DEATH, PAIN, AND SUFFERING IN ILYICH AND REAL LIFE
Outline
1.Introduction-Novel as a vehicle of ideas, opinions, and beliefs
2.Biography of Tolstoy
3.Plot of the novel “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
4.Context and Tolstoy’s beliefs
5.Examples from society
6.Conclusion- Summary of important points and final remarks
Introduction
Any piece of literature, whether it be novels, poetry, dramas, etc., is a vehicle for the conveyance of ideas, opinions, beliefs, emotions, and expectations. Literature transcends boundaries like space and time. Authors use the art of language and writing to produce a means by which they can communicate their ideas and philosophies to others. Novels are fictional narratives. Since they do not contain ‘facts’ in the commonly understood sense of the word, people often disregard the content for being unrealistic and imaginary.
However, as Clark Zlotchew notes, “good fiction provides more truth about the world, about life, and even about the reader, than can be found in non-fiction.” Therefore, any literary masterpiece serves to expose the conditions of the prevailing era as well as the author’s ideas and emotions regarding particular concepts.
Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian author. He is best known for his three finest novels—War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich. His novels depict life as it is. Therefore, his novels are true manifestations of reality.
Since he was a moralist, he used art to depict the truth and did not believe in the preconceived notion of “art for art’s sake”. Instead, Tolstoy asserts that literature has transformational purposes; it has didactic and moral functions. The best example is his novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” in which he lets his emotions and thought run free on paper. He talks about death, pain, suffering, and one of the most important and mind-boggling questions humanity has ever asked—the true meaning of life.
Plot
The story begins with showing death through the eyes of those who are least familiar with it. Ivan has died and his colleagues are thinking of ways his death benefits them promotion-wise. Even his wife does not seem to care much about his death but only describes it as “how it affected her”. In the following chapters, readers realize that Ivan led a hollow and insincere life; always trying to rise higher on the social respectability and wealth ladder. He did not give a second glance to meaningful things in life like love, care, and affection.
Therefore, he was living a “living death”.
Unfortunately, he realizes this a little too late and spends the last few days of his life in pain and agony. No one cares for him as he has surrounded himself with people who are just as apathetic and selfish as he was. Only the servant, Gerasim, realizes that death is due on everyone and tries to make his last few days tolerable.
Ivan comes to face a harsh reality. Death comes untimely and takes no prisoners. Death is also something that he has abandoned because he could not conceptualize it. However, now that he is on the verge of death, he understands that his whole life was in vain. He failed to live a simple, authentic, and sympathetic life like Gerasim. Those who lead such lives do not face much trouble when contemplating death.
Context and Tolstoy’s Beliefs
Undoubtedly, this novel is one of Tolstoy’s most personal works. He penned this masterpiece after a religious conversion when he gave up on the Orthodox Russian Church. The biggest problem that readers notice in the novel is that Ivan’s wife was not able to care properly for her husband in his time of need. She did not have the empathy required for such a task as she is also a product of Ivan’s social world—one that gives unnecessarily excessive importance to status, wealth, luxury, and other worldly affairs. Therefore, when Ivan looks at her bitterly for still keeping up appearances and rejecting the notion of death, she starts resenting him and he does the same for her. Empathy and resentment are some of the most pervasive themes in the novel and can be seen all over the majority of the book.
Tolstoy’s philosophy “weighting personal pain, we could not ignore the pain of others” has been implicitly mentioned throughout the entirety of the novel. Ivan’s pain and suffering cannot be comprehended by his close friends, wife, daughter, or even any doctor. They keep telling him that he is sick and will recover soon but no one tries to bring up the topic of death. This is because they have been leading selfish and apathetic lives that only demand manners, respect, and wealth. Their lives are not gentle nor sincere. That is why they abandon the very notion of death for fear of catching it like some infectious disease. Only two people can understand Ivan’s pain—Gerasim and Ivan’s youngest son.
Explanation
Gerasim can understand Ivan’s agony and suffering because he has been living a sincere, sympathetic, and good life. He understands that death will knock on everyone’s door one day and because of this mindset, he tries to help others selflessly and it is this act of altruism that makes him go out of his way to diminish Ivan’s suffering during his last days. This is evidenced by the fact that he allows Ivan to put his legs on Gerasim’s shoulders as it helps with his pain. Ivan’s youngest son is the perfect portrait of innocence and sympathy and he realizes that his father is in immense pain but he is unable to do anything about it.
Real-life Examples
Our contemporary society is somewhat reminiscent of Ivan’s situation. Even today, people are running towards some lofty goal that precedes another high achievement. They are so caught up in the wealth and lust of this world, they have forgotten about humanity (in the true sense of the word). They are like Ivan and his colleagues—leading selfish lives and only being concerned with other humans when it suits their needs or some other benefit.
People like Gerasim are very rare in our world because society has set some beliefs about wealthy and successful people as well as naïve, sincere, and kind-hearted people. It is a generally held belief that to succeed in this world, you need to have social connections, wealth, and status. Just like Ivan, they are continuously trying to run up the social ladders but show no interest in improving themselves as human beings.
Perhaps, reading novels like this one reminds the audience about the fairness of death (that death takes away everything from a person except their past actions) and is a step in the right direction. I felt a burden lifted off my chest after reading the novel. It helped me to understand the meaning of life and who I wanted to be. I realized that it’s not because we need to run after money or status but to be kind to other humans and help them in their hour of need. The main aim is to show empathy and make strong bonds of friendship and understanding that even death cannot take away.
Conclusion
Therefore, only if one has understood the weight of personal pain can one identity pain in others and help them. Our society consists of people who help others and ask for nothing in return. The best example could be Edhi Welfare Organization which has saved so many lives in the past decade. Other non-profit organizations like Khan Academy and Aurat Foundation aim at educating people and helping women to achieve better positions respectively. Conclusively, one should read Tolstoy to understand the meaning of life.
Also Read: Gatsby, Media and Evolution of Novel
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Currently, I am a student of Fatima Jinnah Women University. With a burning passion for psychology, words, and dreams, I decided to abandon medical studies for humanities. These days, when I’m not listening to ballads, watching movies, or sitting down with a good novel, I am rigorously studying Hangul (Korean language) to satisfy my obsession for BTS and K dramas. I’m a thinking introvert and INFJ personality. Therefore, I like ‘me time’. My articles typically resonate with psychological well-being advice.
