Some modern audience members have been confused by the object that Karenin (Jude Law) takes out of a small, oblong box in his and Anna's bedroom several times during the movie. This is a condom; for most of the history of contraception, condoms were made of animal- or plant-based materials (such as chemical-treated linen or sheep intestines or bladders), and they were not disposable (being rather expensive, they were often washed and reused). The first vulcanized rubber condoms were produced in the mid-1800s, but they were thick and unwieldy, so it is not unlikely that someone of Karenin's wealth and societal stature would still be using a reusable condom by the time of the setting of this story.