The Death of Ivan Ilych: A Study of Loneliness and Relationships

In the short story “The Death of Ivan Ilych” by Leo Tolstoy, the narrator desribes how Ivan, a government official who has a horrible illness and is painfully dying while at home, while being very lonely. Ivan has a very small-minded personality, and on top of that he does not have a very good family life at home or with his close friends Peter and Schwarts. Somehow Gerasim catches Ivan’s interest and eventually becomes one of the only people that Ivan is nice too because he actually understands what Ivan is going through. Ivan’s friends and family know that he is dying, but they try very hard to not think about his death. In this short story, Tolstoy gives insight to how people change after Ivan dies and examines the relationships he had with his wife, two kids, friend peter and Gerasim.
Close to the end, Ivan’s wife had a very rude mentality to her personality. Once Ivan finally passes away Ivan’s wife is only worried about the money. Ivan’s wife says “She began to wish he would die; yet she could not wish it him to die because then there would be no income” (Tolstoy

His wife has a bad attitude towards him and it eventually slips out that she wishes he was dead. Liza feels like she cannot get married because of the burden of knowing her father’s dying, Vasya shows that he is sad and his father sees him crying and then has an epiphany where he finally realizes he is a burden on everyone in his family and it gets to him and he apologizes to his family, Peter a close friend, who is fake as can be and does not really care about his friends death, while Schwartz is making a joke out of it. Finally someone who shows that they care for Ivan, Gerasim gives him all the compassion and empathy he can for his dying master, and completely understand because unlike his family and friends he knows that he will also die just like