Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych

The most important lessons that Ivan Ilych learnt in Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych, written in 1886, were that the false and deceitful world in which he lived prevented him from understanding the real purpose and meaning of life, and that what he loved, lived and worked for in his life was in fact worthless, and he should have lived his life in a more meaningful way. Ironically, it is by his illness and an anticipation of imminent death that Ivan Ilych was compelled to make the most meaningful conclusions in his life.

He began to be aware of falsity surrounding him when he noticed that his family, friends, and acquaintances pretended not to see that he was dying while in fact they were already preoccupied with the idea who would take Ivan Ilych’s vacant post after his death (Tolstoy, ch. 5). Everywhere throughout the second half of the story, doctors and visitors coming to see Ivan Ilych, took on airs, used the same well-learnt phrases that were expected to be used in similar circumstances, and pretended to worry about him.

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For all of them, except his servant Gerasim and his son, the dying Ivan Ilych was an intruder disturbing their comfortable and merry lives. All of them believed that death was a natural event, but that it could come to other people, and never to them. Looking back on his past life, Ivan Ilych acknowledged that he had used to live and behave in the same way as those around him did at present, and made the first important conclusion about the falsity, triviality, and worthiness of his life (Tolstoy, ch.

). Ivan Ilych then asked himself a question why his illness, sufferings, and the imminent death happened to him. He gradually came to a conclusion that he was suffering and was going to die because he had not lived as he should have done. At first, he denied this truth arguing that he had lived correctly and had done nothing wrong in his life (Tolstoy, ch. 10).

And then it occurred to Ivan Ilych that what was considered good and acceptable by other respected people and society in general was in fact not so, and that his whole life, aspirations, and concerns should have been employed in a more meaningful way. His conclusion that he had to die and not to hurt his family, followed by his last words “Forgive me”, although never unuttered, may be regarded as Ivan Ilych’s new spiritual meaning of life filled with concern and care for others instead of indulgence in one’s pleasures and comfort (Tolstoy, ch. 12).