Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych

This study will analyze Leo Tolstoy's short novel The Death of Ivan Ilych, focusing on the physical and symbolic causes of the protagonist's death, the view of Russian society projected by the author, and the role and symbolic significance of Ivan's servant Gerasim plays in the story and in the life and awakening of Ivan. The study will argue basically that Ivan lived a shallow life ruled by selfishness and materialism, incurred a mysterious illness, and just before his death underwent a spiritual conversion marked by clearly Christian references. Gerasim plays a helpful role in directly and indirectly guiding Ivan toward this awakening.

The physical aspect of Ivan's illness is clearly meant by Tolstoy to be both a mystery and quite ordinary. The onset of the illness is caused by an apparently minor mishap. Ivan has just emerged from a crisis having to do with his wife and his work, and his life is apparently back on track and more pleasing to him than ever before. This self-satisfaction is at the heart of Ivan's dilemma. He believes he in control of his life, that he is a blessed man, that everything is going right for him because he deserves it. He sees himself as superior to others and deserving of all that he has in life. So eager is Ivan to keep complete control of the reins of all aspects of his "happy" life that he gets up on a ladder one day to show an upholsterer how he wants his new curtains put up:

He made a false step and slipped, but being a strong and agi

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man beings, to himself, or to God. He is a hollow man at the center of a hollow life. Certainly a part of Tolstoy's indictment of Ivan's shallow existence is also an indictment of the Russian society which has bred and shaped Ivan and his petty, inauthentic ambitions. He has done everything Russian society has told him he should do in order to be happy, to be respected, to have power, to enjoy life. In the process of accepting every shallow, hollow value society has spoon-fed him, he has become a man incapable of feeling a single feeling for anybody but himself and incapable of generating a single original thought about human existence. Tolstoy indicts Russian society, to be sure, but he could just as well be indicting most other, if not all, societies, for most, if not all, beat their members into conformity in return for material rewards and social respect. The author is concerned with far more than a critique of Russian society. In this story Tolstoy is calling into question the authenticity and meaning of most human existence. Ivan is simply an extreme example of a man who has lived his life with no spiritual or moral content. Gerasim plays a major role in the change which overtakes Ivan's soul, just as the disease takes

Category: Literature - L