Comparing Ivan Ilyich And Gabriel Conroy

Ivan Ilyich and Gabriel Conroy are both very interesting characters. They both have many similarities and also have many differences from each other. Ivan was a very successful member of the Court of Justice, and worked his whole life to get to where he was. Gabriel Conroy is short tempered, has social awkwardness, and to his family has many faces as to the way he acts around them. Ivan and Gabriel both have struggling marriages and their epiphanies are the same because at the end of each of the stories they both have an epiphany of pain and suffering that relieves them, but their aspects and points they have on their lives are different. Ivan and Gabriel’s marriages are both the same. They both have struggling marriages to which they don’t

Once Ivan begin to get sick and the point he knew he was going to die he started to think of all the wrong he did in his life. Ivan's epiphany was that he felt sorry for his wife and his son and all the things he put them through. Ivan realized that Gerasim had the good life and Ivan wished he could have lived the life his son did. In the last days of Ivan’s life Gerasim went into the room with his father and happily sat with Ivan, and Ivan responded to all the wrong he did to him and his mother and wished he wouldn’t have. I think that Ivan's epiphany was when he realized that the selflessness that he did was a better life than the wrong of the aristocracy. Gabriel’s epiphany happens toward the end of “The Dead” in which he thinks about the fullness and the belief of death. Gabriel started to feel for his wife because he knew what she once had was love and he has never had that. “Generous tears filled Gabriel’s eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew that such feeling must be love” (Joyce 224). He has an epiphany in which reflects the actions he did and starts to change his belief he has upon himself, “He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself which these dead had

Ivan lives his life on the dictates of others rather relying on his own reason while Gabriel doesn’t really care what other people think and thinks he is better than everyone. To his aunts Gabriel is a loving kind man, but he is actually cruel and rude and likes to pick a fight with everybody. When he is talking with Lily he teases her about not having a boyfriend and not caring if it hurt feelings or not. Ivan relies on other people’s conduct and lifestyle then his own reason, and he thinks that will bring him meaning and fulfillment. When Gabriel dances with Miss Ivory she interrogates him about his plans to travel and ask why he wants to leave and Gabriel says, “I’m sick of my own country, sick of it” (Joyce 190). That moment is when people start to think that Gabriel isn’t this nice friendly guy, and actually notice he is a totally different guy. Ivan is all about being successful. He will do anything in his power to make sure he has anything he wants. When his wife becomes pregnant he leaves her just to absorb himself into work. Gabriel would rather be rude to everyone not caring if he’s hurting their feelings or not. Ivan becomes obsessed to being a higher class man and feels that is what he has to be. When Gabriel makes his toast in front of the family he makes everybody smile and laugh, but on the inside he doesn’t care about his family. Even though Ivan still argued with his wife and did other