Stiva’s wife and Kitty’s older sister. Dolly is one of the few people who behave kindly toward Anna after her affair becomes public. Dolly’s sympathetic response to Anna’s situation and her guarded admiration for Anna’s attempt to live her life fully hint at the positive aspects of Anna’s experience. Well acquainted with the hardships of matrimony and motherhood, Dolly is, more than anyone else in the novel, in a position to appreciate what Anna has left behind by leaving with Vronsky. The novel opens with the painful revelation that Dolly’s husband has betrayed her, and her even more painful awareness that he is not very repentant.