Page 92 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Don’t steal rolls.’
Stepan Arkadyevitch laughed outright.
‘Oh, moralist! But you must understand, there are two
women; one insists only on her rights, and those rights are

your love, which you can’t give her; and the other
sacrifices everything for you and asks for nothing. What
are you to do? How are you to act? There’s a fearful
tragedy in it.’
‘If you care for my profession of faith as regards that,
I’ll tell you that I don’t believe there was any tragedy
about it. And this is why. To my mind, love...both the
sorts of love, which you remember Plato defines in his
Banquet, served as the test of men. Some men only
understand one sort, and some only the other. And those
who only know the non-platonic love have no need to
talk of tragedy. In such love there can be no sort of
tragedy. ‘I’m much obliged for the gratification, my
humble respects’—that’s all the tragedy. And in platonic
love there can be no tragedy, because in that love all is
clear and pure, because..’
At that instant Levin recollected his own sins and the
inner conflict he had lived through. And he added
unexpectedly:

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