Leo Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich is often considered his greatest piece of work and chronicles the life and death of a noble Russian judge, Ivan Ilyich. Ivan has always tried to surround himself around the upper class and conform to their way of life ever since he was a young teenager. He becomes married, has children, and moves through higher ranking official jobs in the judicial courts before his untimely death. Ivan suffers for weeks on end from a side pain that leads him to reflect on the way he lived his life. Ivan Ilyich presents himself as an antihero throughout the novel by the way he treats his wife and family, his intense focus on his job and conforming to the upper class lifestyle, and does not become a hero after …show more content…
Not only did this cause pain for him, but it also caused a great deal of pain on his family, whom had to listen to his moans, while they could do nothing to help. Ivan knew that he was causing his family suffering, however he did not try to apologize to them or rationalize with them, instead he continued to show a dissatisfaction with their attitude towards him, because they did not show absolute sympathy and pity towards him. Shortly before his death he received communion from a priest and afterwards his wife asked him if he felt better, to which he replied yes. However, “The expression on his face when he had said ‘Yes’ was terrible. On pronouncing this yes he looked her straight in the face, and with extraordinary quickness, considering his weakness, he turned over on one side and cried: ‘Go away, go away, leave me” (Tolstoy 71). He could not stand to give his wife the satisfaction of having known that she comforted him, therefore even after admitting to it, he began to fill with hatred and sent her away. This and other times he sent her or Gerasim away, he only amplified the torment he inflicted on them. While he realized in the seconds before his last death the pain he put upon them, and he tried to ask for forgiveness, that does not make him into a hero. He simply came to terms with his wretchedness that he lived with his family for all his