World Literature

“I lost my life over that curtain as I might have done when storming a fort. Is that possible? How terrible and how stupid. It can’t be true! It can’t, but it is.”

Surely we humans are the greatest of creatures to have ever graced the earth, yet we are so fragile and blind to our own mortality. In the above excerpt from the passage we see Ivan Ilych recount his misfortune after entering the drawing room from which he fell. Strangely enough Ilych mentions his eventual demise over a curtain in conjunction with “storming a fort” where he then remarks over its stupidity. Ilych’s comment is strange because of the large contrast the two scenarios share with each other. Death by curtain fall is the opposite of a glamorous death and is indeed quite embarrassing while on the other hand a soldier storming a fort only to meet their brave end can be romanticized about due to its nature. This is significant because it shows how Tolstoy is reminding the reader of their own mortality. To perish in battle is an obvious possibility when going to war however to die over a curtain is an anomaly and the chances are slim to none, yet Ilych suffered this fate. This is strengthened when taking a deeper look at Ilych as he comes to the realization of his mortality when he says “It can’t be true! It can’t, but it is.”  The raw emotion of anger and sorrow says it all, Ilych was consumed by his success and built his life around the blueprint of the aristocracy, much like how most people mold themselves around the ideals of society. It is this very aspect of being average which links the reader to Ilych and though most people will never step foot onto the battlefield, the circumstances of Ilych’s death sounds an alarm to people letting them know they are not omnipotent and that the most meaningless things such as a curtain can play a role in their eventual demise, solidifying their mortality in the most unexpected of ways.