Anna Karenina · Chapter
Chapter XVII explained
Levin and Kitty arrive at a provincial hotel to visit Levin's dying brother, Nikolay.
What happens
Levin and Kitty arrive at a provincial hotel to visit Levin's dying brother, Nikolay. They are confronted by the hotel's squalor and a tense, awkward encounter with Nikolay's companion, Marya Nikolaevna. Levin is horrified by his brother's drastically deteriorated physical state. After initial hesitation and shame, Kitty insists on entering the sickroom with Levin, offering comfort and practical help, demonstrating her compassion and strength.
Themes in this chapter
Family and Domesticity
The chapter centers on the duty and emotional strain of caring for a dying family member. Kitty's insistence on joining Levin transforms the visit from a solitary burden into a shared marital duty.
Isolation and Misunderstanding
Nikolay's physical decay isolates him in a 'deathlike body,' and his reproachful glance highlights the chasm between the dying and the living. Levin's initial impulse to shield Kitty stems from his own isolated suffering.
Characters to notice
- Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin
Horrified by his brother's condition and the squalid hotel. Initially ashamed and angry at the situation with Kitty and Marya, but is persuaded by Kitty's resolve to face the ordeal together.
- Kitty Shcherbatskaya
Shows initial curiosity but quickly overcomes it with compassion. Insists on seeing Nikolay to support both him and her husband, demonstrating maturity and selflessness in the face of death.
- Nikolay Dmitrievitch Levin
Desperately ill and emaciated. His eyes hold a stern, reproachful look for the living. He shows a flicker of pleasure at seeing Kitty and is concerned about frightening her with his condition.
- Marya Nikolaevna
Nikolay's companion, flustered and ashamed upon meeting Levin and Kitty. She offers to leave but is instructed by Nikolay to tidy the room.
Key passages
“He had expected to find him in the same state of self-deception which he had heard was so frequent with the consumptive... He found something utterly different.”
Levin anticipated finding his brother in denial about his illness, but instead is confronted with the brutal, undeniable physical reality of approaching death.
Highlights the shock of reality versus expectation in facing mortality.
“"You must understand that for me to see you, and not to see him, is far more painful. There I might be a help to you and to him."”
Kitty argues that sharing in Levin's painful duty is less agonizing for her than being excluded from it, and that she can provide practical and emotional support.
Demonstrates Kitty's active compassion and her view of marriage as a partnership in hardship.
“The glittering eyes looked sternly and reproachfully at his brother as he drew near. And immediately this glance established a living relationship between living men.”
Despite Nikolay's near-death state, his accusatory gaze forges a powerful, painful connection with Levin, making Levin feel guilty for his own vitality and happiness.
Captures the complex emotional dynamic and unspoken communication between the brothers.