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

contemplated ending his own life. During this time he left the Russian Orthodox Church and set out on a journey to find his own religion. Tolstoy decided to closely study the Gospels, and live a quiet life of poverty, modeled after the life of Jesus Christ. The Death of Ivan Ilyich was his first work of fiction following a conversion to his new religion. It was at this point when he begin shunning material things and living the simple life of a peasant; which he regarded as far superior to the lifestyle of the aristocracy. This shift to simplicity greatly reflected in his later work, as can be seen in this text.

Historical Context: During Tolstoy’s lifetime Russian society was divided into three categories: the aristocracy, town merchants, and serfs. The aristocracy had all the political power, while the town merchants and serfs worked to serve them. The amount of serfs owned by the aristocracy totaled 23 million in Tolstoy’s youth. Although the aristocracy maintained control of Russia, they knew very little of their own culture. Many of them spoke French and closely followed the trends of Western Europe. This only created a larger divide between the rich and the poor.

More about The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Genre: Novella, Exemplum (tale told explicitly to illustrate a moral lesson), Satire of upper class

Setting: Petersburg and varying Russian provinces/cities

Themes/Motifs: The Inevitability of Death (towards the end of the story Ivan begins struggling with his mortality), The Right Life (Ivan leads an artificial life, he is materialistic and all his relationships are shallow.

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

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