r Karenin becomes the basic truth which makes him___ a living human being capable of love. While on the other hand, Vronsky takes on the role of Karenin, he is unable to deal with Anna's deathbed crisis and even goes as far as attempting to suicide. This awareness of life-in-death provides the climax of the novel, with the main characters perceiving the truth from theheights of their emotional intensity. Hate and deceit no longer exist in the presence of death, and the three characters live in amoment of pure innocence. Yet as the crisis ends, and everything returns to normality, Anna, Vronsky and Karenin return to their old ways to live in that world of delusion. Anna and Vronsky continues with their ill-fated love, while Karenin despite his ennoblement, finds Anna cannot love him and reverts back to his old ways. This clearly shows that death brings about the ultimate truth of life and the world of the living is just a delusion. Death in the novel is personified by Levin's brother, the all-too-intimate Nikolai, whose lingering, ghastly death pushes Levin to make the leap of faith. This the leap of faith which the other characters had experienced, but were unable to retain after their dramatic experience with death. Levin is unlike them, and is in fact, able to discover for himself the meaning of life in the world and retain his leap of faith. For Levin in the end, he is no longer afraid of death and even though he does not completely change, he now knows the meaning of life and is at peace. Levin's example here provides for the reader an insight into Tolstoy's intertwining and complex structure in Anna Karenina. Thereader is able to better understand how the role of death is critical to the novel. Levin serves as the backbone for Tolstoy's emphasis on the "natural life" where one loves and procreates, as opposed to the "unnatural life" where one lives by abstract principles. The natural man, according to Tolstoy, grasps li...
