Tolstoy's The Death Of Ivan Ilych

The short story “The Death of Ivan Ilych” is about a man who realizes he is dying and that no one in his life cares about him. Even more disappointing for Ivan is the realization that besides his success as a high court judge, he has done nothing else to make his life worth saving. The death of Ivan Ilyich, sadly, comes as a release of stress to all. In the end, Ivan is soothed by the release of death, his family and friends are relieved of having responsibility of Ivan taken off their shoulders, and the reader is released from the stressful journey. Tolstoy teaches the audience through the structural elements of the “black sack” metaphor and pathos about the unavoidability of death and the relief of accepting it.
The language that Tolstoy uses engages the audience by making them feel like they are actually a part of the story. With death being a main subject in the story, Tolstoy practically forces the reader to live, breathe, and smell death. Tolstoy knew exactly how to pull his audience in with descriptive language and made them understand Ivan’s point of view successfully. Tolstoy’s main metaphor of the story is the “black sack”, which is first brought up when Ivan is given medication in Chapter 9. He writes, "It seemed to him that he and his pain were being thrust into a narrow, deep black

Throughout the story, Tolstoy gives us a clear reasoning as to why he writes so deeply and meaningfully, but also leaves plenty of room for our own interpretation. Combining the two structural elements of pathos and metaphors in his writing helped give a well-defined reason to his intended audience of what he was trying to say. Over all, Tolstoy’s illustrative language was beautifully written and got the message across about making sense of death and accepting