Tolstoy's The Death Of Ivan Ilyich

“What happens during death? That is, what is the physical process which occurs when a person reverses the process of being born?” In the short novel, The Death of Ivan Ilyich written by Leo Tolstoy present to his readers about the meaning behind the problems of living & dying. In the beginning, we soon learn that Ivan (main character) had just died, and many friends and family visited his home where the wake and funeral service took place. In the rest of the novel, Tolstoy had explained to his reader about Ivan’s attitudes towards life and death. In addition, shows the major values of living and dying. Ivan is a husband, father of two children, and works at a courthouse as a judge. In addition, he lives in a life of misery, isolation, and pays close attention to work than spending time with his family. One day he became very ill and learned from the doctors that he may be suffering from a kidney disease, chronic catarrh, or a disease of the caecum. In chapter 5, Ivan’s illness had started to change his outlook on life as he feared that he may die at any time and wondered if his life had any true meaning.

The inner life focus on the spiritualism and trying to understand the true meaning of life and dying. Also, when an individual is dying they have someone at their side showing compassion by caring for that person. While the outer life is about materialism, work, friends, parties, and playing. But, when someone is dying like Ivan they feel isolated and scared. The remaining chapters Ivan continued to feel alone, feared about dying, and not understanding the true meaning of his life. What he learned from this process is how important spiritualism (spiritual life) compared to the materialism (physical life). Towards the end he surpassed his suffering and conquers his fear of death and felt