"Death"(Part 5, chapter 20) is the only chapter of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina with a title. It is not the only death in the book; Anna's suicide at the end of the novel is arguably the story's most important death. Although the death of Nikolai Levin by no means drastically alters the plot, it helps illuminate certain aspects of the wider novel, particularly the author's concept of death, a potent and mysterious concept for both readers and characters. The idea of death and the life cycle is present throughout the novel and can be further explored through an examination of the narrator's tangible presence and how it shapes the passage dealing with Nikolai's death
[...] The fact that the narrator uses Nikolai's name when it is just he and his brother in the small room helps add to the implied intimacy of the situation; an intimacy that can be shared between immediate family and perhaps no one else. Before Levin leaves on his journey to visit his ailing brother, he and Kitty argue about whether she should come. Levin is opposed to her coming; she sees it as essential to their intimacy as a couple. [...]
[...] These qualifiers of death are arguably necessary in helping the reader understand Nikolai's plight. Death presents a mystery that not even the god- like narrator can fully comprehend. Although the diagnosis of Nikolai that, can't live for more than three days” (Tolstoy 497), came only pages before, there are still a number of points in where his recovery seems almost plausible. This possibility is as much affected by the mystery of death as it is by the observations of characters or the narrator. [...]
[...] The physical description is reinforced in the next paragraph when the narrator says, “obvious as it was from one look at him he could not recover” (Tolstoy 499). As his illness progresses over the next few pages, another “confining” description of Nikolai's physicality is of his voice. When he wakes, he is described as croaking when asking Levin about Kitty. Soon after, he is described as speaking with “difficulty” (Tolstoy 500) to Levin. Although this is a small, seemingly insignificant detail, it serves a similar purpose to the subjective descriptions of Nikolai's ailing body. [...]
[...] In the examined passage, the author's framework is not always “monolithically monologic”, as Bakhtin states. Rather, the narrator provides a framework in which the characters are able to function in a semi- autonomous way. The characters' actions shape our reading just as much as the narrator's subjective descriptions. It is not a monolithic novel, but very clearly a polyphonic one in which the narrator has a prominent voice. Throughout the novel, the author has tremendous, almost god like presence. There are few moments during which readers can ignore his voice. [...]
[...] The faith of the characters is demonstrated in a variety of ways throughout the short passage. Nikolai is first presented, not as a faithful man, but one who looked for “scientific explanation” (Tolstoy 499). Yet, despite the fact that he and his brother are not faithful, the first image we are presented with is that of big eyes, directed at an icon set on a card table covered with a flowery napkin (Tolstoy 499). Nikolai begins to feel better after his anointing and, later after him suddenly drew out peacefully, as if every question had been resolved for him. [...]
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