Leo Tolstoy's The Death Of Ivan Ilyich

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In Leo Tolstoy’s novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, readers are given a look into the life of a dying man contemplating his existence. Having lived his whole life in a society that acts as if death is not imminent, Ivan Ilyich is faced with a dilemma-- his life has been an unfulfilling constant effort of avoiding discomfort due to the social proprieties and conventions he is surrounded.

The society Ivan has lived in all his life is one of proprieties and superficialities. This is seen as soon as the story begins, for when Ivan’s “friends” hear of his death, one of their first concerns is of who will take his place in the work place (cite here). This quickly shows that even through the death of their friend, people that knew Ivan never saw past his position in the law. This is also shown to readers in (insert chapter) when the narrator is describing day to day life in Ivan’s world. Tolstoy writes, “In all this one had to know how to exclude all that was raw and vital- which always disrupts the regular flow of official business…”, perfectly describing not just Ivan’s life, but presumably the life of everyone around him. This means that through everything done by characters in Tolstoy’s setting, emotion, depth, …show more content…

His whole live has consisted of following social proprieties and mistreating people due to fear of “entanglement”. (cite and add quotes) He finds joy upon moving out of his house and through his passion of home decorating but it is not until he falls on his side and becomes terminally ill that he realizes that he has not only treated others badly (quote from chapter with the doctors) but has valued the wrong things and gravely taken advantage of his status. What is wrong with his life is his patterns of avoiding any discomfort, including the things that are “raw and vital” (relationships, emotion, art, morals, etc.) and replacing them with the petty and artificial, like

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