Letting Pain Be To many individuals the word “progress” has a positive meaning behind it. It suggests improvement, something humans have been obsessed with since the dawn of society. However, if closely examined, progress can also have a negative connotation as well. While bringing improvement, progress can simultaneously spark conformity, dependency, and the obsession of perfection within the individuals caught in its midst. It is this aspect of progress within modern society that negatively affects Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy’s main character in The Death of Ivan Ilych. Ivan’s attempt to conform to modern society’s view of perfection takes away his life long before he dies. Furthermore, his fear of death and reactions towards it reflects modern society’s inability to cope with the ever present reminder that humans still suffer and die, despite all attempts to make life painless, perfect, and immortal. Although we as a society have advanced and made people’s lives easier, our mental suffering is as present as ever, due to our incessant need to have everything perfect. We seem to forget that the fascination of living comes from the imperfect and the unexpected. In her essay “On the Fear of Death” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross suggests that the modern age, while increasing life span and ease of life, has at the same time given way to a “rising number of emotional problems,” amongst the living (Ross 407). She also suggests that because of modern society’s progress, there has been an increased anxiety towards death. While Ross is writing for twentieth century society her ideas apply to the nineteenth century as well, when Tolstoy wrote The Death of Ivan Ilych. Ivan Ilych is living during the industrial revolution, a time of technological advancement, that mainly advances the upper class, which he is apart of. Ivan’s number one priority in life is to be comfortable and to do the correct thing at all times. Every decision he makes, including who he chooses to marry, is with the intent that it does not damage his “easy, agreeable, and always decorous character of his life,” (Tolstoy 213). Ivan is convinced that the best way to have an easy and agreeable life is to be wealthy, marry a woman from his own class, and live in a house full of modern conveniences and luxury. Ironically, it... ... middle of paper ... ...roduction of Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 44 it is stated that “Ivan Ilych’s passage from life to death also entails a passage from falseness to truth…” (326). One could also look at this in a different light. From a physical perspective Ivan does go from life to death, from perfection to imperfection, but from a spiritual perspective it is actually the opposite. It takes the death of Ivan’s physical self to finally see what is important, his spirituality, his ‘divine spark.’ This, he finally realizes, is what true perfection is. Hence, Ivan is able to see past the falseness of conformity in the end and no longer fear death. 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.”
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy tells the story of Ivan Ilyich, a man who deals with a mysterious illness through introspection. Until his illness, he lived the life he thought he was supposed to live. Like Candide, he was living in blind optimism. He assumed that what he was doing was the right thing because he was told as much. He had a respectable job and a family. Happiness, if it did occur to him, was fulfilling his duties as a husband and father. It was his sudden illness that allowed him to reflect on his choices, concluding that those choices did not make him happy. “Maybe I have lived not as I should have… But how so when I did everything in the proper way” (Tolstoy 1474)? Ilyich had been in a bubble for his entire life, the bubble only popping when he realizes his own mortality. This puts his marriage, his career, and his life choices into perspective. Realizing that he does not get to redo these choices, he distances himself from his old life: his wife, his children, and his career. All that is left is to reflect. This reflection is his personal enlightenment. He had been living in the dark, blind to his true feelings for his entire life. Mortality creates a space in which he can question himself as to why he made the choices he made, and how those choices created the unsatisfactory life he finds himself in
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
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
This is related to the theme to live without suffering because as Ivan is getting ready to die he complains about how he is in so much pain despite numerous doctor visits and medication. Tolstoy uses his complaints as indicator for the readers to know that Ivan does not want to die in pain but peace. A moment of this is when Ivan calls his family into the room and dies in front of them because he believes it will bring them joy.
The young and stunning Dorian was always accompanied by stares as he entered a room. Women wanted to be with him and men wanted to be him. Basil described the experience he had in meeting Dorian for the first time: “When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale” (Wilde 16). The simple fact that a male was so taken aback exemplifies the fact that Dorian is visually stunning. However, the budding connection is anything but authentic. The nature of attraction that Basil feels toward Dorian lacks the fundamental structure of a true relationship. The truth is that Basil is attracted toward Dorian purely based on his appearance. He is the model from which Basil is able to create a magnificent painting but beyond that, he is just eye candy. These thoughts are brought to the attention of Dorian through Henry’s continued indoctrination of beliefs. As anguish creeps into the back of Dorian’s brain, he calls out Dorian for only liking him for his looks and questions what the future between them will hold when he begins to grow old: “How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I suppose. I know, now. That when one loses one’s good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything” (Wilde 38). This is a driving theme behind that novel that Oscar Wilde consistently advances. It was quite clear that when Basil fist saw
...y view this as a Christian worldview, one that embraces the afterlife, I see it as a man looking forward to inevitable death because even if it came late he figured out a meaning to life. In so doing he may not have had the opportunity to relive his life as no man does, but he found peace and fulfillment in his acceptance of his end. Existentialism argues in the concept of the "eternal return" that an individual to be most fulfilled should live a life that, having to repeat it over identically for all eternity, would be a concept that would be embraced. If Ivan had the chance to come back he would not enjoy living the same life over, but given another chance to build a new one he would surely construct one that is different.
Rivals of zero resistance accept there are elective and less intense arrangements, particularly with regards to minor "honest schoolyard shenanigans" (Shuster 2001, p.1). Karen Slick, an Ontario attorney and essayist expresses, "The Law does not fret about wastes of time" (Shuster 2001, p.2). Significant learning and direction time is yielded for teaching minor
During this time an artist was seen as an important figure to society because he was able to visually create and give meaning to beautiful things, which was considered art. Art and beauty became correlated this way. Sometime it is thought that artwork has to be significantly beautiful to be considered art. Basil believes that he has created his one and only master piece, which is the picture of Dorian Gray. He sees so much of himself in the art that becomes insecure about his masterpiece. In Victorian times the artist was always more important than the artwork because of what he could possibly represent in the eyes of society as an artist. This allowed Basil to become insecure about his artwork, he did not want to be judged based off of his artworks that he put some much of himself into; artistically and intelligently. This is the reason he becomes too reluctant to exhibit his artwork, “I know you will laugh at me,” he replied, “but I really can’t exhibit it. I have out too much of myself into it.” (6). This statement by Basil shows his insecurities and afraid of judgement as an artist. it also depicts that he is very concerned with the reaction and judgements of others because he tells Lord Henry his reason for not wanting to exhibit his painting Dorian, which he becomes very drawn and attracted to. Basil pushes Victorian gender roles by showing
However, through the enlightenment provided by Tolstoy, and the lessons taught, I now see that I am less satisfied with my existence and more deceivingly complacent with it. To expand on this, I have not done anything of true significance and have lived only to appear content, fooling even myself, while hiding behind a stoic facade. I have lived in an inauthentic way, preoccupied with my superficial social portrayal instead of true inner delineation. Just as I did, I feel as though the protagonist, Ivan Ilyich, would have claimed to have been happy, genuinely believing himself. I see a lot of myself in Ivan, and it makes me fearful. I would seek only what was pleasant and shy away from what is unpleasant. I now see I must be willing to accept my own transience and live genuinely if I want to live a blissful
The Death of Ivan Illych brings an excellent in-depth description of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s 5 cycles of grief theory. In the book, it shows how Ivan Illych goes through these cycles in their own individual way. The cycles that Kubler-Ross uses in her theory are: denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance. To get a better understanding of these cycles, this paper will describe each cycle and provide quotations that will help develop an idea of how someone going through these cycles may react.
Immanuel Kant was a moral philosopher. His theory, better known as deontological theory, holds that intent, reason, rationality, and good will are motivating factors in the ethical decision making process. The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain major elements of his theory, its essential points, how it is used in the decision making process, and how it intersects with the teams values.
Dorian Gray is a grand Gothic experiment from the moment in Basil Hallward’s studio when he desperately swears that he “would give [his] soul” if only he “was to be always young, and the picture … was to grow old” in his stead (Wilde 28). Even before this moment, Dorian was a test subject of Lord Henry’s, who wanted to see how many of his own ideas he could inject into the boy. This influence rapidly planted in Dorian the ideas of eternal youth and beauty and led to the encasement of his soul in the portrait. After the switch, Dorian not only is under Lord Henry’s influence, but he is also Oscar Wilde’s subject. In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde manipulates Dorian, his surroundings, and his circumstances to capture a realistic portrayal of the character’s downfall by depicting the nature of the body, mind, and soul, and the relationship they share.
They were able to do this with the use of strategic military action, advanced technology and the spread of disease. Immediately after colonization took place in the new worlds, natives were used in the military action or used to benefit the west in the works of trading. The world trading developed the western economy into a super power allowing their expansion efforts to be almost
In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde readers are presented with a vast depiction of the art of immorality in the face of ignorant innocence portrayed by the character Dorian Gray. In the beginning it seems to be a quaint novel on artistry and the paradoxical relationship between two lifelong friends by the name of Basil Hallward and Lord Henry. The plot takes a surprising twist when introduced to the real center of attention, the character of the seemingly innocent Dorian Gray. Upon this introduction Wilde then begins to tell the tale of what a life of secrecy and deception will lead to without the consciousness of a moral threshold and the inescapable burden of Dorians horrid accumulation of sins. The deception begins with a simple shout out to the heavens for the impossible to be granted. This then flourishes into unspeakable acts caused by an Egyptian statue, bringing misfortune to Dorian Gray by giving him exactly what he so desperately desires, thus teaching the world a lesson. Not everything we so strongly desire the world to provide is good for the soul.
Dorian Gray's life is dictated by his physical appeal. His beauty lies within his youth. Dorian's perception of beauty allows him to love. He is convinced that his beauty allows him to accomplish anything he desires regardless of the consequences and still be loved by his friends. He uses his beauty to mitigate his evil actions. Dorian says, “I don't wish to know anything about them. I love scandals about other people, but scandals about myself don't interest me. They have not got the charm of novelty.” Youth and beauty are the most precious things to Dorian. In his life, beauty is of utmost importance. Then he sees the picture of himself, painted by Basil, absorb his sins and this changed his view. “I hope it is not about myself. I am tired of myself tonight. I should like to be somebody else,” Dorian said. He aspired to have had a good life rather than one filled with artificial meaning and beauty. The moral beauty of Doran lies within the portrait of himself. The portrait imitated his life. He finally realized that beauty cannot help him escape his evil actions. He deeply lamemted his wish that the portrait bore the burden of his age an...