In “The Death of Ivan Ilych”, Leo Tolstoy purposely focuses on Gerasim, the assistants Butler, to establish a transformation in Ivan Ilych that makes him realize the true meaning of life. Gerasim is used as an important tool through the events that lead up until Ivan’s death. Through Gerasim, the author conveys the themes of death, family, and propriety by emphasizing the impact that he brings upon Ivan’s life. Gerasim acts as a guide in the shift of Ivan’s perception by helping Ivan change his views and perspective towards death which no other person could have done if Gerasim was removed from the novelette.
Ivan Ilych does not live his last years before death to his fullest potential and it is as if he is not living at all. Ivan can not bring himself to accept death because he believes he does not deserve to die and questions why this is happening to him. Ivan is not ready to face death so soon since his life is going as planned. Ivan is lying to himself about him dying and tries to avoid the word death by saying it, “He went to his study, lay down, and once again was left alone with it. Face to face with It, unable to do anything with It. Simply look at It and grow numb with horror” (Tolstoy 80). Ivan is referring to death as it because he can not fully grasp the idea that death is really and seriously a lot closer than he expected. Instead of Ivan living each remaining years like it is his last, he makes himself miserable and depressed by the thought of dying.
Unfortunately, Ivan's condition gets worse and he enters the cycle of depression. This is when an individual realizes that their death is certain. Signs of this cycle include becoming silent, refusal of visitors, and spending most of their time crying and grieving. In the book, Ivan is shown casting away his wife and his fellow magistrates. The only one he allowed to visit him was his servant, Gerasim. “And he ceased crying...during that loneliness Ivan Illych had only lived in the
One of many themes, in Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilych”, is the Latin parable Respice finem—look before you leap—that is inscribed on a medallion attached to Ivan Ilych’s watch-chain. At first glance, this parable seems to appear quite incidentally; its significance, nonetheless, is paramount. Respice finem is not only reflected in the narrative’s physical structure, it augments Tolstoy’s didactic message of one’s mortality and the importance of abiding by the ‘golden rule’. Ivan Ilych’s life presents the reader with an example of the consequences one may face in the absence of foresight and without heed to the emotions of others. His life was imbued with the need to conform to those around him and deficient in both foresight and empathy,
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is about Ivan, a silverback gorilla who is raised by a human and lives in captivity at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Ivan is brought to the Exit 8 after being captured and separated from his family while living in the wild. Ivan considers his new habitat a “domain” and refuses to admit that he is living in a cage. However, when Stella, an elephant, dies as a result of neglect, Ivan is forced to accept his situation. Moreover, he has to fight to keep the promise he made to save Ruby, a young elephant, from going down the same path as the rest of them. In her novel, The One and Only Ivan, Applegate uses characterization, setting, and plot to convey Ivan’s determination to become a protector.
Tolstoy also employs irony as he examines the plight of Ivan Ilych. This highlights the differences between Ilych's perception of his own life and reality while also allowing the reader to take part in some of the tearing anguish Ivan feels in having to submit to the wrongdoings in his life. Tolstoy compares Ivan Ilych's struggle to the plight of a man condemned to death as he "struggles in the hands of an executioner" (61). Ivan Ilych does not see death as a natural process, but as a punishment controlled by a merciless executioner, ironically much like the merciless judge he once was. Ivan Ilych's feels that death is an undeserved punishment because he never considered his own mortality. His obsession with social adroitness made mortality feel like a punishment, and his justification of this obsession made it impossible for him to let go of his life. Ivan Ilych believed he had lived his life up to social standards and because of this he would not have to endure the terrible agony of death that is beset among ordinary people. In reality he was blind to his shallow life and the transgressions he made.
In his novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy offers his audience a glance into the life and death of an ambitious man, Ivan Ilych. Tolstoy uses the death of Ivan Ilyich to show his audience the negative consequences of living the way Ilych did. Ivan Ilych followed society and made decisions based on what others around him conformed to and not so much about what he genuinely wanted until he was on his deathbed. As death approaches Ilych he realizes that he wrecked everything that should be meaningful in his life in order to work and make money and in the end his friends did not really care much about him. Ilych’s desire to conform made him live a miserable life and led him to darkness. Ivan Ilych attained everything that society
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.
Tolstoy uses characters to show varying degrees of manipulation. Today’s society also displays many instances of manipulation, primarily in entertainment.
He tries to resist the pending demise by wishing and hoping for a better outcome. In Leo Tolstoy’s book, death is spoken as a theoretical concept as well as an applied occurrence for the main character.
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
We shall all come to it some day” (1270). Gerasim’s reply shows that unlike the other characters he does not deny that death is a normal occurrence, which may be the main reason why Ivan Ilych gravitates to him in the second half of the story. Ivan Ilych was also unaccepting of death during the first half of the story, he even continued to refer to death as “It”. Addressing death with this pronoun made it seem as if death was a person that was haunting
The seen environment present when reading The Death of Ivan Ilych story is the way Ivan’s family lived and the way Ivan treated everyone with coldness. The unseen was depicted by the atmosphere present in Ivan’s’ room, making friends and family members uncomfortable to be there. The storied environment is when Ivan realizes that his life has been a mistake and he converts religiously, he finds God and Ivan repents from all his sins, it is not until then that he found peace in his mind.
The book The Death of Ivan Ilych is a literary work by Count Leo Tolstoy published in 1886 and has been hailed as a masterpiece both by critics and readers. The author has been reputed as one of the people who changed how the subject of death is treated in society. In the novel, Leo Tolstoy presents the story of Ivan Ilych who lived a wasted life but who is not ready to imagine his own death. Through Gerasim, the peasant servant associated with Ivan, we are able to see the simple and gentle approach manner to which he serves his master. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the first major work of fiction completed by Leo Tolstoy after his existential crisis. “The death of Ivan Ilych can be seen as true reflection of and an elaboration of Tolstoy’s
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