Ivan Ilych and Gregor Samsa: Death Catalyzing Growth

A death in the family can really make you think about that person; fond memories, bad memories, your relationship with them, etc. It can make you realize that you loved them more than you thought or that you really didn’t like them that much. When the death is long, drawn-out, and agonizing, it gives you more time to realize these things, but it has the potential to cast a sour light on them and the situation. The person dying, meanwhile, has time for introspection as they go through the stages of grief associated with one’s own death. In The Death of Ivan Ilych and The Metamorphosis, this is basically all that is happening: a lengthy and excruciating death, introspection while dying, and a family reacting. In these two stories, the persons dying have very different attitudes toward their families, and the reactions from the families are likewise different, but there are similarities.

Ivan Ilych’s relationship with his family was not the worst, but it certainly wasn’t the best. I’m not sure if it could even be considered good, and I think Ivan Ilych did not consider it such either. In the beginning of their relationship, Ivan and his wife were cordial, but within a year, they were less-than. Their relationship remains rocky and argumentative throughout most of the story unless they are furnishing a home or something similar. His relationship with his daughter is somewhat distant. When the injury occurs, his family appears to be irritable about it while he is seriously reflecting on his life and decisions. Ivan Ilych realizes that he built his life upon falsities, and so has everyone around him, but it isn’t something he expresses to them. He ends his life by uttering words of pity. So, for most of his life, Ivan Ilych has been ...

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...eatly, especially Grete. Ivan Ilych’s and Gregor’s protracted suffering both catalyze change, but in different ways. The death and dying of a relative is always a huge ordeal for the person, their family, or both. It can be a sort of enlightenment directly caused by being consumed with your own death, like Ivan Ilych’s case; it can alternatively be a subtle maturing from the stress and caretaking of a dying person, like Grete’s. Many significant reactions come about only when death looms.

Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. "The Metamorphosis." Trans. Stanley Appelbaum The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Ed. Stanley Appelbaum. New York: Dover Publucaitons, Inc., 1996. 11-52. Print.

Tolstoy, leo. "The Death of Ivan Ilych." Trans. Louise Maude The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories. Ed. Stanley Appelbaum. New York: Dover Publicaitions, Inc., 1993. 15-63. Print.