Who Says This Quote?

Tolstoy, as the narrator, gives us this line almost immediately after the famous opening about happy and unhappy families. In the Oblonsky household, Stiva’s infidelity has broken the ordinary pattern of domestic life. Tolstoy begins with a household scandal to set up a contrast.

Why It Matters

We can feel the disorder without being told everything at once: servants whispering, children unsettled, Dolly wounded, Stiva trying to charm his way through the damage he has caused.

Private choices do not stay private for long. They disturb rooms, relationships, habits, and the fragile arrangements by which a family keeps moving through the day. They soon move outside of the house where they occurred.