Leo Tolstoy’s revelation of the Russian middle class through “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
Leo Tolstoy, who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time, uses his literary piece, The death of Ivan Ilyich, to mock the 19th century Russian middle class. It was only until I reread this piece where I realized what Tolstoy was actually doing. Although this mock on society wasn’t his only message to his readers, this was definitely a big one. In my mind this piece could have been called, “Tolstoy’s attack on Russian middle class”.
Tolstoy depicts the middle class citizens as greedy, inconsiderable and selfish. This is shown right in the beginning when the people in Ivan’s life find out about his death. Each individual (all a part of the middle class) upon hearing this news begins to ask themselves the same three questions: Who will replace Ivan and move up the ranks? What is being done with his land he owned? What if this happened to me? This reaction and lack of care is the first shot Tolstoy takes at the middle class. Each one of these characters is extremely alike, which is another shot at the middle class, showing how they each follow each other. “Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible”. This quote had a major purpose by Tolstoy; Once again explaining how the middle class is greedy and will always want more.
With all that being said, the key moment of Tolstoy’s point, in my opinion was the realization of Ivan. Ivan believed that he wanted to be in a higher class, so he began to act like it. Getting an apartment in the city, becoming a designer, hating his marriage, etc. But while lying on his death bed he realized that all this made him unhappy and that he wishes he just enjoyed his life. This single realization of what Ivan depicted as true happiness is the “knockout” of Tolstoy’s remarks.
Just for Thought:
Tolstoy believed that modern medicine was a reflection on ones inability to accept death. He shows this where Praskova tries to get top medical assistance for Ivan (another mock).