1. The Death of Ivan Illych
Leo Tolstoy

2. Henri Troyat (Biographer)
“Beyond any doubt, the double story of the decomposing body and the awakening soul is one of the most powerful works in the literature of the world.”

3. BACK-GROUND 1886 Tolstoy was 57 & feared death greatly (obsessively)
Toiled over it for nearly two years
Based on the agonizing death of his brother, Nikolai, whom he dearly loved; as well as the death of an actual Ivan Ilych Mechnikov, a public prosecutor
Of his brother, Tolstoy said he “suffered for more than a year, and died an agonizing death without comprehending what he had lived for, and still less why he should die.”

4. More
Tolstoy said it was to be as account of “an ordinary man’s ordinary death”
Tolstoy became a Christian before writing this
Irony in opening of Part II – a sentence called the most frightening in all literature

5. Thoughts to Ponder
Ivan’s professional existence – being absurd, parasitic, irrelevant and unauthentic – has swallowed his humanity and blinded him to what is real
Tolstoy said he often felt like Ivan – society molding him to chase after power and be selfish and ambitious

6. Spiritual Awakening
Tragedy is ultimately, “To see things plain … is the ultimate experience we shall have if we have leisure at the point of death … the relaxation of the unthinkable” – Clifford Leach.
Ivan realizes the meaninglessness of his life, and at that moment, on the brink of death, he begins to live.

7. Important Symbols/Moments
Gerasim – personifies compassion / Angelic figure/ sign that heaven exists. Tolstoy said there are few people who are comfortable in the gap between the “races” of the sick and the healthy
Son kissing father’s hand (popular in fiction) – forgiveness – offering it is redemptive to both father and son – A great scene for analysis!
(did you read A Day No Pigs Would Die?)

8. The Illumination Why is his son so unforgettable?
Tearstained from true grief
Kissing Ivan’s hand brings on the epiphany
Gerasim = yes, there is a heaven
He feels he can still set his life aright, is able to love at last; he feels sorry for his wife and son
He is willing to give up the old life, and no longer fears death = REBIRTH, REDEMPTIOM

9. VERISIMILITUDE How is Ivan’s life very TRUE TO LIFE?
Awkwardness around death, funerals
Comic elements (absurd callousness)
Marriage, brides, widows, having children
Family Life – men retreating from wife, kids into work
Stressing over meaningless things
Workplace – daily routines, rising through the ranks, seeking power and affirmation

10. What the story does to US
We wonder what is valuable in our own lives – beyond petty, everyday cares
We wonder if we will be the next to die
We examine our relationships
Question how we might be struggling for meaninglessness

11. Randall Jarrell
“We terribly identify ourselves” with Ivan Illych. “Ivan Illych’s life has been a conventional falsehood; The Death of Ivan Illych is the story of how he is tortured into the truth. No matter how alien they may have seemed to him to begin with, in the end the reader can dissociate neither from the falsehood, the torture, nor the truth: he is Ivan Illych.”