Chapter 143
That evening Levin thinks of the text about things hidden from the ...
“Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” So Levin thought about his wife as he talked to her that evening. Levin thought of the text, not because he considered himself “wise and prudent.” He did not so consider himself, but he could not help knowing that he had more intellect than his wife and Agafea Mihalovna, and he could not help knowing that when he thought of death, he thought with all the force of his intellect. He knew too that the brains of many great men, whose thoughts he had…
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Now let's explore the literary elements.
Key Quotes & Analysis
"hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."
Context: Evening after the sick-room
Levin applies Scripture to Kitty's certainty.
In Today's Words:
Levin recalls the Gospel line about truth hidden from the wise and shown to babes. He does not call himself wise, yet he knows his intellect outmatches Kitty's while hers outmatches his at death. Tolstoy uses Scripture not as sermon but as measure of two kinds of knowledge: argument versus presence beside the dying.
"physical treatment, the relief of suffering, both Agafea Mihalovna and Kitty required for the dying man something else more important than the physical treatment, and something which had nothing in common with physical conditions."
Context: On Kitty and Agafea
Shared certainty about death.
In Today's Words:
Kitty and Agafea share one way of seeing death without the hesitation that paralyzes Levin. They could not answer his abstract questions, yet they know what to do. Tolstoy suggests communal faith and women's practice teach what philosophy often cannot: how to stay in the room.
"they’re not for this world."
Context: Speaking of young Nikolay
Regret opens friendship too late.
In Today's Words:
Kitty says she feels she and Nikolay might have been friends, then looks at Levin with tears. She imagines the charming youth he was, not only the ruined body in the hotel. The line widens Levin's grief from brotherhood to missed kinship and shows how death can make you mourn a person you barely knew while they were alive.
"might have been friends!"
Context: Answering Kitty's regret
Levin names Nikolay's type.
In Today's Words:
Levin says Nikolay is one of those people not for this world. The phrase excuses and mourns at once: he was ill-suited to survival, perhaps too gentle or too self-destructive for ordinary life. It closes the evening before unction and the longer death watch, naming a type many families recognize without knowing how to help.
Thematic Threads
Faith and practice
In This Chapter
Sacrament and absolution join linen care.
Development
Prepares unction scene in Chapter 144.
In Your Life:
Ritual and housekeeping often travel together at death.
Marriage tested
In This Chapter
Levin ashamed; Kitty battle-ready at night.
Development
Deepens Levin-Kitty bond through Nikolay.
In Your Life:
Crisis reveals which partner can still act.
Lost friendship
In This Chapter
Kitty says they might have been friends.
Development
Humanizes Nikolay beyond disgust.
In Your Life:
Death revives who someone was before ruin.
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
This is not a test. Five prompts guide you through the chapter, from how it opens to how it closes, so you notice context and rhythm rather than facts to memorize. Sit with each question in your own words. When you see "One way to read it," treat it as a starting point, not the only answer.
- 1
Why does Levin think of the wise and prudent text?
analysis • surfaceOne way to read it
He sees that Kitty and Agafea know how to be with the dying while his intellect only increases his fear and helplessness.
- 2
How is Kitty's care more than instinct?
analysis • mediumOne way to read it
She combines physical relief with spiritual preparation like sacrament, sharing a cultural way of seeing death, not mere animal reflex.
- 3
Why is Levin ashamed to talk to Kitty that night?
application • mediumOne way to read it
Her competence highlights his paralysis; eating or chatting would feel unseemly beside her battle-ready care.
- 4
What does not for this world mean for Nikolay?
application • deepOne way to read it
Levin names a type of person too gentle or ruined for ordinary survival, mixing excuse, grief, and class judgment.
- 5
When has someone without your education handled a crisis better than you?
reflection • deepOne way to read it
The babes' certainty pattern invites humility about who can act when thinkers only analyze.
Critical Thinking Exercise
Two Ways of Knowing Death
List what Levin knows about death in theory and what Kitty does in practice the same day. Which list helps Nikolay more?
Consider:
- •Include Gospel text
- •Include extreme unction
- •Include Soden experience
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time presence mattered more than the right words.
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 144
Nikolay will receive extreme unction, briefly seem to recover, then die while Levin faces death and new life together. The next day Nikolay receives sacrament and extreme unction. His eyes fixed on the holy image show passionate prayer that awes and pains Levin, who knows this faith is a desperate, temporary hope, not the brother's old unbelief honestly earned.
