Death Of Ivan Ilyich Sources for your Essay

Death of Ivan Ilyich by


Besides the considerations to the possible transfers and promotions likely to result from Ivan Ilych's death, the mere fact of the death of a near acquaintance aroused, as usual, in all who heard of it the complacent feeling that, "it is he who is dead and not I" (Tolstoy, 1886, 2). At the funeral, Praskovya Fedorovna thinks only of herself when she speaks to Peter Ivanovich of Ivan's suffering and most importantly, how it caused her own suffering (Hustis, 2000)

Death of Ivan Ilyich by


And even then, such a thought is fleeting all the same. Because why think about dying when one is busy living life? Why think about something so alien to one when one is trying to achieve success and material wealth and happiness? Why think about death when it is hard enough trying to live life? Why think about death when it only happens to others and could not possibly happen to oneself? The consequence of such an attitude is the death of one's spiritual, moral and emotional life, even without one's knowledge (Kamm, 2003, 209)

Death of Ivan Ilyich by


He is a stereotypical selfish, materialistic rich man whose life has no significant meaning or purpose (Valente, 128). In short, the life of Ivan Ilych was "most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible" (Tolstoy, 1886, 6)

Death of Ivan Ilyich by


Ivan Ilych is a man of great stature who is forced to deal with death with the news that he is dying. As a successful judge in public office, Ivan rises in rank not by any special traits but by 'a knack of being at the right place at the right time' (Valente, 1991, 128)

Death of Ivan Ilyich by


One chooses may neglect the spiritual, moral and emotional aspects of one's life because the things that one cannot explain, one leaves upon the shelf for another day. One gets wrapped up in the physical and mechanical world because one cannot control death but one can always control how one lives one's life (Verno, 2009)

Leo Tolstoy the Death of Ivan Ilyich


Not only Ivan but his whole professional group (which stands for a central part of modern life), have built their lives around their career success and the pleasures it makes possible. Little moral development is seen beyond the organizational conformity needed to pursue their self-interests" (Feldman 2004)

Leo Tolstoy the Death of Ivan Ilyich


Tolstoy suggests that in death there is truth, versus the simulated social performances of society. The focus of death demanded by Tolstoy's worldview itself as a darker side, as chronicled in his wife's account of life with her husband: "All the things that he preaches for the happiness of humanity only complicate life to the point where it becomes harder and harder for me to live…His sermons on love and goodness have made him indifferent to his family, and mean the intrusion of all kinds of riff-raff into our family life" (Flood 2009)

Leo Tolstoy the Death of Ivan Ilyich


Little moral development is seen beyond the organizational conformity needed to pursue their self-interests" (Feldman 2004). Ivan simply lives to please others: "From earliest youth [he] was by nature attracted to people of high station as a fly is drawn to the light, assimilating their ways and view of life and establishing friendly relations with them" (Tolstoy 103, cited by Feldman 2004)

Leo Tolstoy the Death of Ivan Ilyich


Little moral development is seen beyond the organizational conformity needed to pursue their self-interests" (Feldman 2004). Ivan simply lives to please others: "From earliest youth [he] was by nature attracted to people of high station as a fly is drawn to the light, assimilating their ways and view of life and establishing friendly relations with them" (Tolstoy 103, cited by Feldman 2004)

Alienation and the City in the Death of Ivan Ilyich


He uses the image of a stark coffin-lid, standing alone in an entryway, to give the reader a feeling of how isolated and alone Ivan was throughout his life. He writes, "Leaning against the wall in the hall downstairs near the cloak-stand was a coffin-lid covered with cloth of gold, ornamented with gold cord and tassels, that had been polished up with metal powder" (Tolstoy 365)

Comparison and Contrast of Rousseau Confessions and the Death of Ivan Ilyich


Rousseau gives numerous examples of this thought, but none more eloquent than this: "I have begun on a work which is without precedent, whose accomplishment will have no imitator. I propose to set before my fellow-mortals a man in all the truth of nature; and this man shall be myself" (Rousseau, 1782, p

Comparison and Contrast of Rousseau Confessions and the Death of Ivan Ilyich


Pride is surely also Ivan Ilych's predominant fault. Although Tolstoy tells us initially that Ivan Ilych was "exceedingly reserved, punctilious, and even severe…often amusing and witty, and always good-natured, correct in his manner, and 'bon enfant'," we are not to be put off by these superfluities: indeed, Tolstoy begins to reveal the hidden character of the man in the next paragraph when he speaks of Ivan Ilych's liaisons (Tolstoy, 2001)