In the carriage on the way to the railway station, Anna Karenina’s thoughts are again tangled, and she struggles to remember her last coherent thought—Yashvin’s philosophy that the “struggle for existence and hatred” is the only thing which holds men together. Everything she sees reminds her of her despair and the futility of life. Now she wonders what Vronsky first saw in her; she decides it was not love as much as the satisfaction of winning her. She remembers how he used to look at her; though there was some love, there was mostly the pride of success. He boasted of his conquest but there is no longer anything of which he can be proud.

In fact, there is now much to be ashamed of; he has taken from her everything he could. Now she is not of any use to him. Though he is weary of her, Vronsky is trying to be honorable in how he treats her. Yesterday, she thinks, he made it clear he wants a divorce and marriage in order to “burn his ships.” If Anna Karenina leaves now, she believes that, “at the bottom of his heart,” he will be glad. This is not mere speculation on her part, for she sees it plainly in the bright light of her mind, the light which has suddenly revealed to her the “meaning of life and human relations.”

Her love has grown more “passionate and egoistic” while Vronsky’s love is fading and growing cold, and there is nothing to be done about it. She wants him to be everything to her, to give himself up to her entirely; but more and more he wants to get away from her. He has told her she is insanely jealous, and she has said the same about herself; but it is not true. She is unsatisfied, not jealous. She knows that he is not trying to deceive her, is not carrying on with other women, but that knowing does not make anything better for her.

The worst thought for Anna Karenina is that Vronsky is now loving her out of a sense of duty, which to her is worse than hating her. So she asks herself what she does want. If she did get what she wishes for—a divorce, custody of her son, and marriage to Vronsky—everyone would still see her as immoral woman and she would not be able to rekindle Vronsky’s love for her. She decides there is nothing that will ease her misery or make her happy.

She arrives at the train station and the driver has to remind her why they have come here. He buys her ticket to Obiralovka as her current position becomes clear to her again. Her thoughts are tortured and her heart is throbbing as she waits for her train. Anna Karenina thinks about the note she will write Vronsky from the train station when she arrives, and she thinks about how he is probably even now complaining about her to his mother. She envisions walking into the room and speaking her heart to him. Life, she thinks, might still be happy for her, despite how miserably she loves and hates him. Her heart is beating fearfully.