World Literature

Carmen Lugo

“He saw that the awesome, terrifying act of his dying had been degraded by those about him to the level of a chance unpleasantness, a bit of unseemly behavior (they acted to him as they would to a man who emitted a foul odor on entering a drawing room); that it had been degraded by that very “propriety” to which he had devoted his entire life. He saw that no one pitied him because no one even cared to understand his situation” Chapter 7

Ivan Ilyich regards dying as “…awesome, [and] terrifying…”, both words that ­­capture the trepidation he feels at knowing that death is a certainty at this stage of his illness. He knows only two things: that he is dying and that he will suffer greatly, yet no one else seems to want to acknowledge this. At this point in the story Ivan is coming to terms with the reality that he is dying and that the people in his life have already trivialized this event to the point that they could keep on living their lives as if nothing of importance was going on.  The people around “degrade” what Ivan is going through by downplaying the magnitude of what is happening to him.He recognizes that they do this because it’s what “propriety” or decorum calls for; he can see how the very thing he has shaped his life around is now taking away his chance of being comforted in his time of need. No one “…cared to understand…” him because to understand him would be to recognize that he is dying and they too will die someday.