Significance of Religion and the Afterlife in The Death of Ivan Ilyich
After confronting the reality of death due to suicidal thoughts, Leo Tolstoy attempted to find comfort in God, which eventually resulted in the writer finding his own religion (World Literature 809). Tolstoy progressed from an incredibly conflicted and depressed aristocrat to an admired, devoted religious sage. This transition is shown through the first novella the writer published after gaining salvation, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." The protagonist in the story experiences great pain before his salvation. After he experiences the “light” at the end of his life which is symbolic for heaven, he is able to find peace. Tolstoy uses Ivan as a protagonist to identify how perspectives of death differ based on religious salvation, which reflects his personal transition from a nonreligious man to a worshiper of God.
Prior to the moment when Ivan “fell through and caught a sight of light” he experienced immense pain and could only focus
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After experiencing salvation, many individuals are able to forgive themselves and others because they feel that devotion to God is their most important commitment. Tolstoy expresses his salvation in Ivan’s final moments in the way that the character is able to ask for forgiveness for his previous sins, think about the pain of others, and find peace by looking forward to the light of heaven. After Tolstoy’s salvation, he changed his sinful behavior by forgiving himself and evolving, living peacefully with the peasant class while promoting their rights, and attempting to model the life of Jesus Christ (Tolstoy 809). This suggests that when individuals have religious salvation, they are able to look at death in as if their soul is moving on to the next phase of existence, which brings great comfort and
The western world is a superficial and materialistic society, consumed with the need for admiration and the feeling of prominence. A large portion of the bourgeois society participate in an inauthentic existence, denying both life and death. As a byproduct, we hide our empathy and compassion in order to represent ourselves in a socially acceptable way. When asked how one is doing, many reply “well”, regardless of how they are actually feeling inside. This is what social media is built off of: falsehoods and misrepresentations. By being preoccupied with status and wealth, we are robbed of our ability to experience life. Through the reading of “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, we are able to see that to genuinely live a life with meaning, we have to rise above the imperceptiveness of our society. Living a life of inauthenticity and confirming to social norms leaves you vacuous. This idea that social status and appearance does not define happiness speaks volumes to me, and
In life we often think about death and what our life has become. We never suspect that we will become ill and die, and we very rarely agonize over weather our life is what it should be until its too late, as demonstrated in Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych." Throughout Tolstoy's life he was religious and enjoyed life, but then as he reached the height of his fame and fourteen he began to question everything he had once believed in. Some people think that "The Death of Ivan Ilych" holds a lot of symbolism between the story and Tolstoy's life. In "The Death of Ivan Ilych" there is a lot of symbolism of life and death as compared to Tolstoy's life.
In Leo Tolstoy’s novel The Death of Ivan Ilyich, the title character’s life changes in several important ways during the course of the story. First, his relationships with the people in his life change. Secondly, he engages in different “forms of diversion” as his life goes through different stages. Thirdly, his attitude towards wealth and possessions changes near the end of his life. In addition, we also see a gradual realization and acceptance of death. One could draw interesting parallels between the progression of Ivan Ilyich’s character and the Russian state and leadership in the latter part of the Imperial period.
Why does the story begin with the death? Most books use mystery in the beginning and announce the death at the end. But Tolstoy used a different chronology, he started with the death of Ivan and then uses a flashback to show the reader what really happened. Also he chooses to start with the death to make the story seem real and not fictional. At Ivan’s funeral, nobody seemed devastated by the loss of Ivan, which gave the reader an understanding of how little Ivan’s life meant to the people even the ones close to him. Later in the reading, but before his death Ivan questions how he lived his mortality life and what if he lived his life properly. Before his death he had come to the realization that his death would benefit all the others around him. "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" begins with the death of Ivan in order to get it out of the way. In essence the
...t is . What really accentuated the story's realness was the cold-harsh fact that no one is exempt from death. This was given when Gerasim said to Ivan that everyone dies (p135). As the last book Tolstoy made before his conversion to Christianity: this book, delving deep into death, could reveal some clues about what the bible is trying to tell us about the truth of death. Is death the end, the process, or...the beginning? Who knows? One thing for certain is that every individual goes through the grief process a bit differently, and Tolstoy has proven that through his main character, Ivan Illych.
The idea of fate is often hard to grapple when faced with a destiny that may not be as preferable as one may hope. But, people will soon recognize the need to accept this fate, or instead be trapped within their struggle to escape from the inevitable. In the texts, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, by Leo Tolstoy, and The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus, the main characters both are only able to move past the battles against their fate in order to only then find their own happiness. In The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy tells the progression of Ivan Ilyich’s death, which coincides with his descent into misery. For the duration of the story he struggles with the burden of his disease and death on both himself
In his moments of suffering, he often questioned to what extent he had lived his life. The life Ivan lived was prestigious, perfect almost and he had spent much time alone, contemplating whether it was a good life or not. He gad grown used to isolating himself from his family and his pretentious wife, Praskovya by burying himself with work. Ivan claimed that work had been the one thing to give him happiness his whole life, and now he was questioning that. He realizes that he had been doing things in life simply for his own comfort and because it was what society believed a high class, aristocratic man was to do. His marriage to Praskovya, the purchase of his home in the city, and his choice of elegant furnishings all displayed that Ivan was trying his hardest to meet aristocratic standards. As Ivan’s health progressively got worse, and he turned more hostile towards his wife and family, he believed that they didn’t care for him and were disrupting his comfort and happiness with life. In his final moments, when he begins to see the light, he realizes that even though he lived an empty life without much appreciation towards his family, it was okay and that he was now ready to face death once and for all. With that came forgiveness of his wife and children for not being beside in his final days, and for leaving him lonely with only the company of Gerasim to sustain him. Ivan also felt immensely happy when he died
Who screams for three days straight? Do you know anyone who can scream for three days straight? We all have distinctive arrogances towards something that is very life-threatening. If you haven’t recited The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy, let’s get commenced with the intro of the story. Well in the inauguration throughout an interlude in a trial, numerous legal professionals antithetical in a private room. Peter Ivanovich, the designation character's contiguous friend, reads in the tributes that Ivan Ilych has died. Ivan Ilych had been incurably ill for some time. He was the collaborator of the men contemporaneous. Ivan’s death has just impacted everyone he knows and all his family members of his death. They also think of how they will
Death is the most important and abrupt stop in life. With no other option, man is forced to reflect back on a life that has no chance of future redemption. Of course, the concept of death features prominently in both The Death of Ivan Ilyich, by Leo Tolstoy, and Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann. The drab Ivan Ilyich, hailing from The Death of Ivan Ilyich, only realizes the faults in his life when backed against the inevitable wall of death. In the critical view of Tolstoy, “Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible” (818). Ivan always followed the Apollonian lifestyle, only acting in proper ways based on the structure of society. As such, the greater portion of his existence was incredibly dull and unexceptional. However, in attempting to live this way, Ivan suffers a fall that leads to his subsequent illness and bitter end. This locks Ivan in a state of self-reflection and depression. Unable to leave the prison of his own illness, this becomes his only option. In this torture, Ivan finds comfort in the presence of the youthful Gerasim. In fact, Ivan feels Gerasim’s presence “such a comfort that he did not want to let him go” (Tolstoy 838).
Ivan pretty much avoids the idea of death because he did not think it would happen to him so soon. Death to Ivan is something that deceased people experience. Ivan and his family did not see death has a common experience for all beings. This thought is seen in Ivan as he transitions. Ivan had a routine for his life. He enjoyed working, playing bridge, and keeping his house luxurious. Tolstoy says Ivan’s life was “most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” In the beginning of the story, the readers are presented with Ivan’s funeral. The people attending Ivan’s funeral want the whole ordeal to be over. This entire death has been an inconvenience for all of his friends and family. Death is something that Ivan battles with as he gets closer to that point in his life. The fall off of the ladder is the reason for him dying. This fall triggers unbearable pains for Ivan. Ivan is very irate towards his wife and screams due to the pain he experiences. On his death bed, Ivan struggles with dying. He is truly afraid of what is going to happen to him. “Suddenly some kind of force struck him in the chest and on the side, his breath was constricted even more, he collapsed in to the hole and there at the bottom of the hole some light was showing.” This excerpt expressed the moment in which Ivan converts. He feels a spirit that told him how to mend things with his family. In Ivan’s case, death is the only way to help his family move
Suffering. Agony. Death. These are three realities that we as human beings will face in our lifetime. Furthermore, literary writers with a focus on realism incorporate these realities into their stories for us to relate to. Most of the time a reader will associate death as the end of the journey, rather than a beginning. It is human nature after all, especially if you are not a spiritual person. However, Leo Tolstoy does a remarkable job of painting the struggle of death as a rebirth in The Death of Ivan Ilyich. “The first part of the story describes the reactions of his colleagues and his family after his death. We see mundane society life continuing its frivolous concerns, untouched by the mystery of extinction. The second part of the story opens with a straightforward statement of its moral: “The story of Ivan Ilyich’s life was most simple and ordinary and most terrible” (Carden 20). In order to
Understanding oneself is as universal question for humanity as why we are here and where do we come from. This universal question is so prominent that it even underpins itself deep into literature itself, with many novels featuring characters on personal quests of self-realization. These quests for self-realization are portrayed in numerous forms. In Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe takes off on an overseas journey in order to discover himself. In Leo Tolstoy’s novel The death of Ivan Ilyich, Ivan Ilyich’s quest for self-realization begins initially as an attempt to achieve a high social status, wealth, and other aspects of life that society deems admirable. In Albert Camus’s the fall, Jean-Baptiste Clamence believes he has gained
...l […] his passing from one world into another” (542). Without Raskolnikov’s relationship with Sonia it would have been impossible for him to become this new man, to convert to Christian existentialism and find happiness and meaning in life.
Leo Tolstoy’s “Death of Ivan Ilyich” and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” both are pieces of literature written in the late 19th century and early 20th century that demonstrates individuals living in middle class yet in an unstable mental and physical life. Both protagonists in each works, have experienced a significant crisis in their lives and resolved the issues with death. Gregor Samsa and Ivan Ilych both displays the action of breaking free from the pressure of being depersonalized by family, friends, and society. The action, which was death, caused both stories to have significant similarities and differences with both the protagonists and secondary characters.
...rs later. God waits in order to test Aksionov’s faith. After being imprisoned, he is presented with two choices, he can either be filled with anger and hate for being wrongly accused, or he can pray and put his faith in God. However, although he decides the latter, by the time the truth is released and the order for his release comes, he is already dead. This is Tolstoy’s way of showing the true themes of the story, forgiveness and faith. This also ties in to Leo Tolstoy’s personal life, when he stayed committed to his faith although it caused him to be isolated from his family and peers.