The Death Of Ivan Ilyich Analysis

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.

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.

In the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, The author, Leo Tolstoy, shows how Ivan Ilyich’s perspective on death changes throughout the story. I want to show how people feel about this. I am going to find Two different arguments from the internet that do not agree with each other in some way and create an argument of my own saying I agree with one of the arguments. I may use quotes from the story and other evidence to show that these two arguments are wrong. Now that you understand my purpose for this essay let me begin.

Ivan Ilych’s life was conventional and simple; it was not until he fell ill that he began to realise his existence was potentially meaningless. As he is on the verge of death, he looks back on his happiest times, and “in imagination he began to recall the best moments of his pleasant life. But strange to say none of those best moments of his pleasant life now seemed at all what they had then seemed,” (Tolstoy, 1886, page 50). All the days Ivan thought were his best days were seemingly meaningless. Ivan’s response to his life was that he had done something wrong; ““Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done,” it suddenly occurred to him.

Leo Tolstoy, a man whose philosophy was rooted in ascetic principles, greatly feared death for the duration of his life. Tolstoy understood natural human fascination with objects, titles, and propriety and within his own life, denied those material pleasures. Because Tolstoy eliminated all aspects of gluttony and artificiality, he was left with overwhelming uncertainty about the connection between an authentic, “real” life and the process of dying. Tolstoy’s uncertainties automatically horrified him because without distraction from possessions and materials, only ambiguity remained. He channels these philosophies and mystifications in his book The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

In Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych, protagonist Ivan Ilych lives a life he considers to be marvelous and filled with the things he wants and considers important (both physical and emotional). He has a wonderful job he's good at, a beautiful family, a lovely house, and friends to play games like bridge with in the evenings. One day, when he is fixing up his new home before his family arrives, he hits his side after slipping by making bad step on a ladder. He convinces himself that it is only a bruise, and that the pain will pass. The pain doesn't simply pass, though. Doctor after doctor attempts to diagnose what might possibly be wrong with him, but none of them are able to agree on what his injury is. As he continues to live his life as he planned, the sensation of pain continues to come back to him repeatedly until he is eventually on his deathbed. As he realizes he is approaching the very end of his life, Ivan Ilych ponders over his life and begins to question himself, asking “What if my whole life has been wrong?” (Tolstoy 54). He comes to the conclusion that the things that are important are not tangible items such as money or property. Rather, he decides that the things that truly matter in life are intangible, such as happiness, compassion, and facing the truth. He realizes too late that these important feelings and concepts have been missing from his life all along.

     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

Leo Tolstoy is a master of realistic fiction and one of the most acclaimed novelists of all time. He writes “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” in 1886 and it is one of the best examples of a novella. Tolstoy uses many literary terms in this piece making it a very important literary piece and on top of the literary importance this whole novella gives many life lessons that everyone, student or adult, should read about and learn. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is a story about a judge that is more focused on advancing his career than his family and his suffering through a fatal injury.

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

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.