If Levin envies the peasantry and wishes he could find the equilibrium he sees in them -- in work, in family life -- then how do peasants figure in the "other" half of the novel, i.e. in relation to Anna?
As you near the end of the novel, it's important to look back at key scenes from earlier parts. We've already connected Anna and Vronsky's relationship to the idea of death through the tragic death of his horse, Frou-Frou, and through his reaction after they consummate their relationship ("he felt what a murderer must feel when looking at the body he has deprived of life" [Part II, Chapter XI]).
But their relationship began in death as well. Think back to the first train journey that Anna takes to Moscow. When she arrives at the station, an accident has occurred (Part I, Chapter XVIII: "A watchman, either tipsy or too much muffled up because of the severe frost, had not heard a train that was being shunted, and had been run over.") Stiva comments on the watchman's wife, who was distraught: "They say he was the sole support of a very large family. It is terrible!" Anna wishes that something could be done for her... and moments later, Vronsky has passed on money for the widow (in such an unclear way, of course, that the stationmaster runs after him to ask about it, and thus Anna learns of the exchange of money).
One of the bystanders notes that "it is a very easy death, instantaneous." Anna, however, finds it to be a bad omen.
This is her second impression of Vronsky; she has already spent the entire railroad trip in a compartment with his mother, who has gone on and on about how wonderful he is, about how "he is a hero." But despite her gratitude that he acted on behalf of the widow, that 200 rubles bothers her: "For some reason she did not like to think about [the 200 rubles]. She felt that there had been something in it relating personally to her that should not have been." (Part I, Chapter XX).
Thus the train, death, and money brought Anna and Vronsky together. In Chapters XXIX and XXX of Part I, Anna is returning home on the train, trying to read her English novel in order to escape into a world of English baronets. (Note that her red bag sits on her maid Annushka's lap. That red bag will come back, as all details in Tolstoy do.) But she cannot; she is overtaken by a feeling of shame and realizes that her behavior with Vronsky in Moscow has not been proper. She dozes, and has a dream about a peasant all muffled up, a clattering, some one being torn to pieces. Everything has a rational explanation (there is a loose sheet of iron clattering, a man has stooped to strike the carriage wheels with a hammer, the snow is blowing and becoming thicker.) But she is disturbed, and goes out to get some air on the platform, where she finds Vronsky who is taking the same train.
Vronsky takes the opportunity to declare himself to her; she begs him to back off: "what you are saying is wrong, and if you are a good man, I beg you to forget it, as I will forget it."
But he refuses. (Is he, then, a good man? or is getting Anna part of his "ambition" about which we will learn more in coming chapters?) For Anna, this is a crossroads, a place in the novel where she can choose the "correct" path or the path which might lead to happiness.
Anna makes her choice and begins a life of subterfuge, of "dissembling." She is both happy and frightened ... and her husband's ears have somehow grown.
These peasants -- working on the railroad, appearing in Anna's dream -- are honest and hardworking. Tolstoy places them in the setting of the railroad for a reason. We can think about how machinery and the railroad have changed traditional Russian peasant life, but we can also look for bad omens, as Anna does, and worry about what is to come for this young, unhappy woman.
As you near the end of the novel, it's important to look back at key scenes from earlier parts. We've already connected Anna and Vronsky's relationship to the idea of death through the tragic death of his horse, Frou-Frou, and through his reaction after they consummate their relationship ("he felt what a murderer must feel when looking at the body he has deprived of life" [Part II, Chapter XI]).
But their relationship began in death as well. Think back to the first train journey that Anna takes to Moscow. When she arrives at the station, an accident has occurred (Part I, Chapter XVIII: "A watchman, either tipsy or too much muffled up because of the severe frost, had not heard a train that was being shunted, and had been run over.") Stiva comments on the watchman's wife, who was distraught: "They say he was the sole support of a very large family. It is terrible!" Anna wishes that something could be done for her... and moments later, Vronsky has passed on money for the widow (in such an unclear way, of course, that the stationmaster runs after him to ask about it, and thus Anna learns of the exchange of money).
One of the bystanders notes that "it is a very easy death, instantaneous." Anna, however, finds it to be a bad omen.
This is her second impression of Vronsky; she has already spent the entire railroad trip in a compartment with his mother, who has gone on and on about how wonderful he is, about how "he is a hero." But despite her gratitude that he acted on behalf of the widow, that 200 rubles bothers her: "For some reason she did not like to think about [the 200 rubles]. She felt that there had been something in it relating personally to her that should not have been." (Part I, Chapter XX).
Thus the train, death, and money brought Anna and Vronsky together. In Chapters XXIX and XXX of Part I, Anna is returning home on the train, trying to read her English novel in order to escape into a world of English baronets. (Note that her red bag sits on her maid Annushka's lap. That red bag will come back, as all details in Tolstoy do.) But she cannot; she is overtaken by a feeling of shame and realizes that her behavior with Vronsky in Moscow has not been proper. She dozes, and has a dream about a peasant all muffled up, a clattering, some one being torn to pieces. Everything has a rational explanation (there is a loose sheet of iron clattering, a man has stooped to strike the carriage wheels with a hammer, the snow is blowing and becoming thicker.) But she is disturbed, and goes out to get some air on the platform, where she finds Vronsky who is taking the same train.
Vronsky takes the opportunity to declare himself to her; she begs him to back off: "what you are saying is wrong, and if you are a good man, I beg you to forget it, as I will forget it."
But he refuses. (Is he, then, a good man? or is getting Anna part of his "ambition" about which we will learn more in coming chapters?) For Anna, this is a crossroads, a place in the novel where she can choose the "correct" path or the path which might lead to happiness.
Anna makes her choice and begins a life of subterfuge, of "dissembling." She is both happy and frightened ... and her husband's ears have somehow grown.
These peasants -- working on the railroad, appearing in Anna's dream -- are honest and hardworking. Tolstoy places them in the setting of the railroad for a reason. We can think about how machinery and the railroad have changed traditional Russian peasant life, but we can also look for bad omens, as Anna does, and worry about what is to come for this young, unhappy woman.