Summary
Levin throws himself into physical labor on his estate, working alongside his peasants in the fields with an intensity that borders on desperation. He's trying to exhaust himself physically so he won't have mental energy left to spiral into dark thoughts about the meaninglessness of existence. The harder he works, the more he hopes to quiet the philosophical torment that's been consuming him since his brother's death. But even as he sweats under the sun, cutting hay and hauling grain, his mind keeps circling back to the same terrible questions: What's the point of any of this? Why do we live only to die? His body aches, but his soul feels no relief. The peasants around him seem content with their simple lives, focused on immediate needs like food and shelter, and Levin envies their apparent peace. He wonders if meaning comes from accepting life's basic rhythms rather than questioning everything. This chapter shows Levin at his lowest point, using backbreaking work as a form of therapy, trying to find some connection to life through the most fundamental human activity - working the land. It's a raw portrait of depression and the search for purpose, showing how even physical exhaustion can't always quiet a tormented mind. Tolstoy captures that feeling many of us know - when you're so overwhelmed by life's big questions that you just want to work until you're too tired to think. Levin's struggle represents the universal human need to find meaning in daily existence, especially when confronted with mortality.
Coming Up in Chapter 153
Levin's physical exhaustion brings an unexpected moment of clarity, but whether this revelation will stick or fade like so many others remains to be seen. Sometimes the answers we seek come not from thinking harder, but from stopping the mental chatter altogether.
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An excerpt from the original text.(~500 words)
On arriving in Petersburg, Vronsky and Anna stayed at one of the best hotels; Vronsky apart in a lower story, Anna above with her child, its nurse, and her maid, in a large suite of four rooms. On the day of his arrival Vronsky went to his brother’s. There he found his mother, who had come from Moscow on business. His mother and sister-in-law greeted him as usual: they asked him about his stay abroad, and talked of their common acquaintances, but did not let drop a single word in allusion to his connection with Anna. His brother came the next morning to see Vronsky, and of his own accord asked him about her, and Alexey Vronsky told him directly that he looked upon his connection with Madame Karenina as marriage; that he hoped to arrange a divorce, and then to marry her, and until then he considered her as much a wife as any other wife, and he begged him to tell their mother and his wife so. “If the world disapproves, I don’t care,” said Vronsky; “but if my relations want to be on terms of relationship with me, they will have to be on the same terms with my wife.” The elder brother, who had always a respect for his younger brother’s judgment, could not well tell whether he was right or not till the world had decided the question; for his part he had nothing against it, and with Alexey he went up to see Anna. Before his brother, as before everyone, Vronsky addressed Anna with a certain formality, treating her as he might a very intimate friend, but it was understood that his brother knew their real relations, and they talked about Anna’s going to Vronsky’s estate. In spite of all his social experience Vronsky was, in consequence of the new position in which he was placed, laboring under a strange misapprehension. One would have thought he must have understood that society was closed for him and Anna; but now some vague ideas had sprung up in his brain that this was only the case in old-fashioned days, and that now with the rapidity of modern progress (he had unconsciously become by now a partisan of every sort of progress) the views of society had changed, and that the question whether they would be received in society was not a foregone conclusion. “Of course,” he thought, “she would not be received at court, but intimate friends can and must look at it in the proper light.” One may sit for several hours at a stretch with one’s legs crossed in the same position, if one knows that there’s nothing to prevent one’s changing one’s position; but if a man knows that he must remain sitting so with crossed legs, then cramps come on, the legs begin to twitch and to strain towards the spot to which one would like to draw them. This was what Vronsky was experiencing in regard to the world. Though at...
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Intelligence Amplifier™ Analysis
The Road of Exhaustion Therapy - When We Work Ourselves Into Numbness
Using physical work or busyness to avoid confronting difficult emotions or existential questions, mistaking motion for healing.
Why This Matters
Connect literature to life
This chapter teaches how to recognize when busyness is actually avoidance in disguise.
Practice This Today
This week, notice when you suddenly feel compelled to deep-clean the house, binge-watch shows, or take on extra work—ask yourself what feeling you might be avoiding.
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Terms to Know
Estate agriculture
Large landowners managing farms worked by peasants or serfs. The landowner lived off the profits while peasants did the physical labor for wages or a share of crops. This was the backbone of Russian rural economy.
Modern Usage:
Like today's corporate farms where executives manage from offices while migrant workers do the fieldwork for low wages.
Physical labor as therapy
Using hard manual work to quiet mental anguish or depression. The idea that exhausting your body can give your troubled mind a break from spiraling thoughts.
Modern Usage:
When people hit the gym hard after a breakup, or throw themselves into home renovation projects during stressful times.
Existential crisis
Deep questioning about the meaning and purpose of life, often triggered by death or major life changes. The feeling that nothing matters and life has no point.
Modern Usage:
The 'quarter-life crisis' or 'midlife crisis' when people suddenly question if their job, relationships, or goals actually matter.
Class consciousness
Awareness of social class differences and how they affect daily life. Levin notices how peasants seem content with simple concerns while he torments himself with abstract questions.
Modern Usage:
When you realize your problems seem trivial compared to someone working three jobs just to pay rent.
Mortality anxiety
Fear and obsession with death that can paralyze someone's ability to enjoy life. Often triggered by losing someone close or facing your own mortality.
Modern Usage:
The panic some people feel after a friend dies young, or the depression that hits after a cancer diagnosis in the family.
Peasant wisdom
The idea that simple, uneducated people have a natural understanding of life's rhythms and meaning that educated people have lost through overthinking.
Modern Usage:
When your grandmother's simple advice makes more sense than all the self-help books you've read.
Characters in This Chapter
Konstantin Levin
Protagonist in crisis
Throws himself into backbreaking farm work to escape his depression and existential dread. He's desperately trying to find meaning through physical labor after his brother's death has shattered his worldview.
Modern Equivalent:
The burned-out executive who quits his job to become a carpenter
The peasant workers
Contrast figures
Work alongside Levin in the fields, seemingly content with their simple lives focused on basic needs. Their apparent peace makes Levin question whether education and privilege are actually burdens.
Modern Equivalent:
The coworkers who clock out at 5pm and don't stress about the big picture
Key Quotes & Analysis
"He wanted to forget himself in sleep, in forgetfulness, in anything that would deliver him from the agony of consciousness."
Context: Describing Levin's mental state as he pushes his body to exhaustion
This captures the desperate attempt to escape depression through physical exhaustion. Levin isn't working to accomplish something - he's working to stop thinking and feeling.
In Today's Words:
He just wanted his brain to shut up and leave him alone.
"The longer he worked, the more often he felt those moments of unconsciousness in which it seemed not his hands that swung the scythe, but the scythe cutting of itself."
Context: Levin losing himself in the rhythm of farm work
This shows how repetitive physical work can create a meditative state where conscious thought disappears. It's the closest Levin gets to peace in this chapter.
In Today's Words:
He got so into the zone that his body just moved on autopilot.
"What did it matter to them whether they lived or died? What was the meaning of life to them?"
Context: Watching the peasants work without apparent existential angst
Levin envies what he sees as the peasants' simple acceptance of life. He's projecting his own need for philosophical answers onto people who may simply be focused on survival.
In Today's Words:
These guys don't seem to stress about the meaning of life like I do.
Thematic Threads
Class
In This Chapter
Levin envies the peasants' apparent contentment with simple survival needs, seeing their lack of philosophical torment as a blessing of their social position
Development
Evolved from earlier romanticizing of peasant life - now Levin sees their circumstances as protection from existential crisis
In Your Life:
You might catch yourself thinking people with 'simpler' lives are happier, missing that everyone faces their own version of life's big questions
Identity
In This Chapter
Levin tries to lose himself in physical labor, hoping to find meaning through the most basic human activity of working the land
Development
His identity crisis deepens as he searches for authentic selfhood through manual work rather than intellectual pursuits
In Your Life:
You might find yourself changing jobs, hobbies, or routines hoping external changes will solve internal confusion about who you are
Personal Growth
In This Chapter
This represents Levin's lowest point - he's using work as avoidance rather than facing his philosophical crisis directly
Development
His growth journey hits rock bottom, showing that running from problems through activity doesn't lead to real development
In Your Life:
You might recognize moments when you're spinning your wheels, staying busy to avoid the hard work of actually growing
Human Relationships
In This Chapter
Levin feels isolated from the peasants despite working alongside them - his existential torment separates him even in shared labor
Development
Shows how internal struggles can create barriers to connection even in communal activities
In Your Life:
You might feel lonely even when surrounded by people, especially when dealing with problems others seem not to share
Social Expectations
In This Chapter
Levin rejects his expected role as landowner-observer and throws himself into peasant work, seeking authenticity through manual labor
Development
His rebellion against aristocratic expectations intensifies as he searches for genuine purpose
In Your Life:
You might find yourself rejecting others' expectations of how you should live, work, or spend your time when searching for authentic meaning
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
- 1
What does Levin hope to achieve by throwing himself into physical labor alongside the peasants?
analysis • surface - 2
Why does Levin envy the peasants' apparent contentment with their simple lives?
analysis • medium - 3
Where do you see people today using busyness or physical work to avoid dealing with difficult thoughts or emotions?
application • medium - 4
If you were Levin's friend, what advice would you give him about finding healthier ways to process his existential questions?
application • deep - 5
What does Levin's struggle teach us about the relationship between physical exhaustion and emotional healing?
reflection • deep
Critical Thinking Exercise
Map Your Own Exhaustion Patterns
Think about the last time you felt overwhelmed by big life questions or difficult emotions. Write down what activities you threw yourself into to avoid thinking about them. Then identify what you were really trying to avoid confronting. Finally, brainstorm one small step you could take to face that issue directly instead of running from it through busyness.
Consider:
- •Consider both obvious examples (overworking) and subtle ones (over-scheduling, endless scrolling, excessive cleaning)
- •Notice the difference between productive work that moves you forward and exhaustion therapy that keeps you stuck
- •Think about what makes some people able to sit with difficult questions while others need constant motion
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when you successfully faced a difficult truth instead of avoiding it through busyness. What gave you the courage to stop running, and what did you discover when you finally sat still?
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 153
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.