Synthesized answer
Stepan Arkadyevitch wakes up with a vivid, joyful memory of a dream involving a dinner party with singing tables and decanter-women [3]. He embraces his pillow and tries to recapture the sensation of sinking back into sleep [1]. This internal, pleasant experience stands in stark contrast to the external reality of his home. The passages describe "chaos": the wife is in her room, the husband absent, children are running wild, the governess is quarreling with the housekeeper and seeking a new job, the cook has left, and the kitchen-maid and coachman have given warning [1]. This juxtaposition highlights Stepan Arkadyevitch's disconnect from the domestic turmoil.
The passages suggest that Stepan Arkadyevitch is a character who prioritizes his own comfort and pleasant sensations, even while superficially acknowledging the need to "live in the needs of the day—that is, forget oneself" [2]. His immediate thought upon waking is to relive his dream's delights [3], rather than confront the practical and emotional disarray of his household. Tolstoy's narrative strategy at the outset uses this contrast to introduce Stepan Arkadyevitch as a man whose internal world, filled with personal…
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From the book
and household of the Oblonskys. The wife did not leave her own room, the husband had not been at home for three days. The children ran wild all over the house; the English governess quarreled with the housekeeper, and wrote to a friend asking her to look out for a new situation for her; the man-cook had walked off the day before just at dinner time; the kitchen-maid, and the coachman had given warning. Three days after the quarrel, Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky—Stiva, as he was called in the fashionable world—woke up at his usual hour, that is, at eight o’clock in the morning,…
ns, even the most complex and insoluble. That answer is: one must live in the needs of the day—that is, forget oneself. To forget himself in sleep was impossible now, at least till nighttime; he could not go back now to the music sung by the decanter-women; so he must forget himself in the dream of daily life. “Then we shall see,” Stepan Arkadyevitch said to himself, and getting up he put on a gray dressing-gown lined with blue silk, tied the tassels in a knot, and, drawing a deep breath of air into his broad, bare chest, he walked to the window with his usual confident step, turning…
was giving a dinner at Darmstadt; no, not Darmstadt, but something American. Yes, but then, Darmstadt was in America. Yes, Alabin was giving a dinner on glass tables, and the tables sang, _Il mio tesoro_—not _Il mio tesoro_ though, but something better, and there were some sort of little decanters on the table, and they were women, too,” he remembered. Stepan Arkadyevitch’s eyes twinkled gaily, and he pondered with a smile. “Yes, it was nice, very nice. There was a great deal more that was delightful, only there’s no putting it into words, or even expressing it in one’s thoughts…
he staff captain’s widow, Stepan Arkadyevitch took his hat and stopped to recollect whether he had forgotten anything. It appeared that he had forgotten nothing except what he wanted to forget—his wife. “Ah, yes!” He bowed his head, and his handsome face assumed a harassed expression. “To go, or not to go!” he said to himself; and an inner voice told him he must not go, that nothing could come of it but falsity; that to amend, to set right their relations was impossible, because it was impossible to make her attractive again and able to inspire love, or to make him an old man, not…
adyevitch, blushing suddenly. “Well now, do dress me.” He turned to Matvey and threw off his dressing-gown decisively. Matvey was already holding up the shirt like a horse’s collar, and, blowing off some invisible speck, he slipped it with obvious pleasure over the well-groomed body of his master. Chapter 3 When he was dressed, Stepan Arkadyevitch sprinkled some scent on himself, pulled down his shirt-cuffs, distributed into his pockets his cigarettes, pocketbook, matches, and watch with its double chain and seals, and shaking out his handkerchief, feeling himself clean, fragrant,…
More questions about this book
- "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." How does the immediate portrayal of the Oblonskys' household both illustrate and complicate this famous opening statement?
- Describe the ripple effect of the marital discord in the Oblonsky household. Beyond the husband and wife, how does Tolstoy use specific details to demonstrate the pervasive nature of their "unhappiness" throughout the entire social structure of the house?
- If you had to explain the core conflict and initial atmosphere of *Anna Karenina* to someone who has never read it, using only the first two paragraphs, what would you emphasize and why?
- Consider the phrase "the stray people brought together by chance in any inn had more in common with one another than they, the members of the family and household of the Oblonskys." What does this statement reveal about the nature of family, community, and connection within the context of the Oblonskys' crisis?