Andrew in a dream sees death overcomes both his love for Natásha and his fears of death. Andrew begins to slip away from this life and, a few days later, he dies peacefully with Natásha and Mary by his side
Andrew in a dream sees death overcomes both his love for Natásha and his fears of death. Andrew begins to slip away from this life and, a few days later, he dies peacefully with Natásha and Mary by his side
Book 12, Chapter 16
Andrew in a dream sees death overcomes both his love for Natásha and his fears of death. Andrew begins to slip away from this life and, a few days later, he dies peacefully with Natásha and Mary by his side.
Summary:
Andrew’s illness pursued its normal physical course, but what Natásha referred to when she said: This suddenly happened, had occurred two days before Princess Mary arrived. For Andrew, this was the culminating spiritual struggle between life and death, in which death gained the victory. It was the unexpected realization of the fact that he still valued life as presented to him in the form of his love for Natásha, and a last, though ultimately vanquished, attack of terror before the unknown. The turning point seemed to come in a dream he had that evening. Andrew was beginning to doze when suddenly a feeling of happiness seized him, which always happened now whenever Natásha was nearby. He asks her if he will recover. She tells him he will. But then, Andrew dozes off and in a dream he sees death trying to enter his room through a door. In the dream he tries to block the door, but Andrew is unable to prevent death entering the room. After that evening, not only did Prince Andrew know he would die, but he felt that he was dying and was already half dead. Without haste or agitation he prepared for death and awaited what was coming. He awaits what comes next, no longer afraid of death. A few days later, with Mary and Natásha at his side, Andrew slips away.
quote from the chapter:
During the hours of solitude, suffering, and partial delirium he spent after he was wounded, the more deeply he penetrated into the new principle of eternal love revealed to him, the more he unconsciously detached himself from earthly life. To love everything and everybody and always to sacrifice oneself for love meant not to love anyone, not to live this earthly life. And the more imbued he became with that principle of love, the more he renounced life and the more completely he destroyed that dreadful barrier which-in the absence of such love-stands between life and death. When during those first days he remembered that he would have to die, he said to himself: Well, what of it? So much the better!
But after the night in Mytíshchi when, half delirious, he had seen her for whom he longed appear before him and, having pressed her hand to his lips, had shed gentle, happy tears, love for a particular woman again crept unobserved into his heart and once more bound him to life. And joyful and agitating thoughts began to occupy his mind.
Click here to read full text of this chapter.
Please help improve this shared document by posting your suggested corrections, clarifications, and changes below. Thank you!