Anna Karenina Ch. 144: Chapter 144

Summary

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. Levin still prays: if Thou exist, make this man recover. After unction Nikolay seems better for an hour, smiles, thanks Kitty, asks for cutlet. Levin and Kitty share happy, fearful excitement until cough returns and every hope vanishes.

Nikolay gasps that he went through the farce for Katya's sake, breathes iodine with the same desperate look, then says he is setting off. Levin sends Kitty out. Cold feet, long vigil, envy of the dying man's growing clarity, false rallies and agony, collective deceit of doctors and remedies everyone knows are vain. On the tenth day Kitty is ill; after dinner she still tends him. He dies after the prayer for the dying, with one last not quite soon before the women lay out the corpse.

Death revives Levin's old horror before the insoluble enigma. Yet Kitty's presence keeps him from despair; love under menace grows stronger. One mystery scarcely passes before another arises: the doctor confirms she is with child. Life and death stand side by side without Levin solving either.

In this chapter: Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Letting Life Stand Beside Unsolved Death

Some losses never yield a theory that makes them bearable. Levin watches Nikolay die after false hope, ritual, and a long vigil, and death stays as dark as ever, yet Kitty's pregnancy opens another mystery that pushes him toward love anyway.

When meaning fails after a death, notice whether love or duty still asks you to live forward without pretending the question is answered.

Coming Up in 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..

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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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Critical Thinking Exercise

12 minutes

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.

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Chapter 144

Summary