Anna's heart-rending visit to her son affects her the same way as his brother's death affected Levin: Both cling more intensely to their love and life after experiencing a loss. Strengthened in her love according to the amount of suffering she paid for it, Anna defends her rights to happiness against the very society opposed to it. She declares the truth of her status by appearing in public. Quoting Steiner, "the ironic intensity" of the scene derives from its setting: "society condemns Anna precisely in that place where society is most frivolous, ostentatious, and steeped in illusion."
She blames Vronsky for her humiliation because he lacks the depth of soul to understand her torment at giving up Seriozha. Anna feels her challenge would have been a triumph had Vronsky been proud of her public declaration. Instead, like Karenin before him, Vronsky, perplexed at her wilful neglect of propriety, thinks only to hide his disgrace from the members of his social set. The moment of disagreement reveals Vronsky's limitations. At her public and proud affirmation of her love for him, he loses respect for her. He is even regretful of being attracted by her beauty, as if her physical charms were to blame for this embarrassment.
Thus Tolstoy shows the fateful differences between Vronsky and Anna. For Vronsky, love is not an absolute quality, but one which must be reinforced through its environment. Unfavorable circumstances wear love's intensity while Anna's love, under the same conditions, becomes mere intense and desperate. This is another example of Tolstoy's concept of "historical necessity" which molds the human condition. Once Anna and Vronsky are isolated from Petersburg society, however, their lives run smoothly and the failing balance of their relationship is restored.
