Tolstoy Death Of Ivan Ilych Analysis

Tolstoy’s ability to interweave the environment with themes of materialism and death makes The Death of Ivan Ilych stand out as a piece that criticizes societal values. In his article “Tolstoy and the Moran Instructions of Death,” Dennis Sansom focuses on the influence of fighting chaos in Ivan’s eventual acceptance of his own death. Socrates wrote, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and Ivan’s life mirrored this until the end (qtd. in Sansom 417). Until he examines what his life amounts to and finds triviality in all of his pursuits, he is unable to see beyond his environment and accept his death as anything more than meaningless. Sansom examines Ivan’s life to find the shallow areas of his environment that he places importance in.

This envy and vindictiveness for what the people around him have leads him to acquire more materialistic items that do not necessarily bring him happiness. His life flows pleasantly this way until he reaches a threat that takes away his control. In order for a person to be content at the end of their life is “ if we are in control of our careers, mates, children, and bodies, [then] we can live a predictable and powerful life” (Sansom 419). As Ivan loses control of his environment, the thought of death and losing his possessions makes him scared of death. His life amounts to nothing more than chaos, where “the assumed defense against chaos is more control of relationships, job, environment, emotions, and future” (Sansom 419). Knowing the necessity of control but being unable to leads him further into despair and a lack of acceptance of his fate. Sansom writes, “The world becomes a stage on which he is the only real actor, and a shallow one at that, because Ivan has to remain abstract from his own emotional insecurities and worries about death” (420). He mirrors the actions

Sansom writes, “He faces his mortality and realizes the failure of constructing a life on preferences and abstract relationships” (421). Shallow relationships and a focus on outward appearance lead to a neglect of Ivan’s actual purpose. In this time of Ivan grappling with death, Tolstoy proposes the idea that before we die “the choice is not how to act in ways so that we can control our death and question the meaning of life, but whether there is a reality to which we can find real value as individuals that is not nullified by the existential syllogism” (Sansom 424). The control that he sought as a way to defend himself against chaos does not lead him to peace; instead, it disappoints him and helps move Ivan to a place of deeper understanding. At the very end during an interaction with his son, Ivan finally “empties himself of meaningless false images of human purpose, [and] he then sees how to respond honestly with integrity to his destiny” (Sansom 427). By removing the images of what it meant to truly live, placed there by his environment, and looking within himself, his attitude towards death changes to allow a more holistic acceptance of what is to