His house represents his whole world, for here his parents spent their lives and here he and his brother were born. Although his mother died when he was very young, her image is sacred to him, and his future wife must satisfy the holy ideal of woman he conceives in his mother's image. Unlike his friends for whom marriage is merely one of the numerous facts of social life, Levin considers it the chief affair of life, basic to his entire happiness. He has always looked forward to the family he would have, then, secondarily, to the wife.
Sipping a cup of tea that evening, sitting with his faithful housekeeper, Agafea Mihalovna, reading a book, Levin daydreams. He finds all nature in unity and at peace. "One must struggle to live better, much better," he muses, happily concluding that "nothing's amiss, all's well."
