes a mistake in the final stretch, and his horse Frou-Frou stumbles and falls. she breaks her back, but Vronsky doesn't realize this right away, blinded with fury. instead he starts kicking her stomach with his heel over and over, trying to make her stand up

he kicks the mare "with a face hideous with passion, his lower jaw trembling, and his cheeks white" - exactly as he looked when standing over Anna. here is our first parallel: the horse and the woman. Vronsky dooms them both with his passion and ineptitude

this much alone sparknotes will tell you - very well, but I shall go further. for both Vronsky and Karenin share the first name Alexei; they are parallels too. Vronsky is not only representing himself in this allegorical event, but also Anna's husband

Karenin is equally complicit in Anna's downfall: at first he refuses to divorce her, forcing her to stay with him even during her pregnancy. but then, when she sick and dying, he makes an even worse mistake, one which spiritually breaks her back just like the horse's

Karenin's mistake, according to the narration, is “not taking into account the eventuality that her repentance would be sincere and he would forgive her, and then she would not die.”

when Karenin genuinely forgives Anna, she can no longer blame him for her suffering

important: this second scene, of Anna's sickness, is also one with both men. in fact, she causes them to reconcile, and remarks on how they share a name - Tolstoy giving us a sign that they are especially connected here? maybe, but they are doubles throughout the book, regardless

in the light of Karenin's personal growth, Anna becomes all the more aware of her own failings. now when Karenin offers her a divorce, she feels too unworthy to accept, indebted to him because of his goodness. of course how could Karenin know? until it is too late, Anna is broken

Karenin strains himself to be magnanimous to her but each additional grace he extends in her direction drives the stake of self-loathing deeper into her heart. Karenin does not hate Anna, Vronsky does not hate Frou-Frou, but both men unwittingly destroy their objects of affection

so in the end Vronsky represents both Karenin and himself - and he must represent both, because it takes both men together pulling Anna's heart in opposite directions to really break her. a tragedy that they break her with two different kinds of love, two incompatible loves

this parallel appears in other ways: Karenin trembles when meeting his wife who is near death, just as Vronsky trembles standing over his horse. at one point Anna has an erotic dream involving both Alexeis at once. they are doppelgangers (this book is full of doubles)

but all these streams of symbolism and character arcs and themes converge in the steeplechase scene, where the three characters' relationships are laid out in miniature, despite them barely talking to each other during the whole chapter

when asked to explain Anna Karenina, Tolstoy said (iirc): "to fully explain the meaning of this book I would have to keep on expanding until I wrote the entire book again". hopefully you can see how much interconnection is in this novel, and why I love it so much

ty for reading