Chapter 144
The next day Nikolay receives sacrament and extreme unction
The next day the sick man received the sacrament and extreme unction. During the ceremony Nikolay Levin prayed fervently. His great eyes, fastened on the holy image that was set out on a card-table covered with a colored napkin, expressed such passionate prayer and hope that it was awful to Levin to see it. Levin knew that this passionate prayer and hope would only make him feel more bitterly parting from the life he so loved. Levin knew his brother and the workings of his intellect: he knew that his unbelief came not from life being easier for him without…
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Now let's explore the literary elements.
Key Quotes & Analysis
"extreme unction. During the ceremony Nikolay Levin prayed fervently."
Context: During the sacrament
Unbeliever's conditional prayer.
In Today's Words:
Levin, an unbeliever, prays that if God exists He will make Nikolay recover. The prayer is repeated habit yet agonizingly sincere in crisis. Tolstoy holds irony and need together: Levin cannot believe yet cannot refuse to ask. The line marks his spiritual life as unfinished argument, not settled atheism.
"Right!”"
Context: Whispered with Kitty after brief improvement
Levin resists false hope.
In Today's Words:
When Kitty whispers that Nikolay is better, Levin answers that nothing is wonderful in it. He will not join self-deception for long, even when he shares her hope for an hour. Tolstoy uses his dryness to puncture false comfort before the cough returns and every hope dies again, teaching readers to honor brief relief without calling it a cure.
"They’re getting cold,”"
Context: Whispered at the bedside
Physical sign of approaching death.
In Today's Words:
Marya Nikolaevna whispers that Nikolay's feet are getting cold. The detail is plain and final, the kind of knowledge caregivers carry without philosophy or debate. Levin's long vigil has prepared him, yet the words still mark the turn from dying to dead and show who often names the moment first in a room full of family.
"symptom that she was with child."
Context: After death, on Kitty's pregnancy
Life follows death without answering it.
In Today's Words:
After death's unsolved mystery, another equally insoluble mystery urges Levin toward love and life: Kitty's pregnancy confirmed by the doctor. Tolstoy refuses a single meaning. Horror beside the corpse does not cancel creation; it intensifies the need to go on. Levin is not given answers, only love under menace that grows stronger and purer.
Thematic Threads
False hope
In This Chapter
Brief recovery after unction and cutlet.
Development
Shows cruelty of medical and ritual optimism.
In Your Life:
Short rallies can deepen grief when they end.
Deceit around dying
In This Chapter
Everyone pretends remedies may work.
Development
Levin feels this lie most because he loves Nikolay.
In Your Life:
Families often perform hope everyone knows is false.
Life after death
In This Chapter
Pregnancy confirmed after Nikolay dies.
Development
Prepares Levin's spiritual arc toward fatherhood.
In Your Life:
New obligations can arrive before old grief is understood.
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 is the brief recovery after unction painful for Levin?
analysis • surfaceOne way to read it
He knows the faith and hope are desperate and temporary, so joy feels like self-deception that will make loss harsher.
- 2
What does Levin mean by interested faith?
analysis • mediumOne way to read it
Nikolay prays not from intellectual conversion but from hope of recovery, which Levin respects as human yet cannot share.
- 3
Why does Levin feel envy at the deathbed?
application • mediumOne way to read it
The dying man seems to approach clarity Levin cannot reach; envy replaces ordinary sorrow for a moment.
- 4
How does Kitty's pregnancy change the chapter's ending?
application • deepOne way to read it
It pairs an insoluble mystery of death with an insoluble mystery of life, pushing Levin toward love without explanation.
- 5
When have you seen new life or duty arrive before grief made sense?
reflection • deepOne way to read it
The twin mystery pattern names how creation and loss often overlap without canceling each other.
Critical Thinking Exercise
Map the Deathbed Arc
Chart Nikolay's day from unction to death to pregnancy news. Note each shift in Levin's feeling: prayer, false hope, envy, love.
Consider:
- •Include interested faith
- •Include collective deceit
- •Include twin mystery
Journaling Prompt
Write about a funeral season that coincided with a birth or new responsibility.
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 145
In Petersburg Karenin will face solitude and humiliation while Anna is gone, unable to reconcile past tenderness with present shame. From talks with Betsy and Stiva, Karenin understands he must leave Anna in peace without burdening her, and that she wants this. He cannot decide anything himself and assents to those glad to manage his affairs.
