The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy
Nearly two people die every second. In fact, as you read this post, the number is continuing to rise. When we hear about people dying on the news or catching deadly diseases, the thought that one day we are all going to be in that exact position never occurs to us. As humans, we like to think that we are all special and unique. And, in a sense, that’s true. But, at the split of a second, all of the complex emotions, relationships, and success that one has acquired over countless years can disappear. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy explores these ideas and more by highlighting the complexity of death and the depth of the emotions one experiences in the limited time before one’s death.
The piece begins with a funeral scene after the central character, Ivan Ilych, has died. During the funeral, it seemed as though the guests were there simply to fulfill a duty, and not necessarily out of feelings of empathy or melancholy. Even Ilych’s wife was discussing additional benefits that she could receive from the Russian government for being widowed, instead of honoring the memories of her deceased husband. Moreover, during the funeral, she explains the pain that she experienced having to care for Ilych— completely neglecting the fact that it was an actual person who endured the tragedy of death. Tolstoy explained that other guests pitied him, but each of them drifted away from any ounce of empathy with the thought that “at least it was him and not them”. Just from the funeral scene, it was hard not to be disgusted with the level of self-interest presented by all the guests.
Tolstoy then transitioned to explaining the life of Ivan Ilych and described a few significant parts of Ilych’s life. These memories included his marriage to Fedorovna, his period of deep poverty, and his new job. Ilych went to a School of Law in his teenage years and ended up getting married not necessarily because he was in love with Fedorovna, but because it seemed like the most logical decision given the fact that she was in love with him, had a good family, had property, and generally seemed like an appropriate match. During his time at school and leading into his career, he began to rationalize his wrong actions, which he previously felt regret for, because “people of higher rank” did similar things. This was the beginning of his so-called fascination with people with power and wealth. He worked as an examining magistrate for the majority of his life and greatly enjoyed the power that he had over the lives of others. Although Ilych never abused his power and was an honest and likable man, because he had this power, he saw himself as above others in a sense. In the meantime, his tensions with his wife grew, and he ended up experiencing the death of several of his children. What was interesting was that Ilych believed that the worst time of his life was when his family endured economic issues— but Tolstoy didn’t state any sort of difficulty or pain experienced by him when his own kids had died. His key motivation in life came from acquiring power through societal rank and monetary strength. This helped contextualize the hierarchy in Russian society during this time period, where the determining factor of rank was wealth. Of course, these kinds of mindsets weren’t only prevalent in Russian society but are also greatly present in the status quo.
After Ilych found a job that satisfied his needs, he fell extremely ill. As his physical health slowly deteriorated, his mental health didn’t take too long to worsen either. Throughout his illness, he visited countless doctors, yet couldn’t find any solutions. He began to feel bad for himself as everyone started seeing him as a burden and his family couldn’t bear being next to him. Ilych began to realize how meaningless his past motivations were now that he had lost his health. He tried to come to terms with his death, but encountered deep mental turmoil as he started thinking his life through. He began to realize that his life and motivations were so meaningless that he couldn’t even find a reason not to die. But, at the same time, he believed that he was too complex a person to experience death. Like, how could he die of all people? This mentality comes from the idea that, as humans, we believe we are the exceptions to certain rules and that our consciousness is greatly unique. This was exactly how Ilych thought. He ended up finally dying after months of physical and mental torture, right after beginning to care about someone other than himself. He starts to feel sorry for his family for having to deal with him and finally reaches a state of acceptance with his death.
REVIEW
This was such an impactful piece and extremely powerful to those who want to understand how it feels for someone to know that they are about to die. I deeply enjoyed this book and would recommend that anyone who enjoys deep thinking and is interested in psychology read it. Furthermore, I thought that this novel did a really good job describing the fragility of our health and how, without it, our lives are meaningless. For these reasons, I highly recommend that everyone read this book!
By Doga Ozecik
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