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Summaries and Commentaries

Part 5: Chapters 14 to 20

Out of more than two hundred chapters, only the one dealing with Nicolais last illness has a title. This chapter--Chapter 20--called "Death," had great significance for Tolstoy, wherein he records the death of his own brother. The moment holds tremendous significance for Levin as well. He discovers more poignantly than ever that the mysteries of existence are not revealed to the intellect. Only an emotional experience can provide an individual with tools to accept the fact of death. While Levin finds himself still blocked at confronting death, Kitty is able to handle the situation. Marveling at his wife's intuitive ability to confront sickness and death, Levin remarks to himself, "Thou hast hid things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes." Until he can renounce intellectual seeking to life's problems, Levin will still lack self-fulfillment. Kitty, on the other hand, fulfills her human destiny because she has no intellectual orientation.


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