She is Prince Shcherbatsky's eldest daughter and Kitty's sister. She is married to Stepan Arkadyevich (Stiva), but her marriage has collapsed due to Stiva's endless infidelities. She is the primary representative in the novel of sacrifice, the suffering honest aristocratic woman, and motherhood. Because of her husband, her life revolves around poverty, children's illnesses, broken furniture, and the drafty rooms of a farmhouse. Despite this, she stands by Kitty during her illness, fills Levin with hope for marriage, and shows her friendship by visiting Anna Karenina at Vronsky's house while all of society has turned its back on her. Although she briefly envies Anna's passionate world there, she senses the deep devastation behind that mask and returns to the realistic peace of her life dedicated to her duties and children.
Her youth was spent in the noble, sheltered mansion of the Shcherbatskys as a very happy girl full of dreams. She thought she had made a love match with Stiva, but the nine years of marriage brought her only seven pregnancies, a lost child, and betrayal. She had to experience the end of her youth prematurely.
Although she was quite beautiful in the past, she is now a woman thinned by the marks of frequent pregnancies, childcare, and heavy sorrow, with thinning hair, prominent bones, pale skin, and clean but large, tired eyes.
Anna Karenina
Ona felaket günlerinde akıl verdiği ve yuvasını korumada merhamet ettiği için ilk başlarda şükran duyduğu; sonradan kendi fırtınalı ahlaksızlık tünelinden ötürü hem acıdığı hem yadırgadığı görümcesi ve kader bağı olan dostu.
Konstantin Levin
Samimiyetine, saflığına son derece güvendiği, karı-kocalık sevgisini ve doğru hayatı bulacağını sezdiği en dürüst ahbabı.
Kiti Şçerbatskaya
Kendi geçirdiği tecrübelerden dolayı hep korumak, doğru yolu göstermek ve iyi yuvayı Levin ile kurmasına sağlamak istediği kız kardeşi.
Stepan Oblonski (Stiva)
Zayıflığı ve rahatlığı nedeniyle saygı duymadığı, ancak evi ve çoluk çocuğu için aldatılma kederine tahammül edip affettiği umursamaz eşi.