Anna Karenina leads a respectable life, if not a happy one. She is comfortably situated with a government official, Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, and absolutely adores her son. However, everything changes once she meets Count Alexei Vronsky. His devoted attention arouses in her feelings of passion and desire that she had not hitherto known with her husband. Before too long, she and Vronsky are deeply in love, and she becomes further and further estranged from her husband. Eventually, she tells him everything. He is mortified but asks only that she not see Vronsky. When Anna is unable to do this, he begins the painful filing for divorce.
However, after a separation, Karenin hears that Anna is ill and hurries over to see whether or not she has died. At first, he goes there secretly hoping that she has already died but, after he sees her desperately looking for him and asking for his forgiveness, his heart is overwhelmed with pity and love. He forgives her and even does what he can to help her back to health and take care of her daughter by Vronsky.
From the beginning to the middle of the novel, Alexei Alexandrovich changes drastically. He begins as a hard, driven man who cares minimally for his wife and son. He does not seem to see in them a real need but a tool by which to augment his rising career, and above all, believes in the importance of keeping appearances. Yet, when he sees his wife at death’s door, his heart of stone begins to melt and feel for, possibly, the first time. He finds joy in forgiving and loving Anna that he had not known while living respectably with her. He wants to put her wants before his own.
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