Leo Tolstoy's The Death Of Ivan Ilych

Leo Tolstoy’s masterful novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych addresses the formation and continuation of cultural norms on a superficial society, propelled by wide-spread acceptance of unjust, unfulfilling means to happiness. The piece follows the life, and death, of Ivan Ilych, a dreadfully mundane man in a overbearing society, disillusioned by severe sickness and left alone to deal with the consequences of such discoveries. Tolstoy’s work successfully integrates the life of a judge as the means by which he is able to reflect the disastrous and unenlightened concepts propelled by both Russian Society and modern civilization. This harrowing texts brings forth a depressing and complex tale to a newfound audience through simplistic and metaphorical

The Death of Ivan Ilych is an unwavering, insightful piece, successful in convention of ideas, reflective of strong literary ability, and relevant to nearly all modern societies.
Foremost, The Death of Ivan Ilych, is effective in retaining a great amount of literary messages and complex themes which continuously question the constructs within the story, and initiate the reader’s involvement in the piece. Ivan’s life reflects that of the middle class, able to achieve a lofty position as a judge through means which require no personal integrity or excessive labor, merely vague dedication to an unfulfilling position. Tolstoy incorporates the gradual downfall of Ivan Ilych’s initially idealistic, and greatly naive evaluation of a successful position. The reader is able to see this through specific actions made by the character, such as Ivan Ilych’s exasperation regarding a leave of absences, resulting in his pursuit of jobs based on financial reimbursement, rather

Ivan Ilych begins by introducing the reader to the announcement of Ivan Ilych’s death, and assessing the subsequent events. Tolstoy allows the reader to understand the piece by leading with the Ivan’s life. Therefore, throughout the text, the audience knows and understands the outcome of the plot’s events, making the reader able to connect the work with it’s conclusion and reinforcing the overriding themes. Furthermore, this work reflects strong literary style, which is able to further promote the weight of the text, as well as reader engagement. Tolstoy’s charismatic, yet dark, narrator achieves a persona of honesty and insight, speaking beyond the story and highlighting the opinion of the author. Yet beyond the reader’s initial interpretation of the text and evaluation of forefront components, Tolstoy takes advantages of complex and simplistic metaphors to propel his themes and ideals. Infact, the entire life of Ivan Ilych plays as a metaphor which reflects the simplicity of conformity and negative, yet necessary disillusionment to Russian society. Aspects of the characters’ life, such as the seemingly elegant house which Ivan Ilych spend a great deal of effort to improve and design, proves to be no different than any other of its class, a concept