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Tolstoy begins this section by emphasizing Kitty\'s youth and
her surprising success in her first season in society. She\'d
had not only two serious suitors (Levin and Vronsky) but flocks
of admirers as well.
Levin\'s arrival on the scene and his obviously serious
intentions spark some arguments between Kitty\'s parents. Prince
Shcherbatsky favors Levin, finding him solid, forthright, and
sincere in his love. The princess favors Vronsky--handsome,
dashing, polished. She finds Levin awkward, overly critical of
city life, too countrified.
Tolstoy uses the quarrel between the Shcherbatskys to
highlight a dilemma of the time. In accordance with tradition,
the marriage between the prince and princess had been arranged
by relatives. But times have changed. The princess honestly
doesn\'t know how marriages come about now. The French--and old
Russian--way of deciding marriages for young people was out of
favor. The English way--letting young people decide entirely
for themselves--frightens the princess; anyway, it too is
frowned upon in Russian society. The princess realizes that it
has to be a mixture of free choice and guidance and is left
feeling uncertain about what her role as Kitty\'s mother should
be.
Weighing on both the prince and the princess is Dolly\'s
situation. Oblonsky, too, had been an \"ideal match,\" but he\'s
making Dolly miserable. The prince fears that Vronsky may be
cut from the same cloth as Oblonsky.
The next day when Levin proposes, Kitty tells him it\'s
\"impossible.\" She\'s unable to tell Levin what her feelings are,
for she doesn\'t know. Upon hearing his proposal, she was
\"filled with rapture.\" But it lasted for only a moment. Then
thoughts of Vronsky crowded their way into her mind.
Levin tries to leave the Shcherbatsky\'s home, but is
prevented from doing so by the entrance of Kitty\'s mother.
Every minute of the evening is torture for Levin. One of
Kitty\'s friends, Countess Nordston, dislikes Levin and makes a
point of picking on him. When Vronsky arrives, Levin feels just
about finished off; he doesn\'t wonder that Kitty prefers the
handsome, socially graceful young officer.
NOTE: Tolstoy makes the point--through the prince--that
women are incapable of recognizing serious intentions in a
suitor. The prince says that a marriage between Kitty and
Vronsky would spell trouble.
Do you agree that men are more perceptive in this regard?
Doesn\'t this seem a bit at odds with Tolstoy\'s feeling that
women are essentially domestic, in tune with things pertaining
to hearth and home?
Tolstoy makes another point in this section. First he
establishes that Countess Nordston is shallow and nasty; then he
has her criticize life in the country for being dull. This is
one of Tolstoy\'s favorite devices: he picks a character whom he
dislikes and has that person express opinions counter to his
own.
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