Think about how many times you encounter the phrase “pleasant and proper” or its derivatives or adjectives (e.g. “pleasure and propriety” or, in the adjective mode, “agreeable and decorous”) while reading the novella. Why is this important?

How does the chronology of the text affect your interpretation?

Notice all of the references to people’s looks or faces and what they “seem” to say. Why is this significant?

What do we learn about the characters in Section 1 (their attitudes, dress, outlooks, etc)? What various reactions to Ivan Ilyich’s death can you find among his family and friends? What do their reactions reveal? By the end of the first section, what attitudes have you formed about Ivan, his family, and his friends/society?

In the second section, we begin to follow Ilych’s life up until the time he becomes ill. What kind of person was he as a young man? What were his motivations?

What are his inner feelings about his illness at first? How does this change toward the end of part five?

About one-third of the way through section 8, we shift to present tense; what is the purpose and effect of doing so?

At the precise moment of death, what is Ivan Ilyich’s psychological condition? Joy, despair, peace? What? Why? What insight does he achieve on his deathbed?

After finishing the story, why do you think Tolstoy begins the novel as he does? How does the sequence of events affect the message?