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The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy is one of the most renowned writers of the last two hundred years. His novels tend to communicate an insight on life; whether it is about death, suffering, religion, art, or education. Tolstoy was a man with numerous firm beliefs, and a reader must understand these beliefs to fully comprehend the meaning of his works. He was a extremely religious moral philosopher who used his religious beliefs to form our understanding on issues of life. He stresses the disparity of social classes and, as obvious in The Death of Ivan Ilyich, the suffering in life. Religion played a major role in shaping Tolstoy's view on art.
He believed that art was meant to connect or unify humanity with God by reproducing the same feelings between artist and viewer. From Prof. Banachs lecture, he invites us to realize Tolstoy's view on art. The destiny of art in our time is to transmit from the realm of reason to the realm of feeling the truth that well-being for men consists in their being united together, and to set up, in place of the existing realm of force, that kingdom of Godthat is of love (What is Art? , XX). During his time, Tolstoy felt that art was losing its emphasis on religion and was beginning to become a means of pleasing people. Again, according to Prof.
Banachs lecture, art had lost its religious subject matter and attempted only to produce pleasure. It had become exclusive; created for certain groups of people, as opposed to universal; created for all people. It had also become insincere, being created only to make money without conveying any new messages or without any true feelings. Tolstoy believed that art should be universal in linking everyone to a common view. Much of Tolstoy's literature had to do with human life and subsequent death. The Death of Ivan Ilyich portrays this view to great extent.
He portrays his view of the meaning of life as well as the pursuit of an explanation for human suffering. Tolstoy first shows us how the death of Ivan, a court official, opens up a job position and his colleagues are only interested in the business implications of his death. Their failure to sympathize with the death of a friend and colleague represents Tolstoy's view of society at that time. Tolstoy's meaning of life can be found at the conclusion of the novel when Ivan is examining his life.
Ilyich realizes that his work, his earnings, his extravagant home, his convenient marriage, and his social standing all have no meaning now that he is faced with death. The turning point for Ivan comes when he realizes that his life was a lie and the true purpose of living is to help others as displayed by Gerasim the peasant. It is here, that suffering comes into play. Ilyich is suffering because he is searching for an elaborate meaning to everything and forgetting the simple things that make life great. When he finally realizes this, his months of suffering cease, and he lays in peace for a few hours before he comfortably dies. Tolstoy conveys this message through the death itself, along with Ivans external relationships.
Despite dying and being ridiculed by his family and society over his illness, Ilyich is presented in a heroic sense at the end of the story. Tolstoy does this by showing us how his family and friends are caught up in the materialism and social standing in life but Ilyich himself had abandoned these ideas. In a sense, Tolstoy shows us that it is the others who have dies because they do not live their lives as true Christians would. Instead, it is Ilyich who, despite having nothing, becomes the more righteous character through the help of Gerasim. This view parallels Tolstoy's belief that it is the poor peasants who exhibit the principles and the upper classes who abandon their religion for personal pleasure. Now Tolstoy's message becomes clear.
The meaning of life is to help others and live a morally Christian life because religion is present in all things from art to education. Those who live life like this will not suffer because they will be free from sin and at peace with God. When Ivans so-called friends were told about his death they all had the same reaction: They focused only on how they could benefit from this sad news, and did not think once to pity Ivan. Each, in his own way, was thinking that he could now have Ivans position in the court. Besides these considerations, the fact that one of their colleagues had died brought up the thought, it is he who is dead and not I (Tolstoy 1185). One of the few colleagues mentioned that went to Ivans funeral was Peter Ivonovich.
When Peter views Ivans face, he sees a look of accomplishment. This look makes Peter feel very uneasy. This uneasiness can be associated with a warning of some sort that Peter does not understand. It is not until the end that the reader is able to understand the meaning of this look of accomplishment that is seen on Ivans face at his funeral. Ivan did some form of repentance at the end of his life, and that is why he was able to die with the look of accomplishment on his face. Praskovya was in complete denial with regard to the fact that her husband was dying.
Her attitude towards his illness was that it was his own fault, and she viewed it as an annoyance that he caused her. Ivans marriage to Praskovya Fedorovya, was more for a social status then anything else. They had no relationship; in fact they actually hated each other. At one point in the story we are told that Ivans wife, began to feel sorry for herself, and the more she pitied herself the more she hated her husband.
She began to wish he would die; yet she did not want him to die because then his salary would cease (Tolstoy 1199). So when she was told about her husbands death it was hard for her to believe that her wish became reality. Ivan himself is also in denial about his ill health. He saw that he was dying but could not grasp the thought of it. One night when he was lying in bed and feeling the pain, he thought to himself, Again, again! The pain will never cease vermiform appendix!
Kidney! Its not a question of appendix or kidney, but of life and death. Why deceive myself? Isnt it obvious to everyone but me that I am dying Can this be dying? No, I dont want to! (Tolstoy 1205). The only person who is willing to help Ivan from the beginning till the end of the story is Gerasim, Ivans butler.
He faces his job wholeheartedly, and approaches his masters illness and death with a full understanding. It is said about Gerasim that, He saw that no one felt for Ivan, because no one even wished to grasp his position. Only Gerasim recognized and pitied him. He felt comforted when Gerasim supported his legs, sometimes all night long and refused to got to bed, saying: Dont worry, if you werent sick it would be another matter, but as it is, why should I grudge a little trouble (Tolstoy 1210).
Gerasim truly felt sorry for his master. He even said once when Ivan was sending him away, We shall all of us die, so why should I grudge a little trouble (Tolstoy 1210). He was just helping a dying man, and he was hoping that others would do the same for Gerasim one day. Ivan could no longer just sit back and ignore his illness, because the pain was too strong. This helped him realize that he really was dying, and this time he could not ignore his death. As it says, and he could no longer forget It, but could distinctly see it looking at him from behind the flowers He would go to his study, lie down, and again be alone with It: face to face with It.
And nothing could be done with It except to look at it and shudder (Tolstoy 1208). At the point when Ivan was dying, his wife, his children, his acquaintances, and even his doctors were hoping that the day would soon come when at last he would release everyone from the discomfort of having an invalid around. This shows how everyone Ivan knew cared only about themselves and did not care about their so-called friend or family member. Towards the end of the story we learn that there was one other person who gave any comfort to Ivan while he was dying, his son Vasya. He came in to see his father, With dark shadows under his eyes he had always seemed pathetic to Ivan, and now it was dreadful to see the boys frightened look of pity. It seemed to Ivan that Vasya was the only one besides Gerasim who understood and pitied him (Tolstoy 1214).
His daughter, who also came in, is shown to have the same liveliness as her mother, and this Ivan could not stand. She came in full evening dress, her fresh young flesh exposed (making a show of that very flesh which in his own case caused so much suffering), strong, healthy, and impatient with illness, suffering, and death, because they interfered with her happiness (Tolstoy 1214). At the very end, Ivan learns a most important lesson: how to face death. He recognizes his own downfall in life, and unfortunately this recognition could only be attained through death. Ivan sees that nothing in his life was a source of true happiness, such as his need to move up in the social class, or his marriage which was a mere accident, that caused him more grief than happiness. All Ivan could say was: It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going upI was going up in public opinion, but to the same extent life was ebbing away from me.
And now it is all done and there is only death (Tolstoy 1217). Over the next couple of weeks, until Ivan was really on his deathbed, all he could think about was how he lived his life, and how he should have lived his life. The very last day of Ivans life he came to the conclusion that he could still rectify everything that he had done incorrectly. He started to feel sorry for all those around him, and asked for forgiveness.
This was the first time that instead of death Ivan Ilyich saw light. Bibliography: Tolstoy, Leo. Death of Ivan Ilyich. London: Penguin Classics, 1984
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