The Theme Of Death In Tolstoy's Three Deaths

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his boots to his nephew as a last request of him, serving his family before falling ill and departing from this world (Tolstoy 49). The “old” lady also referred to as mother that was the one of the three deaths is seen as the wrong and unnatural death. She is not in actuality old, but rather middle aged. However she has made herself sick by perpetuating her illness and how terrible life has been to her (Tolstoy 47). She becomes haggard over time and has mistreated her body and overall health according to the text, and is described as the old woman in the book. Her death is not of natural causes and is the wrong kind of death because hers is something that could have been prevented and rather than making the effort to resist and attempt to regain her health she admits defeat, the notion of death alongside her already bleak outlook on life allows for her to lose meaning in life (Tolstoy 49) which is the opposite of what Tolstoy promotes. Losing meaning in life inspires wrong decisions, and one begins to lose grasp of life and allows for the notion of impending doom and death to consume them. The wrong and unnatural death is a byproduct of loss of meaning and inability to react to the possibility of our own death or the death of others.

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