His attitude toward the world makes him indifferent to much of what happens around him. Andrey is aloof and disengaged and asks, "Why hinder people dying if death is the normal and legitimate end of everyone? What is gained if some shop-keeper or clerk lives an extra five or ten years? If the aim of medicine is by drugs to alleviate suffering, the question forces itself on one: why alleviate it?" (Chekhov)
Both protagonists share a similar fate in that they are forced to think of life by considering death. For instance, we read that Ivan's mental anguish is "worse than the physical sufferings" (Tolstoy 1412) he endures
The atrocity of the murders and the chaos of the of Mademoiselle L'Espanaye's apartment set the scene for a rather messy situation. The furnishings in the apartment were "broken and thrown about in all directions" (Poe 63) and the bed was tossed in the middle of the floor
Ivan's struggle is also intensely personal. His mental suffering is "worse than the physical sufferings," (Tolstoy 1412) even though the physical sufferings were his "chief torture" (1412)