The Christain Theme of Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich Essay

In the beginning of Chapter XII of Tolstoy’s story, Ivan starts to painfully scream loudly for three consecutive days, during which time Ivan realizes that his doubts are still unsolved. During this moment, Ivan realizes that moving up in social esteem has not led to joy, fulfillment, and life, but to misery, emptiness, and death instead. Blinded by the values of high society, he

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,

Thesis Statement: While both Ivan Ilyich and Willy Loman are unsatisfied about their family situations, Loman’s family is willing to take actions and care about Loman when he encounters hardship and stress, whereas Ilyich's family gives him less sympathy about his illness.

    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.

Moreover, Anastasia illustrates how those in the upper class can use their class as a means to meet their immaterial needs. The Grand Royal Duchess is motivated to find her long lost granddaughter because she seeks the thing that money cannot buy: love. Marx argues that money is the “external, universal means and power to change representation into reality” (Marx 272). Empress Dowager is able to use ten million rubles to represent the return of her granddaughter. By making the

Ivan IV was a complicated man, with a complicated past, in a complicated country, in a complicated time; his story is not an easy one. Ivan the terrible, the man, could never be completely understood in a few words, nor in a few pages, and only perhaps in a few volumes. A man of incredible range his dreadfulness could only be matched by his magnificence, his love by his hatred.

In the narrative, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” Count Lev Nikolayevich gives an account of Ivan Ilyich’s life. Ivan Ilyich lived a privileged childhood typical of an elite social class. His father had been an official, a Privy Councilor, in society. The nature of the society his was born into gave him privilege, power, and prestige. From early youth, Ivan “was by nature attracted to people of high station,” so his father encouraged him to attend the School of Law (Tolstoy 9).

If you become greedy, you will want more and not appreciate what you have. In the beginning Ivan was content with what he had, but once he thought he had the winning lottery ticket, he became greedy. He dreamed of more property, new furnishing for the house, and a vacation. He dreamed of all the things he wanted, instead of being thankful for what he had. He then turns on Marsh and say that she is old and plain. Then he talks about how if their relatives were to come over they would want some of the money also. In the end of the story Ivan realizes that he has not won the lottery and has not won seventy five thousand dollars. He then becomes unthankful with what he has. He rambles on how their house is always dirty, and the food is always the same and does not taste good. In the end he is so unthankful and greedy that he decides to hang

As Ivan grew older, he began to under stand the benefits of being a prince Czar. Because Ivan grew up the way he did was why he became the ruler that he did. He knew from experience what would happen if he wasn't a strong ruler. As a Czar, when Ivan met someone new, he would look for the thing to fear in that person, then, he would do whatever it took to minimize whatever that something was that he was afraid of. It might require taking harsh action, but then Ivan wouldn't have to worry about that person becoming too powerful.

     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

One major theme that is present in the entire novella is the inevitability of death. Death is something that happens to everyone. No matter how high your social status is, there will come a time when you will wither and die. It does not matter how rich you are or how poor. The major turning point in the story is when Ivan realized that he was getting closer to death every day. Ivan Ilych realized that the customs and traditions of the aristocracy which he had thought were important was the cause of his metaphorical death. He had lost himself while he chased after wealth, social status, and power. He had forgotten about how to live a simple, happy life. He had forgotten about the that there are other people whose concerns and issues that are much more important that his. He has been immersed in the mediocrity and artificiality of life that he has forgotten how it is to care and to love other people.

Ivan Ilyich is introduced as a working man "liked by them all", although from the start you understand that he is dead (Tolstoy). This differs from Gregor 's story where he is introduced as being "transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin," and the readers do not know that Gregor is eventually going to die in the story(Kafka). In the beginning of each story both men are likeable. The indirect characterization allows the reader to analyze the behavior of each character to further understand their personality. Ivan is known as a man who places heavy importance on work. This is known early into the text. Gregor is very similar in this aspect as his own mother states to his employer, "The lad only ever thinks about the business"(Kafka). Ivan felt "the whole interest of his life now centered in the official world," creating a similar mindset with Gregor(Tolstoy). It is not until later in the text that the reader understands what a toll this takes on the family life.

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

In “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy, the reader can tell that from the beginning, Ivan’s “loved” ones don’t seem to care about his death. They talk about his belongings as if they had won something from a giveaway. It is almost as his family members are playing a game to guess what “transfers and promotions” they might obtain from his death (Page 813, The Norton Anthology). Their actions prove that they didn’t have any strong values towards someone life. The way his family dealt with his death was similar to the way Gregor’s family reacted towards his transformation. At first it seemed like his family would work with his condition, but when he got to the point to where he couldn’t contribute to the family, they