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?
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1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
Tolstoy begins the story with the announcement of Ivan’s death, which is opposite of writing story. He is showing the reader how his colleague are reacting with the news of Ivan’s death. Co workers are thinking about themselves getting promotion after Ilyich death news. Usually, people show sympathy towards the death of friends and colleagues but in Ivan Ilyich’s case, it was opposite. This makes reader more interesting to read the Novella to find out what was the journey of Ivan Ilyich and why his surroundings has deference with Ilyich.
3. How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan Ilyich’s family tries to ignore the fact that he’s dying and instead prefer not to head on talk about the situation. These reactions show that, like many, they are uncomfortable with death and prefer to avoid confrontation with it.
How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan Ilyich’s family member did not pay much attention to his illness, even though everyone knew he was going to die. They think Ivan Ilyich didn’t take medicine on time cause his condition worsen. His pain did not stop them from watching the show. Their reaction tells that, they think the death and pain are not their business. They ignore the fact that Ivan Ilyich is going to die because they don’t want their lives to be affected. That shows the selfishness and cowardice of humanity.
1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
Beginning “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” with the announcement of the death of Ivan Ilyich sets an ironic tone for the story. Reading of his colleagues’ worries about the now vacant position, one may start to feel sorry for Ivan because his death seems to only affect these people’s jobs. When Peter Ivonovich, one of his closest acquaintances, goes to the house of Ivan’s family, he is unsure of how to compose himself, but we are introduced to characters who are presumably upset at Ivan’s passing, like Gerasim and the schoolboy son. The first chapter depicts Ivan as this person who was not worthy of the people he surrounded himself with in life.
When Ivan starts getting sick, he resents his family for being in a “perfect whirl of visiting,” rather than being at his bedside. However, when they do come to his bedside, like his wife when she kissed him goodnight, he mentally pushed her away, which I believe only further hurt him. The body of the texts serves a purpose in unmasking this person that was truly cruel to his family towards the end of his life.
By the end of the story, Ivan visibly becomes worse and worse, still, his attitude towards his family is unchanged. In a moment of revelation, right before he breathes his last breath, Ivan sees his family around him and begins to feel sorry for them but “it will be better for them when I die.” This man dies and one may feel inclined to actually feel sorry for him, not because he died, but because it took him this long to realize he should have shown love for his family while he was alive.
3. How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
Ivan Ilyich’s family reacts with dismissive, selfish, and trivial attitudes towards his illness. Instead of sympathizing with Ivan, offering to help him, spending time with him, or paying attention to him, they ignore the fact of his illness all together. In the story it’s expressed that Ivan was very irritable and unpleasant to be around as his illness worsened. His family didn’t try or persist in trying to comfort him. Instead, they ignored his illness, acted as if it was his choice to be sick, exchanged pleasantries about scheduling to meet with a doctor, and let the butler and other domestic help take care of him. Ultimately, they flat out ignored how this illness was affecting and hurting Ivan as a whole and treated it as a trivial matter. Their reactions tell us that they are selfish, self-absorbed, lack empathy, and lack sympathy.
1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
I think Tolstoy begins the story with the announcement o f Ivan Ilyich’s death to urge readers to investigate. When reading this introduction it urged me to look further into the story to find out the causing of his death and to pay close attention to the series of events that led to it. It forces reader to analyse the text more knowing what the outcome of the text is.
How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
The family didn’t seem care about Ilyich’s death very much. They still do their own thing every day and try to ignore his illness. His wife pretended to care for him but in fact she was thinking of his own thing. His children have not shown any concern about him. Those reactions tell me that people only care about themselves and they are selfish, cold and careless.
1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
Tolstoy began his story about Ivan Ilyich’s death rather than organizing it chronologically because he wants to instantly grab the audiences attention. He wanted to let the readers see that no one really cared for him. Everyone had a negative vibe when it came to him and reading it made me want to find out more. Tolstoy wants to get the readers to find out what Ivan is about and why people despise him.
How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
The family members are acting like nothing has happened to him and everything is alright. Day by day Ivan’s health got worse but it didn’t really have any effect in the family. I think the family didn’t wanted to accept the fact that Ivan is dying and there’s nothing they could do to help. People don’t want to talk about a family members dying that’s why they are acting like that.