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The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy tells the story of Ivan Ilych’s evolving comprehension of what death means. As he comes closer to death, he sees that there is life within death, it is not what others perceive it to be and it cannot be denied. The only way to truly understand this is through perceiving life from a wise and spiritual individual’s perspective. This person has to guide one through what it means to find meaning and fulfillment in life. The only way to find this fulfilment is through coming in peace with thyself and allowing love and compassion to the true leading values that should direct one’s life. Ivan is a character who lives his life according to the expectations of other people in his society. The reason why he is so focused on other is that he is insecure and lacks a sense of self. Instead of depending on his own reason …show more content…
By forcing Ivan to confront the prospect of his death, it brings him face to face with his own isolation. That isolation terrifies Ivan, provoking serious existential reflection. Ivan begins to realization of how his life should’ve been when his son pressed Ivan’s hands from from his head to his lips and cried, “Ivan Ilych fell through and caught sight of the light, and it was revealed to him that though his life has not been what what it should have been, this could still be rectified” (Tolstoy 96). And as Ivan begins to examine his life, as he questions his existence and the rationale behind his suffering, he slowly begins to see that his life was not as it should have been. Ivan's illness reveals to him the true nature of life. As portrayed in the text, “In place of death was light” (Tolstoy 97). At the climactic moment of the novel, when Ivan passes into the presence of the light and realizes that compassion and love are the true life values by which to live, the incalculable joy that he experiences is proof of the worthiness and meaning of his
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy tells the story of Ivan Ilyich, a man who deals with a mysterious illness through introspection. Until his illness, he lived the life he thought he was supposed to live. Like Candide, he was living in blind optimism. He assumed that what he was doing was the right thing because he was told as much. He had a respectable job and a family. Happiness, if it did occur to him, was fulfilling his duties as a husband and father. It was his sudden illness that allowed him to reflect on his choices, concluding that those choices did not make him happy. “Maybe I have lived not as I should have… But how so when I did everything in the proper way” (Tolstoy 1474)? Ilyich had been in a bubble for his entire life, the bubble only popping when he realizes his own mortality. This puts his marriage, his career, and his life choices into perspective. Realizing that he does not get to redo these choices, he distances himself from his old life: his wife, his children, and his career. All that is left is to reflect. This reflection is his personal enlightenment. He had been living in the dark, blind to his true feelings for his entire life. Mortality creates a space in which he can question himself as to why he made the choices he made, and how those choices created the unsatisfactory life he finds himself in
Tolstoy provided us with two perspectives to view Ivan’s life in “The death of Ivan Illyich”: an omniscient narrator and Ivan himself. What I plan to do is give another perspective, not necessarily to view his life, but rather to his experiences after he realized he was dying. This perspective will be an analytical and psychological; the perspective from Kubler-Ross’s Stages of death (or stages of grief, as they are better known for). These stages occur when we are faced with an event that is usually connected with death. The “normal” order in which these five stages occur, though may not go doctrinally in this order, are as such: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
PI never quite makes the transition to the true understanding of the nature of life that Ivan had made and Gerasim as well. Even though upon leaving Ivan’s funeral PI evokes the observation that it is God’s will that everybody dies someday. His receptivity and consciousness make him stand out amongst society. If one looks at PI’s last name of Ivan...
Do we plan how we live our own life without following the society or do we live a life that follow what people in the higher level of society consider to be proper. Choosing how to live our life? However even if you chooses to dictate your own life without following what the society tells you to do; can you really achieve that freedom? In two book the “Death of Van Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy and “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Ibsen we’ll see two different person who choose to walk two different path.
The short story “The Death of Ivan Ilych” is about a man who realizes he is dying and that no one in his life cares about him. Even more disappointing for Ivan is the realization that besides his success as a high court judge, he has done nothing else to make his life worth saving. The death of Ivan Ilyich, sadly, comes as a release of stress to all. In the end, Ivan is soothed by the release of death, his family and friends are relieved of having responsibility of Ivan taken off their shoulders, and the reader is released from the stressful journey. Tolstoy teaches the audience through the structural elements of the “black sack” metaphor and pathos about the unavoidability of death and the relief of accepting it.
Ivan pretty much avoids the idea of death because he did not think it would happen to him so soon. Death to Ivan is something that deceased people experience. Ivan and his family did not see death has a common experience for all beings. This thought is seen in Ivan as he transitions. Ivan had a routine for his life. He enjoyed working, playing bridge, and keeping his house luxurious. Tolstoy says Ivan’s life was “most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” In the beginning of the story, the readers are presented with Ivan’s funeral. The people attending Ivan’s funeral want the whole ordeal to be over. This entire death has been an inconvenience for all of his friends and family. Death is something that Ivan battles with as he gets closer to that point in his life. The fall off of the ladder is the reason for him dying. This fall triggers unbearable pains for Ivan. Ivan is very irate towards his wife and screams due to the pain he experiences. On his death bed, Ivan struggles with dying. He is truly afraid of what is going to happen to him. “Suddenly some kind of force struck him in the chest and on the side, his breath was constricted even more, he collapsed in to the hole and there at the bottom of the hole some light was showing.” This excerpt expressed the moment in which Ivan converts. He feels a spirit that told him how to mend things with his family. In Ivan’s case, death is the only way to help his family move
The story of In "The Death of Ivan Ilych", was written by Leo Tolstoy around who examines the life of a man, Ivan Ilyich, who would seem to have lived an exemplary life with moderate wealth, high station, and family. By story's end, however, Ivan's life will be shown to be devoid of passion -- a life of duties, responsibilities, respect, work, and cold objectivity to everything and everyone around Ivan. It is not until Ivan is on his death bed in his final moments that he realizes that materialism had brought to his life only envy, possessiveness, and non-generosity and that the personal relationships we forge are more important than who we are or what we own.
Tolstoy immediately absorbs you into the novel by beginning with Ivan’s death. The actual death scene is saved until the end of the novel, but he shows you the reaction of some of Ivan’s colleagues as they hear the news of Ivan’s death. You are almost disgusted at the nonchalant manner that Ivan’s “friends” take his death. They are surprised by his death, but immediately think of how his death will affect their own lives, but more importantly, their careers. “The first though that occurred to each of the gentlemen in the office, learning of Ivan Ilyich’s death, was what effect it would have on their own transfers and promotions.” (pg 32) As a reader, you have to wonder how Ivan must have had to live in order for people close to him to feel no sadness towards the loss or even pity for his wife. In fact, these gentlemen are exactly like Ivan. The purpose of their lives was to gain as much power as possible with n...
This is related to the theme to live without suffering because as Ivan is getting ready to die he complains about how he is in so much pain despite numerous doctor visits and medication. Tolstoy uses his complaints as indicator for the readers to know that Ivan does not want to die in pain but peace. A moment of this is when Ivan calls his family into the room and dies in front of them because he believes it will bring them joy.
Ivan Ilych was a member of the Court of Justice who was "neither as cold and formal as his elder brother nor as wild as the younger, but was a happy mean between them—an intelligent, polished, lively, and agreeable man” (Tolstoy 102). He lived an unexceptionally ordinary life and strived for averageness. As the story progresses, he begins to contemplate his life choices and the reason for his agonizing illness and inevitable death. “Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done, but how could that be, when I did everything properly?” (Tolstoy
In his last moments of life, Ivan sees light instead of death. His final audible words are “What joy!” despite the pain he feels. This epiphany that he has happens in a single moment and in a sense makes him finally come alive. Thus, right before his final breath Ivan is able to say to himself “Death is finished, it is no more!” Death no longer has a hold on him because the quest of perfection no longer does. Ivan has finally decided, after a lifetime of denying it, to “let the pain be.”
In his novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy satirizes the isolation and materialism of Russian society and suggests that its desensitized existence overlooks the true meaning of life—compassion. Ivan had attained everything that society deemed important in life: a high social position, a powerful job, and money. Marriage developed out of necessity rather than love: “He only required of it those conveniences—dinner at home, housewife, and bed—which it could give him” (17). Later, he purchased a magnificent house, as society dictated, and attempted to fill it with ostentatious antiquities solely available to the wealthy. However, “In reality it was just what is usually seen in the houses of people of moderate means who want to appear rich, and therefore succeed only in resembling others like themselves” (22). Through intense characterizations by the detached and omniscient narrator, Tolstoy reveals the flaws of this deeply superficial society. Although Ivan has flourished under the standards of society, he fails to establish any sort of connection with another human being on this earth. Tragically, only his fatal illness can allow him to confront his own death and reevaluate his life. He finally understands, in his final breath, that “All you have lived for and still live for is falsehood and deception, hiding life and death from you” (69).
The reason why Ivan seeks comfort in Gerasim during his final days is because he introduces spirituality into a life that is depicted by materialism. It is as if Tolstoy is presenting readers with the two different sides of life in the same place. Gerasim is the only character throughout the book who is able to grasp the idea of life and death in a level that contrasts the superficial meanings that the others associate with life and death. In fact, it is Ivan’s friends and family that call his illness an inconvenience in their lives and make it clear to Ivan that they are waiting on his death. Ivan recognizes the amount of selfishness and lack of spirituality both in himself and those around him; “Nothing did so much to poison the last days of Ivan Illyich’s life as this falseness in himself and those around him” (Tolstoy 105).
...t is . What really accentuated the story's realness was the cold-harsh fact that no one is exempt from death. This was given when Gerasim said to Ivan that everyone dies (p135). As the last book Tolstoy made before his conversion to Christianity: this book, delving deep into death, could reveal some clues about what the bible is trying to tell us about the truth of death. Is death the end, the process, or...the beginning? Who knows? One thing for certain is that every individual goes through the grief process a bit differently, and Tolstoy has proven that through his main character, Ivan Illych.
Ivan Ilych now watched it with a new and oppressive feeling. ”(Textbook) When he heard the news he sank further into his state of isolation. No one understands what Ivan was going through because they had never experienced the feeling of death.