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The Death of Ivan Ilych | Introduction

Tolstoy’s ‘‘Smert Ivana Ilyicha’’ (‘‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’’) was widely acclaimed when it was published in 1886 and remains a compelling narrative for contemporary readers. It is significant for its universally powerful portrayal of a man’s physical deterioration and subsequent spiritual rejuvenation at the moment of death, and because it is the first fiction which Tolstoy published after his conversion to radical Christianity. Several critics note a shift in his writing after his spiritual breakdown in the 1870s, which inspired him to write primarily on religious and philosophical issues while repudiating his earlier works. Tolstoy’s Voina i mir (1869; War and Peace) and Anna Karenina (1877) are almost unanimously praised as compelling documents of human existence and are lauded as excellent examples of the realistic novel. Devoting his life to introspection and excelling not only as a writer but as a scholar and philosopher, Tolstoy has influenced a wide range of writers and philosophers, from Ernest Hemingway to Martin Heidegger. He has been hailed by a variety of writers as one of the most important figures in modern literary history, successfully animating his fiction with the dynamics of life. Fyodor Dostoyevsky called him ‘‘a sublime artist’’; Virginia Woolf claimed him as ‘‘the greatest of all novelists’’; and Marcel Proust honored him as ‘‘a serene god.’’ Due to Tolstoy’s relentless examinations of psychology and society, he has won the admiration of multitudes of writers and still affects readers with his stark portrayal of human life. ‘‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’’ perfectly demonstrates this introspection as it magnifies a man’s struggle with how to live his life.

The Death of Ivan Ilych Summary

I.
‘‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’’ opens with Ivan Ilych’s colleagues discussing cases in Shebek’s private room. Amidst their friendly disagreements on a specific point of jurisdiction, Peter Ivanovich reads of Ivan Ilych’s death in the papers and conveys this information to his colleagues. Half of them are startled that someone so close to them in age and position should die, and half have pleasant expectations of the benefits which the opening of Ivan Ilych’s job will create. Peter Ivanovich’s colleagues also immediately think of the promotions that they are bound to receive upon Ivan Ilych’s absence, and each looks unenthusiastically on the duty of offering their condolences to the widow, Praskovya Fedorovna. They are left with a feeling of ease in knowing it is Ivan Ilych who has died; they are still alive and at work.

Peter Ivanovich tells his wife that he will now be able to help her brother attain a job in his circuit due to the open position once held by Ivan Ilych, and he sacrifices his usual nap to attend the funeral services. At the service he encounters Schwartz, a fellow bridge player who assures him by his look that the funeral will not interrupt their bridge game that evening. Peter Ivanovich is relieved, but he is detained by the widow, Praskovya Fedorovna. While attempting to maintain the proper state of a newly widowed woman, she questions Peter Ivanovich on how she can get financial aid from the government in the guise of asking him information on her husband’s pension. Upon realizing that Peter Ivanovich cannot give her any insightful information, she politely ends their conversation and commences with the funeral service, which entails a display of tears, moans, and grieving. Peter Ivanovich leaves the funeral as quickly as possible to cut in on a game of bridge.

II.
The second part of ‘‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’’ describes the life of Ivan Ilych while he was healthy. It can be summed up in the opening line, which states, ‘‘Ivan Ilych’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.’’ Ivan Ilych’s father had been an official, much like Ivan and his oldest brother. Ivan Ilych is praised as being the balance between his two brothers: the oldest is too serious, and the youngest too wild. Ivan Ilych has a pleasant childhood, from which he retains fond memories, and enjoys an easy and proper youth. He studies at the School of Law and is considered ‘‘an intelligent, polished, lively and agreeable man.’’ His first job is in the tenth rank of civil service, working under a governor; he is later promoted to the position of examining magistrate in another province. There he meets Praskovya Fedorovna and eventually marries her, not for love but because it seems the proper course of action at his stage in life. At first his marriage is pleasant and does not interfere with his social life. As his wife has children, however, she becomes more disagreeable and causes scenes which give Ivan Ilych much grief. In time he adjusts to these conjugal pressures by devoting his thought to his official work and playing vint, a form of bridge, with his colleagues. He is eventually promoted to the position of Assistant Public Prosecutor. Although he earns a respectable salary, Ivan Ilych and his wife never have enough money. Three of their children die at birth, while two—the oldest daughter, Lisa, and youngest son, Vladimir—survive.

III.
The third section of ‘‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’’ documents the hardest year in the peaceful seventeen years of Ivan Ilych’s marriage. He has firmly established himself as a Public Prosecutor at this point and has passed up many offers of new positions, holding out for the best... » Complete The Death of Ivan Ilych Summary