Anna Karenina

From that time, a new life begins for Alexey Alexandrovitch and his wife. But it's a strange, hollow new life. Nothing special happens outwardly. "Anna went out into society, as she had always done, was particularly often at Princess Betsy's, and met Vronsky everywhere." Everything looks normal on the surface - Anna maintains her social schedule, goes to the same places. But now she's meeting Vronsky everywhere, openly, and Alexey Alexandrovitch sees this but "could do nothing." He's trapped by his own refusal to make a scene. "All his efforts to draw her into open discussion she confronted with a barrier which he could not penetrate, made up of a sort of amused perplexity." This is Anna's weapon against him - amused perplexity. She acts as if she doesn't understand what he's trying to say, as if his concerns are puzzling and slightly ridiculous. It's a brilliant defense because it forces him to either be more explicit (which he can't do) or give up. "Outwardly everything was the same, but their inner relations were completely changed." They're living a complete lie - the marriage looks intact from outside, but inside it's a shell. The most devastating part comes at the end: Karenin has something important to say to Anna, but "the spirit of evil and deceit, which had taken possession of her, had possession of him too, and he talked to her in a tone quite unlike that in which he had meant to talk. Involuntarily he talked to her in his habitual tone of jeering at anyone who should say what he was saying. And in that tone it was impossible to say what needed to be said to her." Karenin can't escape his own habitual tone of jeering irony. He wants to have a serious conversation, but he's so trapped by his personality - his habit of mocking anyone who speaks seriously - that he unconsciously uses that same mocking tone even when trying to address his own marriage crisis. In his voice, serious concerns sound like jokes. This chapter shows how both Anna and Karenin are trapped by their established patterns. Anna behind her "amused perplexity," Karenin behind his "jeering" tone. Neither can break through to honest communication, so they live this new life - superficially the same, internally completely transformed and false.