1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
2. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is full of French words. What purpose do they serve?
3. How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
4. On his deathbed, Ivan asks, “Why, and for what purpose, is there all this horror?” Does the text provide an answer to this weighty question?
5. Compare the attitude toward death we see in Ivan Ilyich’s family and social milieu to that of our own society. How do we treat illness and death?
18 thoughts on “Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
On his deathbed, Ivan asks, “Why, and for what purpose, is there all this horror?” Does the text provide an answer to this weighty question?
There are many references to “poisoning” his life and the life of others with “falsehood and deception.” There is a key paragraph in chapter XI that sheds a lot of light on the circumstance of Ivan’s agonizing death.
Ivan’s whole life had had a certain artifice that had hindered true, mutually self-sacrificial relationships. Had he been truly vulnerable and humble as he had been in those tender moments with Gerasim, then he might have had some measure of comfort in his death. As it was, however, in his life he had been self-assuredly smug with others (as the doctor had been with him). While he had achieved some degree of stature and success by acting this way, he had failed to cultivate deep relationships or have a meaningful impact on the lives he touched.
1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
I believe Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically because it sets the tone and one of the themes for the rest of the story. As Gerasim responds to Peter’s observation by saying that it was all in God’s plan and that we all eventually die one way or another. This shows the acceptance and understanding Gerasim has towards death and living a full and righteous life when possible. It is also a hook to getting to understand the events that happen later on throughout the story and how it links up to the message of a superficial and deeply embedded way of living life with everyone surrounding you.
3. How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ilyich’s family do not take his sickness seriously. They are ignorant about what is really going on with him and tell him to take his medicine. I know they have noticed the changes in Ivan, and yet they try to make the environment better by acting like the illness is passive and normal. This tells us that either they are very careless or they do notice it, but they want Ivan to be optimistic and think that he will be good if he takes his medicine.
2. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is full of French words. What purpose do they serve?
In 19th Century Russia, it was common among the aristocrats to speak French to one another. I believe Tolstoy chose to make the characters speak frequently in french terms to show the image driven need that the bourgeoisie wanted to depict. Ilyich is known to be a materialist through his obsessive attention to the decor of his estate. His desire to fit in with the upper classes shows this purpose.
1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ilyich’s death to give the reader a sense of who he was as a person. By beginning the story with this scene, the reader is able to find out how other people viewed him and how his death affected others. It gives an impression on whether Ilyich was a respected man or not when he lived. Furthermore, by doing this, Tolstoy gives the reader a cinematic view of the story. Tolstoy announces Ilyich’s death in the beginning to give viewers an expectation on Ilyich’s personality.
3. How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan Ilyich’s family is careless about his illness because for them it is only a transient sickness and everything is normal that he will recover in the long run by taking his medication. they also encourage him to take his medecine but they don’t consider his condition that much serious.
“The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is full of French words. What purpose do they serve?
In the 19th century, aristocratic Russians would speak french in order to show their social class. Ivan Ilyich was obsessive of how he was looked at and thought of. He tried his hardest to fit int the aristocratic class. When designing his own home, he would compare it to other houses of those who were already in the upper class of society.
Compare the attitude toward death we see in Ivan Ilyich’s family and social milieu to that of our own society. How do we treat illness and death?
Ivan Ilyich’s family does not take his illness seriously and they blame him for his illness. News about Ivan’s death doesn’t affect his friends and family as death normally does. They were only interested in proceeding wit their lives and being thankful that they weren’t in Ivan’s position. Death and illness in our society is taken very seriously to the point where family members are usually frightened and sad to hear a loved one is sick. Most people in our society take death seriously where they try to spend as much time with the person and be there for them as opposed to how Ivan’s family treated him.
How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan’s family doesn’t have a normal reaction to his illness. Instead of offering sympathy, they act as if he is going to get better. At the same time, they are concerned with how Ivan’s death will impact their own lives. They discuss the issue of his estate and who will it go to. Ivan’s wife is concern with how to receive her benefits from dead husband. She even takes to Peter about her theory of being able to receive a larger benefit sum. When Ivan was on his death bed, his wife and daughter were concerned about shopping. This reveals to us that his family members do not care for him as family should. Their actions are not normal, which makes it apparent to readers that they do not know how to death with a family member’s death.
1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
The author probably wanted to grab the reader’s attention by starting out the story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death instead of starting out with the beginning of his life. This makes the entire story more interesting to the reader’s and will help them notice more important details throughout the story that will eventually lead up to his death at the end of the story.
How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan’s family seem to not really care about his illness, they seem to find him quite annoying and thinks that he will get better soon if he takes his medication. He lacks the love and care a sick person should have. He feels like no one understands him other than his servant, and he is depressed. Ivan’s family’s attitude towards his illness shows that they are very selfish people. They valued themselves and their needs more than his. We can see that when his wife and daughter decides to go shopping when he was trying to explain his condition to them. During his funeral, his wife also went to ask Ivan’s friend if there was any way she can get a larger amount of benefits due to his death. She is more concerned about the benefits she can receive after his death. Their attitudes and actions do not reflect what family members should feel or do when a loved one is sick, rather opposite. Usually family members are very attentive and show a lot of care to a sick family member to make them feel better, offering them encouragement but Ivan’s family care more about their own needs and benefits they can get.
5. Compare the attitude toward death we see in Ivan Ilyich’s family and social milieu to that of our own society. How do we treat illness and death?
Ivan Ilyich’s family ignores or acts like Ivan being sick is not important. They blame him for it, they just think it’s something temporary and he’ll get better soon. Also instead of being sad about his death they are more concerned about how the death will affect their lives. In our society we treat illness very seriously. Whenever someone is sick we feel bad for them or at least take care of them and offer them support. We are constantly concerned about them until they get better.
How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan Ilyich’s family does not react to his illness like most people would. His family ignores the fact that he is ill because they believe that he’ll get better. We see that his wife is only interested in the benefits that will come out of his death. However, I also believe that avoiding the situation may have been a coping mechanism for Ivan’s family. Their reactions tell us that they may be uncomfortable with death.
3. How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
To Ilyich’s illness, his family members just pretend that he is not seriously ill. They tell Ilyich to take the medicine and he will be okay. They do not care much about how Ilyich feels and what he really wants at the time he is ill. Besides, Ilyich’s family members do not feel like to spend time on Ilyich, because they think Ilyich’s illness is not pleasure to them.
Ilyich’s family members’ reactions is the mirror of Ilyich’s reactions when he meets with something is not pleasure to him. When Ilyich’s wife is pregnant, at the time Ilyich finds out that marriage is not so pleasure to him, so he starts to spend less time at home and spend more time on his work. He does not try to figure out what is the problem and make it better. On the other hand, he chooses just to get away from the unpleasure.
5. Compare the attitude toward death we see in Ivan Ilyich’s family and social milieu to that of our own society. How do we treat illness and death?
Ivan Ilyich’s family disregards his illness and the possibly of his death, they do not acknowledge the fact that he is ill at all for the most part, unless it is to get sympathy from others. It seems as if they would just rather Ivan die so that they would no longer have to deal with the uncomfortability caused by his illness and the thought of his death. In todays society we take illness and death much more seriously, almost to the extent that we often over react to illness. However, people do often react to death in the same way as Ivan’s family in the sense that we try to avoid the topic. Although in todays society we try to spend a lot of time with our ill loved ones, we often try to find more pleasant subjects to speak upon and avoid speaking about the fact that these people in our lives are dying.
How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan’s family acts like they don’t know the severity of his condition. They acknowledge he is not well but does not seem to be bothered because they think he would get better if he takes his medicine. This tells us that they really don’t care that much about him. They were just taking him for granted believing he was going to get better.
How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan’s family knows that Ivan is sick and suffering from it. But since they have their own problems and other social interactions they have to worry about, from Ivan’s perspective, they might seem little apathetic and not genuine towards his illness. Ivan’s illness made him vulnerable physically and emotionally so anything that doesn’t go as Ivan expected, he will feel hurt and slowly starts to become selfish. The family treats this kind of Ivan as a nuisance since Ivan is grumpy and hard to communicate with.
How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan llyich’s family does not seem to accept his illness. His wife seems to brush it off saying that they will just find another doctor when he says he feels like his illness is getting worse. In addition, his family does not seem to want to spend time with him during his final moments. This tells us that the family either thought that he was going to recover or they might have not enjoyed being in his presence. As he was describes to get easily annoyed by his wife.