Anna Karenina · Chapter
Part 3, Chapter XXXII explained
Levin's visit with his dying brother Nikolay ends in a bitter quarrel over Levin's agricultural theories, which Nikolay dismisses as unoriginal and vain.
What happens
Levin's visit with his dying brother Nikolay ends in a bitter quarrel over Levin's agricultural theories, which Nikolay dismisses as unoriginal and vain. Their inability to communicate honestly about Nikolay's impending death poisons their final days together. After a strained parting, Levin departs for abroad in a profound state of depression, seeing death everywhere and clinging to his work as his only guide.
Themes in this chapter
Isolation and Misunderstanding
The core of the chapter: Levin and Nikolay cannot bridge the gap between them. They feel forced to 'keep up appearances' instead of speaking from the heart about Nikolay's death, leading to alienation and a painful, unresolved parting.
Search for Meaning
Levin's agricultural theories are his attempt to find purpose. After the quarrel and facing his brother's mortality, he plunges into existential despair, seeing only death, and clings to his work as the 'one guiding clue in the darkness.'
Characters to notice
- Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin
Struggles to communicate honestly with his dying brother, leading to a quarrel over his agricultural plans. After the painful parting, he falls into deep despair, seeing death in everything and clinging to his work as his sole purpose.
- Nikolay Dmitrievitch Levin
His initial gentleness gives way to irritability. He attacks Levin's ideas as borrowed and vain, revealing his own past as a communist. His final, sincere farewell suggests he knows he is dying and they may not meet again.
- Kitty Shcherbatskaya
Mentioned indirectly through her cousin, Shtcherbatsky, whom Levin meets on the train, highlighting the connection to Levin's recent romantic past as he enters a period of crisis.
Key passages
“if they had both not kept up appearances, but had spoken, as it is called, from the heart... they would simply have looked into each other’s faces, and Konstantin could only have said, 'You’re dying, you’re dying!' and Nikolay could only have answered, 'I know I’m dying, but I’m afraid, I’m afraid, I’m afraid!'”
Levin reflects that honest communication between him and his brother is impossible; they are trapped by social conventions that prevent them from confronting Nikolay's fear of death directly.
Highlights the tragic gap between genuine feeling and social performance.
“"Anyway, don’t remember evil against me, Kostya!" and his voice quivered.”
Nikolay's final, sincere words to Levin are a plea for forgiveness and an unspoken acknowledgment that he is dying.
The only moment of true connection in their visit, underscoring the preceding isolation.
“He saw nothing but death or the advance towards death in everything. But his cherished scheme only engrossed him the more. Life had to be got through somehow till death did come.”
After his brother's departure, Levin is consumed by a nihilistic vision of life as merely a march toward death, with his work as the only thing giving it structure.
Marks a low point in Levin's spiritual crisis.