The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Background of the Novella

The Death of Ivan Ilych is the famous Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s work, which was published in 1886. In this novella, Tolstoy questions the then widespread orthodox religious beliefs and preaches a more moderate view. This novella was not written much later after Tolstoy’s conversion and mirrors his beliefs. It represents his existential crisis, and here we can clearly see the dilemma that he faced. This novella was written in 1882 but came to press later.

Tolstoy was born to a rich aristocrat family in 1828. He lost his parents in early childhood. He couldn’t complete his university education, later he fought in the Crimean war and then got married. After spending twenty-five years of married life, he had a spiritual awakening and turned from an Orthodox Christian to a Christian anarchist.

He gave up all his violent beliefs and started preaching pacifism, celibacy, and rejection of all material wealth. He was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church, and he started preaching his own beliefs. He turned from the Old Testament to Gospels and found them more reliable and attractive.

This novella has historical and autobiographical traces in it. If seen historically, it can be clearly noted that in this work, the tumultuous transition of Russia from serfdom and liberation of serfs is seen. There is an in-depth analysis of its positive and negative impacts. It shows how this liberation led to the formation of a new middle class. It also portrays the ills brought with this change. 

The loss of the institution of family and the infusion of Western culture were the impacts that Tolstoy abhorred. Tolstoy’s political beliefs are also evident in this work. He was against the Russian government and promoted radical ideas. This novella is a representative work of Russian Realism. 

Complex issues like interpersonal conflict, philosophical dilemmas, and class struggle are realistically portrayed in this work. The Death of Ivan Ilych promotes the idea that life lived by most of the people is shallow, unsatisfying, and shallow. 

He tells in this work that this life is not in accordance to the way shown by God. His later works developed this idea and explicated it more clearly. 

One of the autobiographical traces is Tolstoy’s liberation of his own serfs and their inability to utilize the opportunities of a free life. In 1856, he freed his serfs, but they were doubtful of his intentions and didn’t believe him. We can see this clearly in this novella in character Gerasim. He clearly showed the failure of this abrupt change and was probably of the idea that it should have been gradual.

There are some interesting facts about this novella. Tolstoy presented it as a birthday gift to his wife Sophia as a reassurance of the fact that his literary genius is yet resilient. Another thing is that he wanted the questions posed in this novella to be asked from him at his deathbed, but his wish wasn’t fulfilled. He couldn’t talk, and his relatives forgot to ask the questions. This shows his fascination with the idea of death.

This work is hailed by general readers and critics as a masterpiece in his shorter works. His other masterpieces are Anna Karenina, War, and Peace, which have attracted much readership. He had thirteen children and died in 1910.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich Summary

Chapter I Summary

The novella opens in a Russian law court where a person named Peter Ivanovich brings the news of the death of Ivan Ilych. The people in the court knew that he was ill, but this tiding shocks them. These magistrates, lawyers, and prosecutors have been Ilych’s acquaintances for years. This news is good for those who think that it will open ways for their promotion.

 After this news, they start planning to attend his funeral, whether they feel sad about it or not. To most of them, the attendance of this funeral is an irksome duty. On Friday, people assemble at the Ilych’s house to attend the funeral. Peter Ivanovich enters the room where the corpse is lying and looks at it. Ivan Ilych looks calmer than he used to look during his life. 

There are several of Ilych’s relatives standing around the corpse. Ivanovich feels uncomfortable in this situation, and he doesn’t know what to do. He finds this calm expression on Ilych’s face as a warning to the living. He feels uncomfortable about the insinuations that this dignified and calm expression carries and leaves the room hurriedly. 

He also notes his colleague, Schwartz, and he winks at him. It is an indication of the fact that Schwartz has brought a new pack of cards. He, through this wink, invited him for a pastime.

Ivan’s wife asks him to come outside before the funeral service starts. She is tearful and asks him if he can help them draw extra funds from the government for her family. Peter tells her that he can’t help her because he doesn’t have an approach to the offices. 

After the funeral, he returns to his servant, Gerasim, and exchanges formal comments regarding the death. He is then escorted in a sledge to Fedor Vasilievich’s home to spend the night in pleasantries of cards.

Chapter II Summary

This chapter tells about the life of Ivan Ilych. At the time of death, he was 45 years old and a lawyer at the court of justice. It tells of his early life and then his married life, which is about seventeen or eighteen years. He had spent a terrible life because it was ordinary, and he had to conform to many trivialities. Ivan was a government official’s son. He was the middle of the three, and his life was the happy mean between the two. He exhibited habits which were intermediary between the two brothers’ habits.

He was a calm person, nor too wild nor too serious. His elder brother achieved great success while the younger was a failure. He is a representative picture of a normal person in his society. He was educated in law, and his success was middling between the younger and elder brother. He spent his time with cultivated class people, and this had an impact on his personality.

He tailored his clothes at the best tailor shops in St. Petersburg and, at his youth, was sent as an assistant to the governor to a distant province. He secured a dignified position at the new locale and was proud of being incorruptibly honest. He was an easygoing and good-natured person. He had an affair with a young woman and sought pleasures in women who offered it but didn’t tarnish his name.

In the new town, he found friends of the highest social class and engaged in spending time with them. He then got introduced to the woman, Praskovya Fedorovna, whom he married two years later. He had thought his condition would get better after getting married, but it worsened. The situation reached to divorce after the birth of their first daughter. It worsened with every new birth. He was promoted as Assistant Public Prosecutor and then Public Prosecutor, but he couldn’t manage his family expenses.

Chapter III Summary

He kept continuing his job and thus continued for seventeen years. He was overlooked for a promotion, which he thought was an insult to him. His salary doesn’t match his lifestyle, and this worries him. He took a sabbatical from his job and went to his brother. He intended to stay there and find a solution but instead fell into depression.

He decides to travel to St. Petersburg and comes to know from an acquaintance in his first-class carriage that reforms have been made to the system. He tells Ilych that after reforms, his friends are given authoritative jobs at the ministry of justice.

He contacts Zachar Ivanovich and is given a lavish-paying job at the Department of justice. He tells his wife about this good news, and she is delighted to hear it. Their relationship is reformed because there are no more financial problems. He is eager to leave for his new house and wants to decorate it. Once during the decoration, he bruises himself but doesn’t take it seriously.

His obsession with his thoughts of improving his home and introducing new things to it doesn’t let him focus on his work. He built and decorated his house in the best way he could. Now he was slightly bored because he couldn’t find any occupation for himself. They occasionally had parties at their home and invited people to their homes. His daughter was of marriageable age, and she had many suitors, one of them was Fedor Petrovich.

Chapter IV Summary

Ivan Ilych’s life was changing. He felt ill, and the reason for it was probably the bruise. He often fell in quarrels with his wife. She found him a source of her irritation. He tells her that he has a strange taste in his mouth and feels a queer pain in his left side. She tells him to consult a famous doctor in their area, and he takes an appointment.

He goes to the doctor and finds him haughtier than himself. He doesn’t pay much attention to what Ilych asks and instead focuses on what he says. The doctor asks him to have some more tests, and then he will tell him regarding the issue he is facing. He asks the doctor if his problem is serious, but his answer is ambiguous, which both confirms and denies his fears. 

After the tests, he tells of taking care of certain things and doesn’t tell him about the severity of the illness. He comes home and is in doubt whether he is in a critical situation or this is something normal. His condition deteriorates with every passing day, but he tries to convince himself that he is getting better. 

He visits another doctor, and his diagnosis is completely opposite of the one he had previously visited. His pain grows with every passing day, and he decides not to visit any doctor anymore.

At his workplace, people know that soon his place is going to vacate. He grows irritating with his colleagues and family. He knows that his illness is poisoning others’ lives, but he can’t help it.

Chapter V Summary

Before New Year’s eve, his brother-in-law visits him. He comes home and finds him arrived while his wife is out shopping. He tells Ilych that he has changed, and his health seems deteriorated. They discuss this issue, but he changes the topic. He then goes to see himself in the mirror and is shocked to see the ill figure standing before him in the mirror.

His wife arrives, and his brother-in-law engages in talk with her regarding his health. Ilych tries to eavesdrop their conversation and hears them debating his health. His wife is of the view that he is improving while her brother tells her that he is looking like a dead man. He listens to them and then goes to his friend Peter Ivanovich to take him to the doctor.

The doctor diagnoses that there is some issue with his appendix, and it can be easily fixed. He comes home confident and takes his dinner cheerfully. He wants to work but can’t focus though he tries to encourage himself. He then lies to sleep, and his mind is suddenly taken by the idea of death. He starts thinking about it and can’t accept that all people are condemned to death. He then muses whether he is heading towards death, and this idea enrages him. He hits the table in a rage, and his wife comes to see if everything is alright. He tells her that he knocked it accidentally. He feels hatred for her at that moment.

Chapter VI Summary

He then thinks about the idea of his death and recalls time since his childhood and muses over his uniqueness. He has thought of himself as a unique being who can’t die. He can’t grasp the idea of death on the individual level. He tries to drive out the thoughts of death from his mind because he finds himself unprepared for death. He thinks about the screens that used to block such terrible ideas from his mind, but they are of no help now. He decides to join his work from the next day to distract himself from these ideas.

He thinks about how his job will help him respite from his suffering. His mind is then again haunted by the idea that what if he wasn’t able to concentrate on his work, and this adds to his miseries. He thinks it as a screen that won’t help him get rid of pain and the idea of impending death. He then thinks about other distractions and realizes his interest in arranging his house back when he built it. He starts doing chores at his house though his wife reprimands him and tells him to ask the servants to do it.

He rearranges the setting of furniture at home, and this makes his wife quarrel with him. This is a respite to him because he thinks it will make him forget the difficult situation he is facing.

Chapter VII Summary

It is his third month of illness, and everyone thinks about him to vacate his place. People around him are wary of his unpleasantries, sickness, and death. He is given painkillers, but they instead add to his depression. He is much weaker and now can’t even move from his bed. His servant Gerasim is there to help him. He handles his bedpan and shows pleasantries towards him. He is a cheerful young lad and doesn’t feel disgusted for his pathetic situation like others once he asks apologies for his discomfort.

At this, Gerasim responds that it is due to illness, and he doesn’t need to apologize. He helps him with changing the dress and is responsible for aiding him in the activities that now he can’t carry out. He infuses the joy into Ilych’s misery ridden life. Gerasim is a source of relief to him, and his health helps him soothe. One day he asks Gerasim to lift his legs and keep them on Gerasim’s shoulders, which he does, and in this, he finds relief from his pain. 

He has grown friendly to Gerasim, and they talk for a long when he is in Ilych’s room. He tries to think about his recovery but then considers it a delusion. His mind is haunted by the idea of death and can’t get rid of it. He wants sympathy from others but can’t ask for it. 

Gerasim sympathizes with him and shows pity for his plight. He is comforted by Gerasim’s treatment. He thinks that he would be able to utilize his reservoir of strength if anyone of his colleagues visits him.

Chapter VIII Summary

He is in pain and can see his body is waning. In the morning, breakfast is brought for him, which he sends back and asks to be left alone. He then sends Peter the footman to bring his medicines. He helps him change his clothes and helps him wash. He avoids looking at his frail body while washing. He is in a strange state, he wants someone to accompany him, but if anyone is with him, he is irritated.

In an hour the doctor comes to his house, who tries to be cheerful. He asks him about the weather before asking him about his health. He then tells him that he will get fine to which he responds indifferently. He tells the doctor about incessant pain to which he responds that ill people always talk so. He then examines him; he knows that it is useless and is pure pretense.

His wife comes and tells him that she is going to the ‘celebrated’ doctor to bring him to see Ilych. He comes and examines him and repeats his previous talk. Ilych wants to tell everyone that the problem is not with illness; rather, it is the question of life and death that worries him. 

When the doctor leaves, he again falls into depression. His wife and daughter pretend to show sympathy for him, but in reality, they are going to watch a play in the theatre. He only sees his son Vladimir worried for him, and there are evident circles around his eyes.

Chapter IX Summary

His wife returns from theatre and wants to sit with him intending to send Gerasim away from the room. He refuses to allow her to sit with him and asks her to leave. He takes painkillers to get rid of the pain. As he takes painkillers, he sleeps and sees a vision or a dream. In the dream, he sees himself and his pain being pushed to a narrow black sack. He is very terrified by this vision and tries to escape, and he wakes up. He sees Gerasim sitting in front of him, having Ilych’s legs on his shoulders.

He asks him to leave him alone for some time and weeps for being so helpless. He thinks that God is being cruel to him and complains about his miseries. He even thinks that God is nowhere, and his pain worsens. He then asks himself what he wants, and he comes to conclude that he wants to live pleasantly and cheerfully. He then thinks about pleasant memories in his life. There are few while the rest that he thought pleasant are mere deceptions.

He comes to think about his marriage, his job, and then promotions. He comes to know that during his professional career, his life was driven by greed, acquisitiveness, and disappointment. His life, at this point, became useless, senseless, meaningless, and trivial.

Chapter X Summary

In two weeks, Ilych’s situation has more deteriorated, and now he can’t move on his sofa. He finds himself in a difficult situation and is caught between hope and despair. These conflicting moods constantly show him his death. He is surrounded by his family and visitors from the town who come to know about his health, but he feels alone. His childhood memories come to his mind to which he compares his current misery. He tries to distract himself by thinking about his sofa but in vain.

He finds a relationship between his life and illness. He comes to know that there was more goodness in his life before his illness, and now it has changed. He feels if his pain is pushing him towards death with its best effort. He wants an understanding of what is happening to him. If he could comprehend it, it would ease his pain.

Chapter XI Summary

This chapter covers the time Ilych is rushing towards his death. Two weeks have passed after the events described in the previous chapter. Fedor comes and proposes marriage to his daughter. His wife comes to his room to bring him the good news. But she finds him in a very bad situation; he is lying in his bed on his back. He looks at her with hostility and pleads her to let him die in peace. 

Then his daughter, Lisa, comes to his room and sits down with his mother. He tells the women that he will soon leave them free. They sit there for a few moments and then leave in silence. His wife and husband discuss his illness, and his daughter complains that it is not their fault that made him ill. She complains that he shouldn’t discomfort them.

Then a doctor comes and sees him. Then comes to his wife and daughter and tells them that his case is serious, and the only thing left to do is to administer him opium. Ilych is in terrible condition and looks in pity at Gerasim, whose life has been discomforted by his illness. He thinks that he has not lived as he should have done. He looks at life from a new perspective and clearly notices his family’s artificiality and falseness towards him.

He takes communion at his wife’s suggestion, and his pain seems alleviated at confession, but it returns when the priest leaves.

Chapter XII Summary

He begins screaming from the unbearable pain, and it continues for three days. He has realized that his end has come, and he is lost. He feels that he can’t save himself, and death draws nearer and nearer, this idea terrified him. He struggles desperately against death because he held the belief that his life was good, and he can’t be condemned.

He feels some force striking him on the chest and left side. He then sees the black sack that he had seen back in the vision, and he is moving towards it. He sees that the bottom of the sack is bright. He then feels the sensation like moving in a train backward when in actual it is moving forward. He comes to realize that his time has come. His son is sitting near him and is weeping. He caresses his head with his hand. He wonders what is the bright thing in the sack.

He feels pity for those sitting around him. It is suddenly revealed upon him that death is light, and all his pain seems to be gone. His exclamation at this is ‘What joy!’. To his family, it seems that he is still suffering, but he is light now; at his last breath, he understands that death is no more. 

Characters Analysis

Ivan Ilych Golovin

Ivan is the protagonist of the novella and is shown suffering throughout the novella. He spends a petty, unhappy life, and the only significant thing in life that we see him do is to die. His life is mediocre, and we come to know it from the narrator, who assertively tells about the horrible experience he goes through. He spends a hard life and comes to see hope and happiness only when he is face-to-face with death.

He is a lawyer by profession and has been through financial problems in the initial days of his career. This character is representative of the mediocrity of the middle class. He doesn’t like his class and wants to progress. He is able to become part of the upper-middle class and, at the end of the struggle, loses his life. He isn’t happy with what he has because he is in debt, and though he receives a good salary that can’t fulfill his needs.

He comes to know at the time of his death that he has led a conformist and ordinary life and feels regrets for it. He has been following materialistic pursuits and suffers in the end for this mistake. Even his family members except his son have followed the same suit and, for this reason, don’t support him when he is in need. He, like other human beings, has felt as if he is a special person, but this myth is shattered when he suffers.

He, like the rest of human beings, has been deluded by the faulty concept of a happy life, which he realizes when at his deathbed, he comes to know the meaning of happiness. In his illness, he is shown thinking about his past life, and this makes the readers realize the usual human dilemma.

Praskovya Fedorovna Golovina

She is the protagonist’s wife. Throughout the novella, her focus is on outward appearance. She wants to be part of the upper-middle-class of Russia and struggles for it. Her personality is shallow, and she is concerned with acceptance, and her motive is improving her status. Fashion and material things are her obsession. She, like other characters, is a typical materialistic person.

Gerasim

Gerasim is Ivan Ilych’s servant and is an embodiment of goodness. He is a kind person and takes care of his master when there is none left kind to him. He is a true person among deceitful and fake people. He is an example of honesty and kindness. He is the source of support and comfort for Ivan during his illness.

He shows kindness because he is a believer and has a firm belief that he will die one day. We see other characters who even don’t think about death, and when they know about it, they shrug the idea. He, in contrast to others, thinks about the consequences and prefers to be kind and help others.

He is not a self-absorbed person, and this allows him to help others and think about their miseries. He is an example of a perfect peasant. He is a clean, pleasant person. If seen from a critical eye, he is a stereotype. He is an embodiment of goodness and shows no flaws, thus seems a non-human character. He is a one-dimensional character, and from this, we can infer the aristocratic class’s disdain for the working class.

Lisa

She is Ivan Ilych’s daughter and a fake character like others. She is her parents’ elder daughter and of marriageable age. She is well-educated, fair, and attractive. She, like her mother, is attracted to pomp and money. She doesn’t feel sympathy for her father and complains to her mother about his behavior.

She doesn’t care to show even a scruple of regard for her father and asks her mother to leave for the theater while her father is on the deathbed. She doesn’t feel comfortable with the idea of illness, suffering, and death.

Vladimir

He is the protagonist’s only son. He is about thirteen years old school-going boy and is like his father in his youth. He is an innocent child and loves his father unconditionally. In the end, when there is no one who can stand by Ivan’s side, Vladimir is the one who cares for him. He is sad at his father’s plight and wants to help him recover but can’t. From his appearance, it is evident that sadness is corroding his health.

 He is in his early youth and is not yet corrupted by materialism in society. He is the only person in the family for whom Ivan feels compassion during his illness. In the form of this character, the author has shown innocence in the form of childhood, which is later corrupted by society. He can also be seen as a connection between young and grownup Ivan Ilych. We can also infer from it that he is also headed in the direction in which his father went, showing general misery. 

Peter Ivanovich

He is the protagonist’s fair-weather friend. He leaves his friend when he is in need. He has been Ilych’s friend at law school and later his companion in professional life. They have too many things in common, like their taste for the game of bridge, desires to progress in life, etc. We see that he is too close to Ilych but doesn’t feel anything when he dies.

From Ilych’s death, he sees the prospects of his brother-in-law’s prospects of promotion. He attends Ilych’s funeral because he considers it as an obligation, not because of his personal attachment to him. He, like other characters in the novella, doesn’t want to accept death as a reality and quits the funeral room staying there only for a few moments.

He represents a false world and is unkind. He refuses to help his friend’s widow when she is in need. He fails to grasp the fact that he is mortal and engages in materialistic affairs thoughtlessly. He can also be seen as a foil for Ilych because they are much less different from each other. He is selfish and pays heed to what is pleasant to him.

Fedor Petrovich

Fedor is Lisa’s fiancé and doesn’t appear much in the novella. He represents a typical Russian bourgeoisie. In this novella, we see his character as bland and doesn’t play any significant role. His role is mere as an appendage to Lisa.

Peter the footman

He is Ivan’s servant and, in contrast to Gerasim, is a false, deceitful person.

Schwartz

Schwartz is an employee at court and fond of fun and games. He has a charming personality and doesn’t let any situation make him depressed. He arranges Bridge at his home and invites friends to play there. He is not saddened by the news of Ivan’s death. He is the person who irritates Ivan in his office by his jokes and good-humor during his days of illness.

Ivan Egorovich Shebek

He is Ivan’s friend and colleague at the court of law. He, like Peter, prefers promotion to friends. He is happy in his mind about Ivan’s illness and expects that he will be able to utilize it. He comes to visit Ivan when he is ill but talks about legal cases that disturb him. Ivan thinks that he was the representative of all the falseness in the world.

Fedor Vasilievich

He is Ivan’s colleague and closest acquaintance at court. He is a selfish person, and when he hears about Ivan’s death, he thinks about his promotion. He is the only character who thinks of the direct benefit of the protagonist’s death.

Michael Danilovich

He is the primary doctor whom Ivan visits. He is a haughty person and doesn’t pay any attention to the patients. He doesn’t tell Ivan about the critical illness that he is suffering from and tells him ambiguous things. He doesn’t tell him even when he is on the deathbed. He is like a typical businessman, not a doctor who takes patients as cases, not as human beings.

Themes in the Novella

Mortality

The main theme in this novella is the inevitability of death. Throughout the story, we are told about the impending death of Ivan Ilych; his thoughts stay focused on this fact. This novella explores the phenomenon of death and tells how people avoid thinking about it. It is a natural phenomenon relevant to life, but people try to avoid it and distract its thoughts. It is evidently shown in the character of Ivan, who tries to get rid of the thoughts of death, which haunt his mind.

People busy themselves with different things in life, and it is done solely to hide from death. But whenever these screens are broken, death is standing in front of them. It is an undeniable reality, and there is nothing to be done to it except acceptance. Fear is the factor that creates a horrible image of death, and if it is changed, death is not that terrible as people think.

Pretense

In the upper and upper-middle-class, we see that people’s lives are motivated by some shared beliefs. Every person belonging to these classes leads his life to fulfill these expectations. In case he/she fails to do so, he is not considered to be truly belonging to this class. These beliefs make people pretend and erase their original identity. For every situation, there is a mask, and they change it constantly. 

This creates a situation in which people lose their original human identity and become types. In the case of Ivan, he tries to break this web of deceits, which is wounded around the lives of people of these classes. He suffers much, but he discovers himself and comes to know that life isn’t about materialism.

Happiness

In aristocratic classes, there is less acceptability towards natural human impulses. There is decorum and expected behavior, which determines the lifestyle of people belonging to this class. In this novella, we see that the main character and his family are addicted to materialism and acquisitiveness. This family is upward striving and is careful regarding the etiquette.

This expected behavior makes them almost inhuman, and when Ivan falls ill, there is nobody to sympathize with him except his servant Gerasim. There is no acceptability to many things, and thinking about it, Ivan’s daughter feels shame for his father’s illness. This concept of acceptability creates many problems that make life miserable, and this is the message which the author has tried to convey.

Suffering

Suffering is a motif which is shown constantly throughout the novella. We see the protagonist going through it all his life. He suffers during his first job and then his second job as well. He is shown suffering in his married life. In the end comes his illness, which is unmatched suffering in his life and takes him with it.

Human life is filled with miseries and suffering, and this is the fact that made Buddha leave his kingdom. Sufferings can only be avoided in life if they are intentionally imposed on oneself. Suffering brings with it fear, hopelessness, sense of meaninglessness, and loneliness. But it is not that bad because it is what brings redemption.

Religion

Religion is not given a place in the foreground in The Death of Ivan Ilych; rather, it is present in the background. It was the work that Tolstoy wrote after his religious conversion, and it may be taken as an impact of it. He gave up his belief for a new one, and in it, there was no necessary demonstration required everywhere. In Ilych’s life, we see that he demonstrates this belief.

Most of the scholars see the transformation of Ilych as a result of the vision, and his contentedness with the idea of death reveals the importance of religion. Religion is meant to fulfill the emotional needs of human beings and redeem them, and this is the message which the author implicitly conveys in this novella. It is a critique of those who have made religion a business and run their churches as if it is a marketplace.

Modernization

In this novella, Tolstoy supports the belief that with modernization, human beings lose their human qualities. This is evident in the case of doctors who are arrogant, deceptive, useless, and unsympathetic. We can clearly see that they don’t help Ivan Ilych throughout his disease and instead worsen his situation. 

Tolstoy attacks the modernist field of medicine, which progresses with every passing day. Using Ivan Ilych’s experience, Tolstoy portrays that this field is dehumanizing and attempts falsely to fight against death, deceiving human beings.

Isolation

We can see isolation as a subtle element that gradually comes to Ilych’s life and completely takes hold of his life when he falls ill. It is the result of growing distances between human beings. We see that Ivan fears death, and due to this fear, he isolates himself from society and his family. 

Initially, he thinks that isolation can help him by making those around him realize his plight, but they don’t understand it. He then comes to realize that this isolation will help him meditate about his life, and as a result, he is blessed with redemption. Thus isolation is both misery and blessing in his life.

Society and Class

This novella is an attack on the class system, especially the middle class in Russian society. To Tolstoy, the class represents greed, selfishness, artificiality, pettiness, and many other evils. He shows all the miseries and ills brought by the class system. This is a suggestion of Tolstoy’s belief in an anarchical and classless society.

Acceptance and Redemption

At the time of his terminal illness, Ivan is not ready to accept that he is dying. He slowly comes to recognize that this illness won’t be remedied and will take his life with it. Though it takes time and is painful to accept that he is dying, ultimately, he is able to think about it. He accepts mortality, and as a result, he is freed from the agony and terror that people usually associate with life.

He comes to know that things around him in his life are like artificial trappings. He clearly sees that there is falseness that covers him from all sides, and he tries to get rid of it. At the end of his life, he is able to experience the vision that he has seen and enjoys death. So from this, we can infer that if we accept miseries and prepare ourselves mentally for it, there will be redemption to protect us from our fears.

Literary Analysis

The Death of Ivan Ilych is an allegorical novella that tells about the ills of modern Russian society. In the character of Ivan Ilych, we see the dilemma of every modern progressive man who wants to make his name. This novella shows all the people in society who are driven by materialistic desires and ruining human relationships. It shows the irony of modern human robots who don’t have any moral principles. 

It can be taken as a mirror to a society that feels proud but doesn’t have any reason for it. With a beautiful realistic representation of incidents happening in life, this novella gives the reader a chance to reconsider his/her life and make amends to it if required.

It covers the collective life of society and the eventual death using an individual reflecting the traits of common people in society. The order of the novella is reverse chronological, and it relates the story when Ilych falls ill till his death with backdrops of his early life. This novella is aimed to show the artificial nature and fragility of the life human beings live, thus circumscribing the ironies in life. His daughter and wife’s callous behavior and stinging questions are intended to show the reality of human relationships. For its portrayal of high-class Russian life, this novel can be named as one of the masterpieces of realist literature.

Genre

This novella is a work of realist, satirical fiction in which ironies of the then Russian society are exposed. It parodies the false beliefs and struggles for progress from one class to another. It shows the cost of promotion from one class to another and shows what one has to lose to move from one social class to another.

It also shows the consequences of the efforts made for this purpose. It is a romanticized, ordinary life. In this novel term ‘realism’ presents the life of elite class Russians. These people live an ordinary, unremarkable life and for this reason, essentially die unremarkable. There are rudimentary forms of psychological realism in this novel as the author tries to relate the inner thoughts of the characters. 

It is a satire and despises the pretenses. The author has shown the pettiness and humorousness of the character through their follies. It is intended to be satirical because the characters’ follies are presented throughout the novel.

Tone

The tone of the novella is masterly, lucid, all-knowing, and alleviated. The narrator has complete control over his presentation and shows disapproval for the then Russian society.

Point of View

It is told by a third-person omniscient narrator. The narrator’s focus is to present the perspective of Ivan Ilych, and he penetrates his mind to tell all that he thinks. He has the ability to psychoanalyze the characters’ thoughts and motivations.

The narrator is omniscient and describes the events that are happening with complete knowledge. Later this point of view changes to Ilych’s and everything is seen from his perspective. There is a change in perspective from Ivan whenever it is needed. It is evident in the death scene when the events narrated are both from Ivan’s perspective and the people who are around there.    

Symbols

Black Sack, Phoenix, and doctors are used as symbols in this novella. Black sack primarily represents death, and it carries connotative meanings of the struggle between life and death, rebirth, and spiritual conversion. Ivan is called Phoenix of his family; this term has the denotative meaning of a bird that rises from its ashes. It carries here the denotative meanings of immortality, resurrection, and resilience in this novella. Doctors are used symbolically for the author’s disdain for modern science and technology, which is of no use to human beings.

Setting

This novella is spatially set in St. Petersburg, Russia. The main place of action is a middle-class house where the majority of the events take place. It is the place where Ivan suffers and ultimately dies. Other places that are described in this novella are the court of law and the protagonist’s brother’s country house. The spatial setting of the work is 1883-1884; it is the time when the protagonist dies.

Modern Russian society can be taken as this novella’s major setting. Using the different levels of setting show the organization of life at different levels. The major setting shows the conditions of life in Russian society and the general traits of this life are true in the case of many individuals. In the case of the setting on a smaller level, like the lives of individuals at their homes tries to capture individual desires and miseries. The smaller level is a more concrete representation of life.

Using the smaller level setting medical profession and modern science are also criticized because, in the novella, we see that they are of no use to the protagonist.

Significance of Title

The title tells of the death of a person, but before death, it tells the significance of life and shows how to lead life successfully and happily. It redefines the terms happiness and success, makes them get rid of their materialistic nuances. It makes the reader think and reconsider his life and motivations that drive his/her life.

It is a recollection of the past, reconsidering the steps that the protagonist took to lead a happy life. But the major thing which his eye didn’t notice was the death which is inevitable. This title is intended to show the inevitability of death. It is the realization of the huge mistake that the protagonist made.

Significance of Ending

The ending is suggested in his vision when he sees the light at the end of the narrow, black sack. It tells how we should pursue life and what should be the motivations. It tells that death is not an end, rather it’s a beginning of a new life. It tells us that as a result of a death that our sufferings end, and we start a new life that is filled with blessings. We can infer light as a realization of God and the popular belief that all life comes from Him. If this belief is accepted, one can realize that it won’t be painful and miserable if one returns to his/her origin.

It makes the reader realize and reconsider the perception of right and wrong. Thus it is an ending that proves a light of hope for the reader.

Writing Style

The writing style of this novella is flowing, transparent, logical, and informal. It tells the story of a life ruined that was wasted behind materialistic pursuits. Thus to make the reader realize the importance and impacts of it, the narrator has chosen the style that is acceptable and can impact the reader’s decisions. The writing style of the novella is unassuming and simple, short; easy sentences are used. 

An extensive vocabulary is avoided, and there is a deliberate use of everyday words. The divisions are based on logical reasons and different paragraphs; chapters can be easily differentiated on this basis of logical distinction. Several techniques of writing sentences are used. Sometimes there is repetition; other times, there is a description in several short sentences. Tolstoy’s writing in this novel is informal, as in several instances there are conjunctions used to start a sentence.

Allusions

There are references made to historical facts, and one of them is Emile Zola, this reference is made in chapter five when the protagonist asks Gerasim for Zola’s book. There is also a reference to Johann Gottfried Kiesewetter from Literature in chapter six, paragraph third describing his syllogisms. From pop-culture reference to Sarah Bernhardt is made in chapter eight two times when Ivan’s daughter and wife are going to watch her drama.