“You can say stop at any time, even one second before starting that.” Dr. John stared into Ivan’s eyes and said seriously. “ Well, thank you for mentioning it a million times,” Ivan shrugged his shoulders and started playing with his fingers. “But I already made this decision, and I’m not going to change my mind anyway. Also…” “Come on! How about Linda? Are you sure you gonna leave her in this world alone.” Dr. John interrupted Ivan’s speech and asked. Instead of replying him, Ivan turned his head and looked at the clock that hanged on the wall. As he listened sounds of the passing times, the dread engulfed his body and gradually swallowed him down. Suddenly, the irritating smell of the medicine pulled him out from the abyss of terror. Ivan couldn’t even remember how long had him being in this white, quiet and lifeless room. It was just like a jail that ruined his whole life and bonded him. Everything in the room was so pale that caused him to think that did he already dead or not. “You know what? I can feel my body cells are dying; I can hear the whisper of death every night, but I can do nothing about it! I know it would be unfair to Linda, but I don’t want to survive, I want to live! So that’s the only thing I can do, and it will be too late to wait until everything gets worse.” Ivan buried his head into his arms and spoke in a trembling voice. After a while, he faked up a smiling visage that looked so fragile and seemed like it would vanish at any second. Now he was back to that optimistic man again. However, the desperation and sadness reflected from his eyes had expressed his real emotion. Suddenly, the door opened and a little girl ran in with a lightning speed. She jumped onto the bed and hugged Ivan with all he... ... middle of paper ... ...nd become an attractive teenager. I wish I could be with you and share the joy with you. However, I have gone to a place that full of peace, and I can’t stay with you any longer. I apologize for being a selfish person. Actually, I got an illness called Lou Gehrig’s disease, and I believe you know that. I don’t want to become your pressure and ruin your future because my daughter deserves more than this, right? Therefore, I choose to leave, leaving quietly. Then, watching you grow up in the heaven. Sweetheart, I know it would be hard to accept this, but you must be strong. Again, sorry for everything I couldn’t do to you. I love you. Sincerely, Daddy Suddenly, a gust of fierce wind blowing from nowhere forced Linda to loosen her hands and let go the picture. She tried to seize it, but it was too late, the picture had already flown away toward that blue, blue sky.
The deathly ringing of the clock resonated throughout the chambers and faded away like they always had. But this time, the festivities did not flare back to life, for the new figure had control over the attention of everyone. This unique figure was shrouded in a robe as black as a void that covered all of his body except for his face, which was concealed by a peculiar mask. Contrary to the darkness of the robes, the lean mask was a pure, ghostly white with two blood red, curved lines, thicker at the top of the mask and thinner towards the bottom, through the eyes which were void holes. The air around him was cold and stale, like death lingered around him, waiting for its next victim. From the outskirts of the crowd, he moved in closer to the revelers, with each step echoing unnaturally loud. People shuffled away from him, afraid some terrible fate may befall them if they get close in proximity to him, as he strolled toward some unknown destination.
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.
Tolstoy provided us with two perspectives to view Ivan’s life in “The death of Ivan Illyich”: an omniscient narrator and Ivan himself. What I plan to do is give another perspective, not necessarily to view his life, but rather to his experiences after he realized he was dying. This perspective will be an analytical and psychological; the perspective from Kubler-Ross’s Stages of death (or stages of grief, as they are better known for). These stages occur when we are faced with an event that is usually connected with death. The “normal” order in which these five stages occur, though may not go doctrinally in this order, are as such: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
Ms Oliver states factually how little life she has remaining. “If I really fight it out, I may even have six weeks left.” She puts her life in perspective, and follows by showcasing her emotions more obviously. “It’s scary, because I feel myself getting more tired and it worries me that I might not wake up.” This fear evokes the sympathies of the reader.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn carefully and tediously depicted what life is like in a prison. Ivans monotonous life prompts the reader initially to think that Ivans day is a living death of tedious details. Yet, in truth, Ivan i...
Ivan has a strong disconnect with his family and begins feel like he is always suffering, while beginning to question if his life has been a lie. An example of this for prompt number three is when we are giving the quote "Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible." Leo Tolstoy implies through the quote that even though he lives an ordinary
According to Kubler-Ross’s theory, the first cycle is denial. Denial in this case is the individual denying that they are dying. When the individual resists the reality that they are going to die. “Then where shall I be when I am no more? Could this be dying? No I don’t want to!” (Tolystoy, “TdofII” p127), Ivan may have felt that he would be leaving too much behind if he were to die: worrying about where he’ll after he dies and refusing to something that cannot be stopped. Concerned mostly about losing his luxuries, he was clearly afraid and couldn’t accept he was dying as shown in this quote. “In the depth of his heart he knew he was dying, but not only was he not accustomed to the thought, he simply did not and could not grasp it.” (Tolystoy, “TdofII” p129).
Ivan wants “to live and not to suffer,” and the inner voice asks, “To live? How?” with the reply to “live as I used to – well and pleasantly.” Ivan’s problem now arises with the idea that maybe his life wasn’t so “pleasant” after all. Quickly understanding that living a life of simplicity and mediocracy is a worthless life, Ivan is forced to battle the internal thought of, where did I possibly go wrong? Possibly this life he was raised to believe as proper was just “a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death.” This conviction of sin remains with Ivan up until the point where he is being forced into a black sack struggling “to get right into
Tolstoy establishes his satire instantly after the death of Ivan through the cruel and selfish reactions of his friends. The death of a friend would normally conjure feelings of grief and compassion, yet for Ivan’s close associates, thoughts of their futures drowned out any thoughts of death. “So on receiving the news of Ivan Ilych's death the first thought of each of the gentlemen in ...
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy shows reader how not to live their everyday life. Of course we have to work day in and day out to provide for our families, but there comes a time when your work life should be put on hold. No life is ever perfect, we must make the best out of what we can accomplish. The Death of Ivan Ilyich teaches us about three themes: the right life, your mental “phony” life versus reality, and the unavoidable death to come.
“You’re not feeling ill are you?” due to his abnormal (for a conditioned world) behavior and his concern for Linda which, as we can see was highly unexpected as few visitors ever came.
Small things in life are often overlooked due to the busy and determined career oriented lifestyles. The joys of live come through the detail of the small gestures given or received. The golden rule of “treat others the way you want to be treated,” is so important for people who want to lead a happy life. Until he was deathly ill, Ivan Ilyich, the main character in The Death of Ivan Ilyich, never appreciated the small things in life. His focus was narrowed to one topic. “Ivan made work the center gravity of his life (p. 50).” Before anything else, including his marriage, Ivan’s work and analyzing way of living was of first priority. Neither Ivan nor his friends valued one another. Ivan’s family and friends treated Ivan as if he was a large inconvenience. Ivan’s coworkers were selfish as to who were going to receive his job. His wife was also selfish as to her well-being. “Ivan’s wife, Praskovya Fyodorovna, went into Ivan’s hospital room ...
In his last moments of life, Ivan sees light instead of death. His final audible words are “What joy!” despite the pain he feels. This epiphany that he has happens in a single moment and in a sense makes him finally come alive. Thus, right before his final breath Ivan is able to say to himself “Death is finished, it is no more!” Death no longer has a hold on him because the quest of perfection no longer does. Ivan has finally decided, after a lifetime of denying it, to “let the pain be.”
Ivan's wife is also self-centered and exhibits great disdain for her husband, who she considers more of a nuisance and hassle than anything else. Ivan's last days are spent in terrible physical agony, as he uncontrollably screams and moans in pain. When Ivan's friends come to pay their respects to his widow, we see in her comments to them that she never reall...
With each passing moment, my heart seems to yearn for our reunion with even greater ardor, despite my prior belief that my love for you had already reached the zenith of human emotion. Over the course of our long and painful separation, I have experienced and endured more than I ever thought I would within the vicinity of my time on this earth, and have been forced to drastically revise my interpretations of both pure bliss and anguish.