World Literature

Melina Cabrera

Blog post 1

9/28/2017

 

Text: Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy

” They had supper and went away, and Ivan Ilych was left alone with the consciousness that his life was poisoned and was poisoning the lives of others, and that this poison did not weaken but penetrated more and more deeply into his whole being.” (2nd to the last paragraph of chapter 4)

Tolstoy characterizes Ivan Ilych as a man of a few friends, who is dedicated to his work more than he is to his family. Illych was a respectable man but after a while, both his colleagues and his family members neglected him. To his colleagues, he became a pushover whose job could possibly become available and to his family, a piggy bank with an ill temper. Ivan Ilych’s dedication to his work is what leads his coworkers to start viewing him as an opponent rather than a friend. This drove Ilych into a depression because he felt that he was no longer wanted in his workplace. Meanwhile, he was going through this mental transition his family was just as harsh as his pretentious workmates. His wife, Praskovya, blamed him for her unhappy life and like his daughter disregarded completely the doctor’s diagnosis of his illness. His wife even wished him dead. However, Ilych was the breadwinner so Praskovya thought to her self that she did not want to end up homeless. All of these negative treatments influenced Ivan Ilych’s perception of himself. In his mind, he was no longer a colleague, husband, or father, he was “poison.” In reality, Ivan Ilych is not the cause of the problems and the unhappiness of the people around him; those people are the causes of their own discomfort as well as Ilychs’ own. It is ironic how his family and acquaintances are the true toxins of the text, yet Ilych blames himself for things that are out of his control. His life is not “poison” just because others view him as such. Ilynch might not have been the best friend or family man but through Leo Tolstoy narration it is evident that he was a good person.