The Death of Ivan Ilych

The Death of Ivan Ilych begins at the chronological end of the story. A group of judges are gathered together in a private room of the courthouse when Peter Ivanovich, a judge and close friend of Ivan Ilych, announces that Ivan has died. Consoled by the thought that it is Ivan who has died and not them, the men in the room cannot help but think of the promotions and transfers that Ivan’s death will occasion. That evening, Peter drives to Ivan’s house to attend his funeral. But while looking at Ivan’s corpse, Peter is bothered by an expression of disapproval and warning on Ivan’s face. Ivan’s wife Praskovya quizzes Peter about possible strategies to maximize her dead husband’s government pension. On his way out, Peter encounters Gerasim, Ivan’s sick nurse. Peter mentions that Ivan’s death and funeral are a sad affair, and Gerasim surprises Peter with the observation that everyone dies some day.

The story then shifts more than thirty years into the past and picks up with a description of Ivan’s life. Ivan is the second of three sons, and in all respects is an average and commonplace person. Around the age of thirteen he attends the School of Law where he assimilates the values and behavior of those with high social standing. Ivan becomes an examining magistrate in the reformed judicial institutions and moves to a new province. Ivan marries and things progress smoothly until Praskovya becomes pregnant. As Praskovya’s behavior begins to disrupt the proper and decorous lifestyle cherished by Ivan and approved by society,

Ivan begins to experience some discomfort in his left side and an unusual taste in his mouth. The discomfort gradually increases and soon Ivan is both irritable and quarrelsome. The doctors Ivan visits all disagree on the nature of the illness, and Ivan becomes depressed and fearful. Even cards lose their appeal. Ivan’s physical condition degenerates rapidly. One night while lying alone in the dark, he is visited by his first thoughts of mortality, and they terrify him. He realizes that his illness is not a question of health or disease, but of life or death. Praskovya does not understand nor wish to understand her husband’s plight, and Ivan can barely suppress his hatred for her. Ivan knows that he is dying, but he is unable to grasp the full implications of his mortality. He tries to erect screens to block the thought of death from his mind, but death haunts him ceaselessly. In the midst of this suffering, Gerasim, Ivan’s peasant servant, enters the scene. Assigned the task of helping Ivan with his excretions, Gerasim soon begins passing the entire night with the dying man. To ease his pain, Gerasim supports Ivan’s legs on his shoulders. More than any other living person, Gerasim provides Ivan with the compassion and honesty that he needs. Ivan’s daily routine is monotonous and maddening. As those around him continue to pretend that he is only sick and not dying, Ivan feels that he is surrounded by artificiality. No one wants to confront the fact of Ivan’s imminent death. Ivan becomes silently enraged, and seeing his little son Vasya, Ivan realizes that Vasya is the only one besides Gerasim who understands him. That night Ivan dreams of a deep black sack. He is being violently pushed into the sack, but cannot fall through. And he both fears and desires to fall into it. Awaking from his dream, Ivan sends Gerasim away, and for the first time he hears the inner voice of his soul speaking to him. Twelve more days pass, and Ivan is no longer able to leave the sofa. He lies pondering death and questioning the rationale behind his suffering. As he examines his life, Ivan realizes that the further back he looks, the more joy there is. He finds that just as the pain grew worse and worse, so too did his life. He knows that an explanation for the suffering would be possible if he had not lived rightly, but recalling the propriety of his life, he resigns himself to the senselessness of death. Then, one night while looking at Gerasim’s face, Ivan begins to doubt whether he has lived his life correctly. He imagines the black sack again, and the immense agony he experiences stems partly from his being thrust into the sack, and partly from not being able to get right into it. The conviction that his life was a good one prevents him from entering the sack, but for some reason he is unwilling to relinquish that belief. Suddenly, “some force” strikes Ivan in the chest and side. It pushes him through the sack and into the presence of a bright light. At that very moment his hand falls on his sons head and he feels sorry for him. His wife approaches his bed, her face wet with tears, and he feels sorry for her too. He realizes that his official life and his family and social relations were all artificial. And he experiences a sense of extreme joy. In the middle of a sigh, Ivan stretches out and dies.

Summary

Ivan Ilych is essentially dead. He awaits only formal removal from the scene. Opium and hypodermic injections of morphine do not relieve his pain. The special foods prepared for him are distasteful and disgusting. He can no longer control his own bodily functions. Yet in the midst of the unpleasantness, Ivan receives his first comfort. Gerasim, the servant from Chapter I, is assigned the task of helping Ivan with his excretions. Gerasim is a “clean, fresh peasant lad, grown stout on town food and always cheerful and bright.” He is young, strong, and energetic. Unlike the health and vitality of others, Gerasim’s health and vitality do not offend Ivan. One day, as Gerasim is helping Ivan to the sofa, Ivan finds that his pain is much relieved while Gerasim is holding his feet. After that, Ivan frequently asks Gerasim to hold his legs on his shoulders, finding that that position is best of all. Gerasim serves Ivan “easily, willingly, simply, and with a good nature.”

More than the physical pain, what begins to torment Ivan most of all is the awful deception of those around him. They use the pretense that he is not dying but is simply ill. As Ivan sees the act of his dying reduced to an unpleasant and indecorous incident, he is bothered by the fact that no one seems to understand his position. Ivan longs to be pitied as a sick child is pitied, to be petted and comforted. But not his wife, nor his daughter, nor his friends can offer Ivan that consolation. Only Gerasim’s attitude toward Ivan seems to provide Ivan with what he needs. At times Gerasim supports Ivan’s legs all night. Gerasim alone does not lie about the nature of Ivan’s situation. With the words, “We shall all of us die, so why should I grudge a little trouble,” Gerasim makes clear to Ivan that he does not consider his work a burden, but a service to a dying man. Moreover, as the falsity around him continues to “poison” his final days, Ivan is only truly comfortable in Gerasim’s presence.

Analysis

Tolstoy’s moral elevation of Gerasim, a “peasant lad,” is both a defiant attack on convention and traditional authority as well as a clear statement about the proper way to live. Not the elite, nor the wealthy, nor the nobles experience the peace and assurance that Gerasim does. Only the peasant servant has no fear of death and no discomfort in dealing with someone who is dying. Gerasim accepts unpleasantness and pain as a part of life. He understands that the world is unpredictable, and he knows the value of sympathy.

Gerasim’s qualities temporarily rescue Ivan from his life of isolation and unhappiness. Ivan is cut of from his family, friends, and colleagues not only by their indifference to his predicament but also by his own chosen attitude toward life. Through Gerasim, Ivan renews contact with another human being. He reverses the lifelong process of self-enclosure that has characterized his behavior. It is interesting that Gerasim’s contact with Ivan is intimately physical. He not only helps Ivan with his bodily eliminations, he also comforts Ivan by “supporting” Ivan’s feet on his own shoulders. This position is strikingly similar to the position of women during childbirth, and Tolstoy may be hinting at a process of spiritual rebirth helped along by Gerasim as a kind of midwife.

In addition to his function as spiritual midwife, Gerasim also represents truthfulness. Gerasim’s willingness to admit and accept the fact that Ivan is dying is in contrast to the hypocritical attitude of Ivan’s family and friends. By acknowledging that it is death and not illness, Gerasim explodes “the lie” and is able to connect with Ivan on a sympathetic and human level. By the end of the chapter, it is the moral pain caused by “the lie” that torments Ivan most of all. And it is clear that “the lie” carried on by his friends and family is symptomatic of a larger problem plaguing Ivan’s society as a whole: the inability to acknowledge the unpleasant a

he Death of Ivan Ilych

Leo Tolstoy

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Chapter VIII

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Summary

Ivan awakes, conscious that morning has come because Gerasim is no longer sitting with him. By now, Ivan’s life has become an undifferentiated cycle of suffering, with Death as the only reality. Peter, the footman, enters and begins tidying the room. Ivan is afraid to be alone, and asks Peter to give him his medicine in order to delay Peter’s departure. Ivan knows that the medicine is “all tomfoolery,” but he takes it anyway.

With Ivan’s consent, Peter leaves to bring the morning tea. When he returns, Ivan stares at him for several moments, not realizing who he is. Presently Ivan comes to himself, recognizes Peter, and begins to wash and dress with Peter’s help. A doctor comes to visit Ivan, and begins his examination. Ivan knows that it is all nonsense and deception, but he submits to it “as he used to submit to the speeches of the lawyers, though he knew very well they were all lying and why they were lying.”

Praskovya enters the room, and her cleanness, glossy hair, and vivacious eyes cause Ivan to feel a thrill of hatred for her. Praskovya’s adopted attitude toward Ivan, much like the doctor’s relation with his patient, has not changed. When the examination is over, Praskovya announces that she has sent for a celebrated specialist. Saying that she is doing it for her own sake, she lets it be felt that she is doing it solely for Ivan and is only dissembling so as to give him no reason to refuse. Ivan, upon hearing Praskovya, “felt that he was so surrounded and involved in a mesh of falsity that it was hard to unravel anything.” He realizes that everything Praskovya does for him is for her own sake, and he finds it incredible that by telling him it is for her own sake Praskovya expects Ivan to think the opposite. The celebrated specialist comes and goes. Ivan is given an injection, and falls asleep until dinner.

After dinner, Praskovya comes into Ivan’s room. She is in full evening dress, and Ivan remembers that she and the children are going to the theatre to see Sarah Bernhardt. Ivan’s daughter, Lisa, along with her fiancé, Fedor, come into the room; and Vasya, Ivan’s son, creeps in behind them. Seeing his son’s look of fear and pity, it seems to Ivan that Vasya is the only one besides Gerasim who understands him. A conversation between Praskovya, Lisa, and Fedor springs up about the realism of Sarah Bernhardt’s acting, but it is stopped short when they notice Ivan’s glittering eyes and indignant expression. As a profound silence fills the room, everyone becomes afraid that the “conventional deception” will be revealed, and that the truth will come out. Lisa is the first to break the silence, and on her suggestion, everybody leaves for the play. When they depart, “the falsity” leaves with them and Ivan feels better.

Analysis

Tolstoy presents a day in the life of the dying protagonist, and along with monotony, artificiality emerges as a dominant motif. Ivan submits to the doctor’s examination, knowing the uselessness of the charade, but conforming his actions to the expectations of the situation. The doctor, disregarding the true concerns of his patient, carries on the routine prescribed by his position and his patient’s condition. Praskovya, moreover, adopting a line of loving concern, fulfills a wife’s obligations to her dying husband despite her true feelings. What is important to realize is that for Ivan and his society, superficiality chokes out honest and direct human interaction. Actual attitudes are covered over by artificial attitudes. Praskovya’s loving concern for Ivan is actually hostile impatience for his death. The doctor’s routinized medical charade is merely a cover for helplessness. And Ivan’s tacit acceptance of the examination ritual is really sardonic disgust. In Ivan’s life, individuals are actors. And by associating with the actors, Ivan is drawn into the play, i.e., into the “mesh of falsity.”

It is especially fitting that the visit paid to Ivan by his wife, his daughter, and her fiancé occurs before they depart for the theater. The posturing and pretense of the visit is as much a performance as the one they are about to see. The visitors insist on treating Ivan as if he were merely sick instead of dying. Conversation centers on trivial topics, and it is clear that they are paying the visit because propriety calls for their presence. Just as the topic of conversation turns to the “realism” of Sarah Bernhardt’s acting, Ivan refuses to act any further. And as the family leaves to attend the play, we realize that Ivan’s whole life is a play and that the falseness and artificiality of conventional life has caused his death.

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10Summary

Praskovya returns late from the play and wishes to send Gerasim away, but Ivan opens his eyes and tells Praskovya to leave instead. After taking some opium and while in a state of “stupefied misery,” Ivan dreams that he is being pushed into a deep black sack. Although he is being thrust further and further in, he cannot be pushed to the bottom. He both fears and desires to fall into the sack. The movement is accompanied by suffering, and Ivan struggles but also co-operates. Suddenly he breaks through, falls, and wakes up.

He sends Gerasim away, and as soon as the servant leaves the room he begins weeping. In agony he cries out to God, “Why hast Thou done all this? Why has Thou brought me here? Why, why dost Thou torment me so terribly?” Then he grows quiet; he becomes highly attentive and seems to hear a voice speaking from within his soul. “What is it you want?” the voice asks him. Ivan answers that he wants to live well and pleasantly, as he did before. Yet when Ivan begins to call to mind the best moments of his pleasant life, they seem “trivial and often nasty.” He reviews the entire course of his life and finds that the further he departed from childhood the more worthless and unfulfilling became his joys. He realizes the lack of goodness in his “deadly official life,” and comes to the conclusion that while he was moving up in public opinion, life was ebbing away from him. Finally the thought comes to Ivan that he has not lived his life as he should. But he immediately dismisses that inconceivable thought when he remembers that he did everything “properly” and correctly.

Analysis

By sending his wife away when she comes to sit with him, Ivan symbolically commits himself to the “new life” confronting him. He rejects the artificiality and pretense of his past life, and thereby resolves the tension that had been established in Chapter VIII. In the remaining chapters of the novel, we can expect that Ivan will embark on a process of rebirth in which he will discover the proper attitude toward life, and conquer his fear of death.

Ivan’s dream about the black bag supports the prediction that he will soon experience a rebirth. Ivan’s attitude toward the bag is ambivalent. He wants to fall into the bag, yet he fears it at the same time. He resists being pushed into it, yet he also cooperates. If the bag is understood as a symbol of death, Ivan’s ambivalence becomes clear. He both longs for the reprieve of death and fears relinquishing life. The fact that Ivan breaks through the bag prefigures Ivan’s escape from the power of death.

It seems reasonable, however, that the symbol of the bag, much like the story itself, operates on two levels. As well as its function as a symbol of death, the bag also symbolizes a womb, the source of life. The pain and suffering that Ivan experiences while passing through the bag into the light refer to the trauma of birth into new life. The duality of the symbol holds a key to the story. In Ivan’s life, what appears like physical death is actually spiritual rebirth, while his old life was the cause of spiritual death. Things are not what they seem, and the action must be read in reverse. Ivan’s life was his death, and his death brings new life.

It is interesting to note that upon waking from his dream, Ivan cries out to God in words not dissimilar from those that Jesus used in the Passion narrative of the Gospels, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Whether Tolstoy intended Ivan to be regarded as a “Christ figure,” however, is not clear. Tolstoy’s conception of Jesus is very unlike the commonplace, Everyman qualities that characterize Ivan Ilych. Without venturing a conclusive answer as to Tolstoy’s purpose in drawing the connection, the similarity does seem to add a degree of intensity and significance to Ivan’s existential moment.