Anna Karenina · Chapter
The Agony of Nikolay Levin explained
Nikolay Levin's terminal illness reaches its final, agonizing stages.
What happens
Nikolay Levin's terminal illness reaches its final, agonizing stages. He vacillates between desperate hope for recovery, fueled by a temporary return to faith and Kitty's care, and bitter acceptance of his impending death. The chapter details the physical and emotional torment of his final days, the strain on Levin and Kitty as caregivers, and the profound, isolating experience of death.
Themes in this chapter
Search for Meaning
The chapter is a brutal confrontation with mortality. Nikolay's temporary, desperate return to faith contrasts with Levin's persistent, agonized unbelief. The process of dying strips away all other concerns, reducing existence to the single question of suffering and its end.
Isolation and Misunderstanding
Death is portrayed as the ultimate isolation. Nikolay's experience grows 'clearer and clearer' to him but remains 'dark as ever' for Levin. The shared deceit of hoping for recovery and the final, solitary journey emphasize the unbridgeable gap between the dying and the living.
Family and Domesticity
Tested under extreme duress. Levin's duty and love for his brother compel him to witness the agony. Kitty's nursing embodies domestic care pushed to its limits. The scene reveals both the bonds and the terrible burdens of familial obligation in the face of death.
Characters to notice
- Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin
Observes his brother's suffering with painful clarity, feeling the deceit of false hope. He grapples with his own unbelief, experiences emotional exhaustion, and feels a chilling detachment at the moment of death.
- Nikolay Dmitrievitch Levin
Endures immense physical pain and psychological torment. He briefly clings to faith and hope during the sacrament, but ultimately faces death with sarcastic wrath and a sense of finality, pushing others away.
- Kitty Shcherbatskaya
Devotes herself to nursing Nikolay, trying to soothe him and maintain hope. She becomes physically and morally exhausted by the ordeal, but remains steadfast in her care until ordered to leave.
- Marya Nikolaevna
Attends to Nikolay constantly, announcing his final moments and noting the physical signs of death, like his feet growing cold.
- Sergey Ivanovitch Koznishev
Mentioned indirectly; his letter begging forgiveness is read to Nikolay, who dismisses it with a request for a doctor, highlighting the chasm between social reconciliation and raw physical need.
Key passages
“All this was falsehood, disgusting, irreverent deceit.”
The pretense of hoping for recovery, maintained by everyone around the dying man, felt like a hollow and disrespectful lie.
Levin's perspective on the social and emotional charade surrounding terminal illness.
“"Oh, if it were only the end!" or: "When will it be over?"”
In moments of lucidity, the sick man's deepest desire was for death to come quickly.
Reveals the core longing beneath the surface demands for treatment and relief.
“And so all desires were merged in one—the desire to be rid of all his sufferings and their source, the body.”
His overwhelming suffering reduced every human want to a single wish: to escape the pain and the physical self causing it.
A philosophical observation on how extreme physical agony consumes identity and desire.
“"No; so I can say it.… It was for her sake I went through that farce."”
Once Kitty leaves, Nikolay admits his show of faith during the sacrament was a performance meant to comfort her.
Highlights the performative aspects of deathbed rituals and the protective lies told to loved ones.
“He could not even think of the problem of death itself, but with no will of his own thoughts kept coming to him of what he had to do next; closing the dead man’s eyes, dressing him, ordering the coffin.”
In the immediate face of death, Levin's mind retreated from the profound mystery to the practical, mundane tasks of handling a corpse.
Illustrates a psychological defense mechanism against the overwhelming reality of death.
