Quote Originally Posted by zimmerwald1915 View Post
I'm with you so far.


But not to this point. That's not in the quote, and it's not evident from Ivan's behavior. He cared about what he projected, believed, his wife might want, probably based on his image of women generally. He demonstrably did not listen to what she actually wanted.
I'm not sure he COULD have listened. Arranged marriages generally don't allow divorce. Granted, he could just allow her to leave...Which he did.