Summary
Levin throws himself into farm work with desperate intensity, trying to escape his torment over Kitty's rejection. He works alongside his peasants in the fields, finding temporary peace in physical labor and the rhythm of mowing hay. The harder he works, the more he loses himself in the simple, honest effort of cutting grass under the summer sun. For brief moments, he experiences something close to happiness - not the complicated, anxious happiness he'd imagined with Kitty, but something simpler and more grounded. His body aches, his hands blister, but his mind quiets. The peasants accept him as one of their own during these working hours, and he feels a connection to something larger than his personal disappointments. This chapter shows Levin discovering that sometimes the cure for emotional pain isn't thinking your way through it, but working your way through it. Tolstoy presents physical labor not as punishment, but as a form of meditation that can restore a person's sense of purpose. Levin begins to understand that meaning might come not from getting what you want, but from losing yourself in something worthwhile. The chapter also highlights the class tensions of Russian society - Levin can choose to work in the fields as therapy, while the peasants work because they must. Yet in the shared rhythm of the scythe, social barriers temporarily dissolve. This is Tolstoy showing us that healing often comes through connection - to work, to others, to the earth itself.
Coming Up in Chapter 148
Levin's newfound peace through labor faces its first test when unexpected visitors arrive at his estate. The outside world, with all its complications and social expectations, is about to intrude on his simple refuge.
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An excerpt from the original text.(~500 words)
The Countess Lidia Ivanovna had, as a very young and sentimental girl, been married to a wealthy man of high rank, an extremely good-natured, jovial, and extremely dissipated rake. Two months after marriage her husband abandoned her, and her impassioned protestations of affection he met with a sarcasm and even hostility that people knowing the count’s good heart, and seeing no defects in the sentimental Lidia, were at a loss to explain. Though they were divorced and lived apart, yet whenever the husband met the wife, he invariably behaved to her with the same malignant irony, the cause of which was incomprehensible. Countess Lidia Ivanovna had long given up being in love with her husband, but from that time she had never given up being in love with someone. She was in love with several people at once, both men and women; she had been in love with almost everyone who had been particularly distinguished in any way. She was in love with all the new princes and princesses who married into the imperial family; she had been in love with a high dignitary of the Church, a vicar, and a parish priest; she had been in love with a journalist, three Slavophiles, with Komissarov, with a minister, a doctor, an English missionary and Karenin. All these passions constantly waning or growing more ardent, did not prevent her from keeping up the most extended and complicated relations with the court and fashionable society. But from the time that after Karenin’s trouble she took him under her special protection, from the time that she set to work in Karenin’s household looking after his welfare, she felt that all her other attachments were not the real thing, and that she was now genuinely in love, and with no one but Karenin. The feeling she now experienced for him seemed to her stronger than any of her former feelings. Analyzing her feeling, and comparing it with former passions, she distinctly perceived that she would not have been in love with Komissarov if he had not saved the life of the Tsar, that she would not have been in love with Ristitch-Kudzhitsky if there had been no Slavonic question, but that she loved Karenin for himself, for his lofty, uncomprehended soul, for the sweet—to her—high notes of his voice, for his drawling intonation, his weary eyes, his character, and his soft white hands with their swollen veins. She was not simply overjoyed at meeting him, but she sought in his face signs of the impression she was making on him. She tried to please him, not by her words only, but in her whole person. For his sake it was that she now lavished more care on her dress than before. She caught herself in reveries on what might have been, if she had not been married and he had been free. She blushed with emotion when he came into the room, she could not repress a smile of rapture when he said anything...
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Intelligence Amplifier™ Analysis
The Road of Working Through Pain
Physical labor and focused activity can heal emotional wounds that thinking and analyzing cannot touch.
Why This Matters
Connect literature to life
This chapter teaches how to distinguish between avoidance and genuine healing through purposeful activity.
Practice This Today
This week, notice when you feel overwhelmed—try choosing one demanding but meaningful task instead of scrolling or overthinking, and observe whether focused work calms your mind differently than distraction does.
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Terms to Know
Peasant class
The lowest social class in 19th-century Russia, made up of farmers and agricultural workers who were often bound to the land they worked. They had few rights and lived in poverty, but maintained strong community bonds and work traditions.
Modern Usage:
Today we see similar dynamics with migrant farm workers, factory workers, or anyone doing essential physical labor that society depends on but often overlooks.
Scythe work
The rhythmic, skilled labor of cutting grass or grain with a long-handled blade. It required technique, endurance, and coordination with other workers moving across the field in formation.
Modern Usage:
Any repetitive physical work that creates a meditative state - like running, chopping wood, or even repetitive tasks like data entry that quiet the mind.
Landed gentry
Wealthy landowners like Levin who inherited estates and had the luxury of choosing whether to work or not. They lived off the labor of peasants but some, like Levin, felt guilty about this privilege.
Modern Usage:
Think trust fund kids or anyone born into wealth who struggles with guilt about their advantages while others work for survival.
Physical labor as therapy
The idea that hard physical work can heal emotional wounds by forcing the mind to focus on immediate, concrete tasks rather than painful thoughts. The body's exhaustion can quiet mental suffering.
Modern Usage:
This is why people hit the gym after breakups, take up gardening during depression, or throw themselves into home improvement projects during life crises.
Class boundaries
The invisible but powerful social barriers that separate different economic and social groups. These usually prevent genuine friendship or understanding between classes.
Modern Usage:
Still exists today between management and workers, between college-educated professionals and blue-collar workers, or between different income levels in the same workplace.
Mowing rhythm
The synchronized movement of multiple workers cutting grass together, each person matching the pace and timing of the group. It created both efficiency and a sense of unity.
Modern Usage:
Any group work where people fall into sync - assembly lines, kitchen crews during rush hour, or even teams working together on a deadline.
Characters in This Chapter
Levin
Tormented protagonist
Throws himself into physical farm work to escape his heartbreak over Kitty's rejection. He discovers that hard labor can provide peace that thinking cannot, and begins to understand meaning through work rather than romance.
Modern Equivalent:
The guy who works 80-hour weeks after a bad breakup
The peasant workers
Levin's temporary equals
Accept Levin as one of their own during the work hours, showing him genuine community and purpose. They work because they must, not because they choose to, highlighting the class differences.
Modern Equivalent:
The coworkers who welcome the boss's kid when they actually do the real work
Key Quotes & Analysis
"The longer Levin mowed, the oftener he felt those moments of unconsciousness in which it seemed not his hands that swung the scythe, but the scythe mowing of itself."
Context: As Levin loses himself in the rhythm of cutting grass
This describes the meditative state that comes from repetitive physical work. Levin's conscious mind, full of pain and overthinking, disappears as his body takes over. It's a form of healing through mindlessness.
In Today's Words:
The work became so automatic that his brain finally shut up and let his body handle it.
"He felt a pleasant coolness on his hot, perspiring shoulders."
Context: During a brief rest while mowing
This simple physical sensation represents relief from emotional heat. Tolstoy shows how bodily comfort can provide the peace that mental solutions cannot.
In Today's Words:
For the first time in weeks, he felt actual relief instead of just more anxiety.
"The old man's words seemed to him so significant that he could not help pondering over them."
Context: When an old peasant shares wisdom during their work
Levin begins to value practical wisdom over intellectual theories. The peasant's simple understanding of life carries more weight than all his educated overthinking.
In Today's Words:
Sometimes the maintenance guy knows more about life than the guy with the MBA.
Thematic Threads
Class
In This Chapter
Levin can choose to work in the fields as therapy while peasants work from necessity, highlighting privilege even in shared labor
Development
Continues exploring how economic position shapes every aspect of life experience
In Your Life:
Notice how your financial situation affects which 'therapeutic' activities you can choose versus which you must do
Identity
In This Chapter
Levin temporarily sheds his landowner identity to become simply another worker in the field
Development
Shows identity as fluid rather than fixed, changeable through action and context
In Your Life:
Consider how changing your role or environment might help you discover different parts of yourself
Personal Growth
In This Chapter
Levin learns that meaning comes not from getting what you want but from losing yourself in worthwhile work
Development
Shifts from external validation to internal purpose as source of fulfillment
In Your Life:
Growth often happens when you stop focusing on what you lack and start engaging fully with what's in front of you
Human Connection
In This Chapter
Shared physical labor creates temporary bonds across class lines that conversation couldn't achieve
Development
Explores how connection happens through shared action, not just shared words
In Your Life:
Sometimes you connect with people better by working alongside them than by trying to talk your way to understanding
Healing
In This Chapter
Physical exhaustion and focused work provide relief from emotional turmoil that reflection couldn't offer
Development
Introduced here as alternative to purely mental approaches to pain
In Your Life:
When your mind won't stop racing, your body might hold the key to peace
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
- 1
What does Levin discover about himself when he works in the fields with the peasants?
analysis • surface - 2
Why does physical labor give Levin peace when thinking about his problems couldn't?
analysis • medium - 3
When have you seen someone use physical work to deal with emotional stress? What kinds of activities seem to work best?
application • medium - 4
If you were advising someone stuck in painful overthinking, how would you help them choose between talking it out versus working it out?
application • deep - 5
What does Levin's experience reveal about the relationship between our minds and our bodies when we're in pain?
reflection • deep
Critical Thinking Exercise
Design Your Working Cure Toolkit
Create a personal menu of physical activities you could turn to when your mind won't stop spinning. Think about what you have access to right now - cleaning tasks, exercise options, creative projects, organizing jobs. List at least five specific activities that require your full attention but aren't mentally demanding. Next to each one, write when it would work best (after work, weekends, middle of the night).
Consider:
- •Choose activities that match your energy level when you're emotionally drained
- •Consider what supplies or space each activity requires
- •Think about activities that give you visible progress or results
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when you accidentally discovered that doing something with your hands helped calm your mind. What was the activity, and why do you think it worked better than just thinking through the problem?
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 148
What lies ahead teaches us key events and character development in this chapter, and shows us thematic elements and literary techniques. These patterns appear in literature and life alike.