Study Document
Death of Ivan Ilyich by Essay
Pages:5 (1899 words)
Sources:4
Subject:Literature
Topic:Death Of Ivan Ilyich
Document Type:Essay
Document:#53137732
…there was light-heartedness, friendship, and hope…they were the memories of a love for a woman. Then all became confused and there was still less of what was good; later on again there was still less that was good, and the further he went the less there was. His marriage, a mere accident, then the disenchantment that followed it... (Tolstoy, 1886, 29-30).
He realizes that all the while he thought he was going up, he was really going downhill and now there is nothing left for him but death (Tolstoy, 1886, 30).
After three days of complete agony, Ivan finally learns to accept his sins and even though it is too late to fully rectify them, the mere acknowledgement that the life his past life was the wrong one was enough to free him. And in this recognition, he is then able to let go of his anger, doubts and fears, especially his anger towards others. He feels pity for his son and wife who are suffering because he is dying and with this, he stops thinking of himself and puts himself in the place of others. Thus, in Ivan's newfound freedom, death becomes the answer to his physical suffering and Ivan finally learns to surrender himself up to a higher power and let death take its course.
And suddenly it grew clear to him that what had been oppressing him and would not leave him was all dropping away at once from two sides, from ten sides, and from all sides. He was sorry for them, he must act so as not to hurt them: release them and free himself from these sufferings. "How good and simple!" he thought. "And the pain?" he asked himself. "What has become of it? Where are you, pain?"
"It is finished!" said someone near him.
He heard these words and he repeated them in his soul.
"Death is finished," he said to himself. "It is no more!"
References
Harder, W. (1990). Granny & Ivan: Katherine Anne Porter's Mirror for Tolstoy. Renascence, 42(3), 149-156.
Hustis, H. (2000). 'Three Rooms Off': Death and the Reader in Tolstoy's the Death of Ivan Ilych. LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, 11(3), 261.
Kamm, F. (2003). Rescuing Ivan Ilych: How We Live and How We Die. Ethics, 113(2), 202.
Tolstoy, Leo. (1886). E-book of the…
Sample Source(s) Used
References
Harder, W. (1990). Granny & Ivan: Katherine Anne Porter's Mirror for Tolstoy. Renascence, 42(3), 149-156.
Hustis, H. (2000). 'Three Rooms Off': Death and the Reader in Tolstoy's the Death of Ivan Ilych. LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, 11(3), 261.
Kamm, F. (2003). Rescuing Ivan Ilych: How We Live and How We Die. Ethics, 113(2), 202.
Tolstoy, Leo. (1886). E-book of the Death of Ivan Ilyich. Accessed online (October 9, 2009). http://manybooks.net/titles/tolstoylother08death_of_ivan_ilych.html
Related Documents
Study Document
Death of Ivan Ilych Sum
He likes the power he is afforded with each new position and loves knowing he can crush others. 7. Does the narrator sympathize with Ivan's attachment to his possessions? The tone of the passage (paragraph 104) is deeply empathetic. This entire portion of the story displays Tolstoy's sympathy and empathy for Ivan. Ivan is a reflection of every man who has placed all his interest in this world only to realize
Study Document
Death of Ivan Ilych" and
Both characters found ways to avoid living through isolation. They alienated themselves from practically everyone and this resulted in severe pain. The message here is to think about the things that consume us and then consider how important those things will be at the end of our lives or when our lives become difficult. The Death of Ivan Ilych" and "Ward No. 6" are compelling stories that force us to
Study Document
Book the Death of Ivan Ilyich
Death of Ivan Ilych Before we interpret some of the main religious ideas behind Tolstoy's story, we will first examine some of the main characters who surround Ivan Ilych, during his life and during his long tortuous death struggles. The reader first meets Peter Ivanovich in the very opening of the story. We soon learn that he works with Ivan Ilych in the "Law Courts" and that as youths they had
Study Document
Leo Tolstoy the Death of Ivan Ilyich
Death of Ivan Ilych:" the spiritual vs. The material In "The Death of Ivan Ilych," the Russian author Leo Tolstoy presents a man of the professional class who is so obsessed with 'getting ahead' he refuses to accept his own death until confronted with the inevitable. The title is ironic: Ivan defined himself throughout his life by everything but his mortality, but in the end that is all with which
Study Document
Alienation and the City in the Death of Ivan Ilyich
Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. Specifically it will contain an analysis of alienation and the city in the short novella. Most people think Tolstoy is analyzing life and death in this story, but there are references to other aspects of society, as well. Tolstoy's use of symbolism in the story indicates how alienated Ivan really is from the world, and how alienated bourgeois society is from each
Study Document
Comparison and Contrast of Rousseau Confessions and the Death of Ivan Ilyich...
Rousseau and Tolstoy A Comparison of Rousseau's Confessions and Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions opens more brazenly than the other Confessions of antiquity (those belonging to Augustine); the latter were zealously religious in nature and humbling in tone; the former were proud in tone and primarily secular. If Rousseau's Confessions can be called a celebration of a life burnished in the fires of the Romantic/Enlightenment era, Tolstoy's Death of