Ivan Tolstoy The Right Life Analysis

Biographical Information: Leo Tolstoy was born into an aristocratic family in 1828. He lost both his parents at a young age, and was sent to live on the family estate with his siblings. The estate, Yasnaya Polyana, was located 130 miles from Moscow. This isolation from the aristocracy is truly what set Tolstoy a part from his peers. He cultivated a genuine love and appreciation for the peasants (surfs) that lived on his family’s land. As he grew up he became a deeply moral person, and found it difficult to take part in the socially acceptable debauchery of his peers.
Tolstoy wrote what is considered the greatest Russian literature – Anna Karenina and War and Peace. However, his writing shifted away from worldly concerns when he suffered from a midlife crisis, and

Gerasim leads “the right life,” meaning that he is an authentic person.), Alienation (Ivan is slowly alienated by his illness, until he completely retreats into his own mind.), Bourgeois Society (throughout the text Tolstoy describes the upper class as materialistic, and shallow individuals who are only driven by self interest.)

Main Characters: Ivan Ilyich (protagonist), Gerasim (Ivan’s peasant servant – a young healthy man), Peter Ivanovich (Ivan’s closest friend and colleague – attends his funeral), Praskovya Fëdorovna (Ivan’s terribly selfish wife – she is more upset about a loss of income, than losing her spouse)

Interesting Quote
“Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” – Omniscient narrator (Tolstoy 746)

Discussion