When Levin thinks too much or too often about what he is and what he is living for, he has no answers and sinks further into despair; finally he stops asking the questions. After returning to the country in June, Levin resumes his usual activities. He manages his estate; he interacts with the peasants and his neighbors; he takes care of his household; he acts as steward for his sister’s and brother’s property; he loves his wife, son, and relatives; and he works on his newest hobby, bee-keeping.

Levin is disappointed by the failure of his former efforts to enhance the general welfare. Now he spends his time on things which seem to him to be the only things he can do, and he works only for himself and for the benefit of his own family. Though he feels no delight in it, he has an absolute conviction of its necessity. He cuts more deeply into the soil, like a plough, so he will not be swayed from his course.

For Levin, it is incontestably necessary to live the same family life, the same “condition of culture,” as his father and forefathers. And just as it is necessary to cook dinner to satisfy hunger, then, it is necessary for him to keep the “mechanism of agriculture” at Pokrovskoe going in order to yield an income. He must keep the property in such a condition that one day his son will thank him for it, just as he thanked his grandfather for all he had built and planted. To accomplish this goal, Levin must attend to the work of planting and breeding and harvesting.

It is impossible for Levin to stop looking after his brother’s and sister’s business, to advise the peasants who sought him out, to see to the comfort of his sister-in-law and her children and his wife and child, and it is impossible for him not to spend at least a short time with them each day. These things, plus some occasional shooting and his new interest in bee-keeping, fill his life—a life which has no meaning at all when he begins to think about it.

Just as he knows exactly what he must do in life, Levin also knows how to do all of it and how to prioritize it. In money, land, and cattle, he knows what he must and must not do, just as he knows when to be lenient and when to punish the peasants who work for and with him. Levin knows that he must leave his beloved bees at the end of the day and that when he does finally go home, he must first visit his wife who is unwell.

Reasoning has made him doubt and caused him to lose sight of what is and is not important. When he does not think, his judgment in these matters is infallible. So he lives without any chance of answering the great existential questions, which harasses him to the point of suicide, yet firmly forging his own individual path in life.