Leo Tolstoy

BRIEF NOTES ON LEO TOLSTOY'S THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH

Peter Ivanovich of Ch. 1 – is sort of a framing device.  What kind of character are we getting here as an introducer of Ivan Ilyich?

how Ivan's character is established – what does Ch. 2 do to establish Ivan as a character of a certain type?  What is that type?  How are his marriage and his career described?

Ch. 3's setup for the coming struggle with death that we know Ivan will face: How is this chapter beginning to establish the story's theme or prominent ethical / existential matter to be explored?

Ch. 4's move towards Ivan's confrontation with his illness:  What troubles him most at this unhappy, confusing, desperate point in his life?  It's partly the illness, of course, but what else?

Notes – what exactly is Ivan's physical ailment?  I'm not sure "floating kidney" really accounts for it, and appendicitis doesn't seem very likely either.  I don't think there's a definitive answer.  What does the fact that there's confusion or vagueness about his diagnosis add to the way we perceive his predicament?

Irony in the fact that Ivan, too, is a technical professional of sorts – he's a judge, used to dealing with individuals in a technocratic, bureaucratic, authoritative way.  Now the tables are turned, and he can hardly complain about those arrogant doctors, though of course he does, as anybody would.

Denial of Death ("screens" is one translator's somewhat Freudian word) is a huge part of this long story: Ivan can hardly believe he's destined to die.  This seems profoundly true – death is what happens to other people, not to you.  You get a free pass.  But in truth, nobody gets out of this movie called life alive, there's no "final girl" or boy.  Much of our energy goes into denying the basic fact of mortality.  The interest here lies partly in how Tolstoy represents both the denial and the process whereby it is stripped away.

The ultimate theme becomes clear only at the end – Ivan has been selfish: it was "all about him," as we might say today. 

The conclusion of the novella involves a moment of spiritual epiphany, but some readers may find the bleak text leading up to it overwhelming.