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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 agile man he clung on and only knocked his side against the knob of the window frame. The bruised place was painful but the pain soon passed, and he felt particularly bright and well just then. He wrote: "I feel fifteen years younger" (1509).

When his wife asks him about the accident, Ivan says that it is a "good thing I'm a bit of an athlete. Another man might have been killed" (1509). Of course, the fall and the bruise are the beginning of what turns out to ...

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Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 15:03, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707225.html