Dolly Oblonsky Amanda Root Dolly Oblonsky is married to Anna's brother, Stiva, and, despite his infidelities, she loves him and is true to him. Similarly, she continues to stand by Anna while others shun her after her affair with Vronsky becomes public. Despite her own rocky marriage, Dolly encourages Kitty to marry Levin. In Tolstoy's exploration of marriage, she represents the long-suffering wife and devoted mother. Amanda Root's recent film work includes the ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, as well as an adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. In Anna Karenina, she was determined that Dolly should not be seen as a pushover. "I felt passionately that Dolly is not a little victim. She's courageous and brave and has to make a very hard choice, one that she doesn't take lightly, to make her marriage work. Life is so different for women today. Put me in Dolly's situation and I'd go mad, but at that period, the majority of women were in precisely her position -- married to men who were constantly having affairs. I really admire her courage in sticking it out and working at a future. I think people underestimate how powerful that is. In marriages today, lots of people look at just what can you get out, not what you put in. For Dolly, it's the opposite."