Death

The one chapter Tolstoy titled: Death. Nicholas receives the sacrament and prays with a look of entreaty that frightens Levin, who knows the return to faith is only a selfish hope of recovery, and who prays himself — if Thou dost exist, heal this man, and Thou wilt save both him and me. For an hour Nicholas is better, asks for a cutlet, and everyone dares to hope; then he coughs and every trace of the hope is gone. He calls the sacrament a comedy gone through for Kitty's sake, and believes instead in inhaling iodine. That evening he says distinctly, 'I feel I am departing,' and later, 'Yes, yes! That's so!' as if something had been solved which stays dark to Levin — who sits holding his hand for three hours, wonders who lives next door, and feels chiefly envy. He does not die. Ten days of lies follow, everyone wishing him dead and bringing medicines. Mary Nikolavna reads the end in his clutching at himself. He answers the priest's farewell with 'Not quite! . . . Soon.' Kitty's illness turns out to be pregnancy.

The only titled chapter in the novel, and Tolstoy spends it refusing every consolation the title invites: the sacrament is recanted as a comedy, the deathbed drags ten more days, the watchers wish the man dead and lie about it. Levin's dominant feeling at the bedside is envy of knowledge he cannot share. The pregnancy is announced in one line, without being offered as compensation.