Ivan Ilych Psychology

     The progress of modern society and the pressure to conform has not only hastened Ivan Ilych’s death but also made him a die a very miserable death. As soon Ivan realizes he has a physical problem, a problem that began with his obsession of having the perfect house, he consults one of the best doctors he

Ivan’s story begin in a rather peculiar way, usually when describing the life and death of a person, one begins in chronological order however Tolstoy chose to begin at the very end after Ivan has already died. Thus in the first chapter we are introduced to a group of judges who happen to be Ivan’s “friends” and coworkers, Fedor Vasilievich, Ivan Egorovich and Peter Ivanovich . Peter Ivanovich, happens to be Ivan’s closest friend and is the one who announces to the group that Ivan has passed away. Instead of being sincerely sad about Ivan’s death, they are all comforted by the idea that “it is he who is death and not I"; they also immediately being to think about who was next to get Ivan’s position as well as who would get promoted due to his death, “on receiving the news of Ivan Ilych’s death the first thought of each…was of the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves and their acquaintances.” Peter in particular thinks

Serial Killers have been studied by psychologists, anthropologist and sociologists for years. In the following case study I will be talking about Robert Pickton. Robert Pickton is Canada’s most notorious serial killer, he was charged with 26 murder cases in 2006. I will analyze Roberts’s case with theories from psychology, sociology and anthropology. Psychology can tell us about Robert’s individual behaviour. Sociology can tell us about how the people and society around Robert affected him and Anthropology can tell us how his culture affected him.

Furthermore, in Leo Tolstoy‘s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and analysis will demonstrate that the character Ivan Ilyich struggles throughout his life to achieve the ideals of liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness. It is through Ivan’s death and his friend’s narration of Ivan’s life that the reader comes to the realization the the middle-class Ivan has few strength’s besides his hard work to drive him towards his ideals for wealth and property. Ivan lived his whole life with the purpose of enjoying himself. He did this through winning power at work, spending money, buying things to impress his friends, throwing parties, and playing bridge. His pursuit of happiness in material things and pleasures is so great that his deliberately avoids anything unpleasant. This means that when he settled down with a family, which was expected of him, he never grows close to them.

    In the face of Morrie's overwhelming compassion and tenderness, Ivan Ilych presents an opposite lifestyle. After a pleasantly carefree childhood he turned towards ambition and pursued an ever-larger salary and an ever-increasing social rank. Ivan lived without values and without attachments, easily moving between cities and jobs. He cared little for the great inconvenience of his family, and even less for his wife: "he hate[d] her with his whole soul" (Ivn, 139). Commitment was a prison to be avoided at all costs, a detriment to his proper and official existence. Genuine love touched Ivan only rarely and certainly not during the dying moments when he needed it the most.

Ivan Ilych didn’t receive this type of hope directly. Instead he comprehended and understood his own death. By thoughtfully seeking redemption of his actions, not only did he transcend his seen environment to the unseen environment, he fully accepted the unseen environment. This speaks as though it is a storied environment in Ivan Ilych’s last moments. “”Death is finished,” he said to himself.

Ivan and the grandmother both lived artificial lives that were based on appearances, shallow-relationships, and egocentrism. Through their obsession with appearances,

One of Ivan Ilyich’s acquaintances, Ivan Yegorovich, is described stating, “Gentlemen…Ivan Ilyich is dead!" and the narrator states, “the first thought of each of the gentlemen assembled in the office was of what this death might mean in terms of transfers or promotions of the members themselves or of heir acquaintances” (Tolstoy 39-40). The story then moves onto Ivan’s funeral, and everyone there, including Ilyich’s wife, seems to have a similar attitude to the men in the office; one of self-benefits and lack of sorrow for Ilyich’s death. After the audience is made aware of this, Tolstoy has the narrator describe Ilyich’s life to the audience emphasizing his values and interest. The narrator states that Ivan “chose the best circle of magistrates and rich nobility living in the town” and he “[married]

In The Death of Ivan Ilych Leo Tolstoy conveys the psychological importance of the last, pivotal scene through the use of diction, symbolism, irony. As Ivan Ilych suffers through his last moments on earth, Tolstoy narrates this man's struggle to evolve and to ultimately realize his life was not perfect. Using symbols Tolstoy creates a vivid image pertaining to a topic few people can even start to comprehend- the reexamination of one's life while on the brink of death. In using symbols and irony Tolstoy vividly conveys the manner in which Ilych views death as darkness unto his last moments of life when he finally admits imperfection.

When they first got married, Praskovya would dote on Illych and be a gentle and loving wife (Tolstoy page 261). After all, she had fallen for him before they even got married, despite his supposed disinterest in her (Tolstoy page 260).When she figured out he wasn’t going to reciprocate her feelings, she became cold (Tolstoy page 261). Throughout the rest of the marriage, she either didn’t care about what he did or fought with him. Either way, it was an unhealthy marriage. Towards his death, she acted more like she cared for his health.

      Along with the two twins of power and money, Ivan Ilyich, in order to fit in with his class, starts a family.  His relationship with Praskovya Fiorodovna is based not upon love but upon "properness" and "decorum" - it is arranged more for his "official existence" rather than out of true matrimony.

We will begin with an analysation of his family situation. Praskovya, his wife, had been a love constructed from the start of an economic and sociological expectation rather than that of a true courtship. The happiness therefore of the union was derived solely of a necessity to fulfill a desire on the part of others for a “success” of sorts, surely her desire as well. “Ivan Ilyich could have counted on a more illustrious match, but even this one was quite good. He had his salary, and her income, he hoped, would bring in an equal amount. (Tolstoy, 56)” Tolstoy goes on to make several remarks on the benevolent nature of the relationship between he and his wife. The arrival of his children creates no great marker in his life, and proves to be little more than a factor in his ever-lengthening retreat into his life of solitude and work.

Ivan Ilych’s marriage to Praskovya Fedorovna is not built on true love, instead it is built on Ivan Ilych once again, trying to fit in with society. To prove that Ivan Ilych did not get married based off true love the narrator says, “Ivan Ilych might have aspired to a more brilliant match, but even this was good. He had his salary, and she, he hoped, would have an equal income.” (Tolstoy) This quote proves that Ivan Ilych was conforming to society and he married his wife just because it was the right thing to do since everyone else was doing it which is shown when the narrator says “Ivan might have aspired to a more brilliant match” meaning that he was not completely satisfied with his wife. Ivan Ilych did not look at the deeper meaning of marriage, he only looked at the materialistic and physical things that came along with his wife which is why they both did not live a happy life together. When Ivan Ilych got ill the narrator says, “her husband had a dreadful temper and made her life miserable, she began to feel sorry for herself, and the more she pitied herself the more she hated her husband. She began to wish he would die” (Tolstoy). This expresses the hate that Praskovya Fedorovna felt towards her husband due to the fact that she realized Ivan Ilych never cared for her or her family and he only cared about his social status. Ivan Ilych was a bad husband because of his immorality and thus his wife is insurgent against him. Here,

They have just learned about Ilyich’s death, and they outwardly react in the way expected of them. However, these reactions are only for show; internally, each man approaches Ilyich’s death with a slight air of annoyance at the inconvenience the death causes, speculations about what Ilyich’s death means for his own career and his friends’ careers, and relief in the fact that, once again, another man has died instead of himself. Along with this feeling of relief also comes a sort of denial; the men all recognize that Ivan Ilyich is mortal, but deny their own mortality, believing death to be some isolated incident that only happens to other men. They go through the motions of one who has lost an acquaintance, only doing what is socially acceptable and moving on from the death at the first possible

One of the themes of Tolstoy’s story of The Death of Ivan Ilych is detachment from life, considering that all material things can substitute the true meaning of life: compassion and care for others. “Everywhere in the novel, Tolstoy speaks of Iván Ilych's desire for propriety, decorous living, and pleasantness all while making this his first and most important priority. This motivation is a poor