The Death of Ivan

Ilych
Study Guide by Course Hero

to address the thoughts of other characters. The narrator also

What's Inside possesses the ability to psychoanalyze the characters, their
thoughts, and motivations.

j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1 TENSE

The Death of Ivan Ilych is told in the past tense.
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1
ABOUT THE TITLE
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3 The title The Death of Ivan Ilych refers to an ambitious upper-
middle-class Russian man in the 19th century, who faces and
h Characters .................................................................................................. 4
comes to terms with death early in the story. The remainder of
k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 6 the story flashes back and describes his life leading up to the
point of his death.
c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 12

g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 32

l Symbols ..................................................................................................... 35 d In Context

m Themes ...................................................................................................... 36

b Motifs ........................................................................................................... 37 Tolstoy's Conversion to

e Suggested Reading .............................................................................. 37 (Un)orthodox Christianity
Tolstoy's crisis of faith led him to question the teachings of the
Russian Orthodox church. He sought answers to his profound
j Book Basics spiritual questions directly from the Bible—particularly in the
words of Jesus Christ. Tolstoy came to believe that the church
AUTHOR was corrupt and that it perverted Christ's teachings, and he
Leo Tolstoy said so publicly. His heresy led to Tolstoy's excommunication
from the Russian Orthodox church in 1901. Tolstoy also
YEAR PUBLISHED repudiated the wrathful God of the Old Testament in favor of
1886 the more spiritual teachings of the Gospels. To make a clean
sweep of all he found false in the official Bible, Tolstoy wrote
GENRE
his own "corrected" version of the Gospels. He felt his version
Drama
contained all one needed to live an authentic life and to nourish
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR one's soul.
The Death of Ivan Ilych is related by a third-person omniscient
Tolstoy referred to "the man Jesus," denying that Jesus was
narrator. While the narrator tends to focus on Ivan and his
divine but believing he was a human of great wisdom who
point of view, he does, when warranted, leave this perspective
The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide In Context 2

understood how people should live their lives. Tolstoy's liberate themselves from below." The practical ruler wanted to
Gospel-oriented beliefs led him to adopt a simple, free the serfs to head off any widespread rebellion from them.
nonmaterialistic lifestyle (very much like the serfs he had tried In 1861 the tsar emancipated the serfs, who were free from
to liberate). He dressed like a simple peasant and gave up chattel servitude and in practice could own their own land. The
meat-eating, smoking, and drinking in his pursuit of a simple life disgruntled nobles retaliated. They sold the former serfs small
lived in harmony with nature and other people. Tolstoy also plots of the lowest-quality land and charged them far more for
preached the benefits of physical celibacy, though he was the land than it was actually worth. Therefore, few serfs could
unable to practice it himself. He believed that material goods afford to buy and run their own farms.
and money were antithetical to Christ's teachings and that
holding and valuing personal property was sinful. At the time of emancipation, serfs made up about a third of
Russia's population. Of the approximately 22 million serfs,
Tolstoy wrote The Death of Ivan Ilych after a period in which he some were privately owned, some were owned by the state,
questioned the meaning of life that is inevitably erased by and others were under the tsar's patronage. Tolstoy's serfs
death. He confronted the question: "Is there any meaning in my were privately owned, and he tried but failed to free them five
life that wouldn't be destroyed by the death that inevitably years before the tsar officially liberated them. In this novella,
awaits me?" Tolstoy's religious beliefs were one answer to this Gerasim is a rather idealized version of a former serf who
question about mortality. They are mirrored in The Death of Tolstoy had tried to emancipate. Gerasim is described as being
Ivan Ilych. In the novella, Tolstoy shows how Ivan Ilych comes good-natured and attuned to the earth as well as to all the
to recognize that his life of materialistic propriety has been vagaries of human life. He does not shrink from death, nor
shallow and meaningless. Ivan Ilych understands that does he recoil from the normal functions of the human body.
everything in his life has been wrong. Only when he lets go of Gerasim is a simple man whose nature is revealed in sharp
all the false trivialities of his life can he look death in the eye, contrast to the phony triviality and inauthenticity of people of
accept it, and die with joy. In so doing, true death becomes the Ivan Ilych's social class.
beginning of a purified life.

Tsar Alexander II and Russia in

Serfs in Russia
the 1880s
Serfdom began in Russia around the 15th century and came to
dominate the Russian agricultural economy by the 17th In 1851 Russia suffered a humiliating defeat to Great Britain,
century. Most serfs were landless workers who were France, and Turkey during the Crimean War (1853–56). The
considered property, or chattel, by the noble who owned them. Crimean War was Russia's attempt to actively protect the
They were forced to work the land belonging to the noble. Russian Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman sultan who ruled
Chattel serfs could be bought and sold, were unable to leave the Crimean peninsula at that time. The war was also
the noble's land, and were subject to rigid laws controlling their instigated as a power struggle among various nations (Russia
lives. Laws dictated whom serfs could marry, among many versus a coalition of Britain, France, and Ottoman Turkey) for
other restrictions that left them in a near slave-like condition. greater control of the Middle East. The conflict between
Russian Orthodoxy and French Roman Catholicism was also a
By the early 19th century many serfs were openly rebelling—in factor in the war. Russia's defeat in the Crimean War led to a
word and thought, if not always in deed—against this servitude. great deal of self-examination among Russian intellectuals and
Naturally, the nobility that benefited from serf labor fought any government officials, including Tsar Alexander II. The
attempts to restructure, let alone abolish, serfdom in Russia. consensus was that Russia was "backward" and had fallen
But the debacle of losing the Crimean War (the 1853–56 behind European nations in its economic and infrastructural
military conflict against Great Britain, France, and Turkey) development. Russia in the mid- to late-1800s was a poor
made many Russians recognize that change and nation with little industry and an underdeveloped
modernization were vital to advancing Russian society and its transportation system. The emancipation of the serfs in 1861
economy. In 1856 Tsar Alexander II said, "It is better to abolish drew a greater proportion of the population to the cities, such
serfdom from above than to wait until the serfs begin to

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Author Biography 3

as Moscow and St. Petersburg. Urbanization did spur family structure would be irreversibly fractured. Tolstoy was
economic growth to a certain extent. Slowly but surely a also greatly disturbed by the rise of the urban professional and
Russian middle class arose and grew, in many ways mimicking merchant middle class—the class to which Ivan Ilych and his
the social mores and values of Western Europe. family and acquaintances belong—which embraced Western
ideas and culture. He particularly abhorred this class's self-
Tsar Alexander II was eager to modernize his nation despite absorption and the value it placed on materialism. Tolstoy's
the resistance he received from the nobility. Resistance also concerns are clearly present in this novella.
came from radical groups that sought to rid the nation of its
hereditary monarchy altogether. The tsar firmly believed in his

a Author Biography
God-given right to absolute rule over his country. The tsar felt
that Russians were not yet ready for a representative
government. However, he did promote and institute some
important reforms during his reign. For example, he promoted
greater religious and ethnic tolerance within Russia, and Early Life and Marriage
permitted more Russian citizens to travel abroad. He also gave
other nations under Russian rule, such as Poland, more Leo Tolstoy (Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Count Tolstoy) was
autonomy. born September 9, 1828, in the Tula Oblast region of Russia.
He was an aristocrat and landowner who wrote primarily about
Many Russians applauded these measures, but others were
his own class. He was orphaned by the time he was nine, and
driven to violent public demonstrations and even calls for the
lost additional close relatives by age 13. He and his siblings
tsar's assassination. Anger at this increased leniency exploded
were raised by their relations. Tolstoy never completed his
in a national uprising in 1863, which was put down by Russian
university education but was successful in the military, earning
intervention. More worrisome, in the tsar's view, was the
promotions and a citation for bravery under fire. In 1862
growing popularity in the 1860s of rational egoism, a worldview
Tolstoy married Sofya Andreyevna Bers, and the couple moved
adopted by many Russian youths. Rational egoism posited that
to the family estate, Yasnaya Polyana. There, Tolstoy wrote his
if all people acted solely on the basis of rationality and self-
greatest literary works.
interest, then society would be highly organized, efficient, and
beneficial. Rational egoism posed a threat to the absolute rule
of the Russian monarch, the tsar. This potentially revolutionary
movement was stalled in 1862 when the tsar instituted cruel
Writing Masterpieces and
and repressive measures to crush it. The tsar's strong-arm
tactics resulted in an attempt on his life in 1866, from which he
Religious Conversion
miraculously escaped unharmed. However, Tsar Alexander II
It was at his estate that Tolstoy wrote the novels for which he
did try to modernize and industrialize Russia to lift it into a
became most famous and celebrated as one of the world's
position of power comparable to Western European nations.
greatest novelists. His greatest literary masterpieces are War
Undertaken largely in the 1860s, the tsar's programs to and Peace (1865–69) and Anna Karenina (1875–77).
modernize Russia included plans for rapid industrialization in
After completing his masterworks, Tolstoy began to
cities. Tolstoy was of two minds about these programs. He felt
experience a profound and life-altering spiritual crisis. It was
the reforms would undermine the "real" soul of Russia
brought on by his fear of death and his conviction that he was
embodied in rural peasants and farmers. In The Death of Ivan
not living what he called an authentic life. Eventually, he came
Ilych, the true Russian character and soul are embodied in the
to hate his life as an aristocrat and desired to give away his
character of Gerasim. Ivan Ilych himself, as well as his family
wealth. In his early period of spiritual transformation, he was
and others in the upper-middle class, are shown to be shallow
reading the philosophers Plato, Spinoza, Kant, Schelling, and
and trivial people who adopt an imitation Western European
Hegel. The philosopher Schopenhauer had an enormous
mindset that Tolstoy shows to be antithetical to Russian
influence on Tolstoy. He would eventually explore the tenets of
culture and values. Tolstoy was also concerned that as young
Eastern religions as well—specifically Hinduism and Buddhism.
people left the countryside for the city, the traditional Russian

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Characters 4

Not surprisingly, The Death of Ivan Ilych is an indictment of the

bourgeois and aristocratic classes the author knew well. It Ivan Ilych Golovin
delves deeply into the inauthentic life that, In Tolstoy's view,
causes the greatest fear of death. Ivan Ilych is an ambitious lawyer in 19th-century Russia who
strives to live the kind of life that is acceptable to other
The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886) has enjoyed widespread acclaim upwardly mobile men of his class. When he falls ill, he must
among both authors and readers. The novella explores come to terms with the fact that he is dying. Before he dies,
Tolstoy's view that the way of life people live imposed by Ivan examines the conformist, artificial life he has led. Despite
society is shallow, artificial, and ultimately unsatisfying. It is also his intense suffering, he seeks truth within his soul as he lies
a life that is, crucially, not attuned to God. dying.

Most of the works that followed The Death of Ivan Ilych

explicated Tolstoy's religious beliefs and his ideas about how
to live an authentic and Christian life. These works include
Praskovya Fedorovna Golovina
fiction such as The Kreutzer Sonata (1890) about an unhappy
Praskovya Fedorovna's life is defined by the outward
marriage, and nonfiction such as The Kingdom of God Is Within
appearance she must keep up to be accepted as a member of
You (1893).
the Russian upper-middle class. She is shallow and concerned

Tolstoy's religious beliefs impelled him to try to free his serfs in primarily with status and with acceptance by others of her

1856, but the serfs thought these efforts were some kind of class. She is obsessed with fashion and material things, as well

trick and Tolstoy failed to liberate them. Tolstoy also tried to as living an acceptable upward-striving bourgeois life.

give away all his land and possessions to live in poverty as

Christ had taught. These radical ideas led to intense conflict
with his wife, who was naturally concerned about the economic Gerasim
welfare of her numerous children and herself.
Gerasim is a peasant who faces life without delusion or
pretension. He is benevolent, kind, and strong. In contrast to

Disciples the artificiality of Ivan Ilych, Gerasim is direct, authentic, and

accepting of the harsh realities of life and death. He does not

Tolstoy's ideas were so influential and his reputation so stellar flinch from unpleasantness and comforts Ivan Ilych during his

that a group of disciples, called the Tolstoyans, formed around illness. It is natural for Gerasim to tend to Ivan's personal needs

him. Tolstoyans referred to themselves as Christian anarchists, because, unlike Ivan Ilych, he embraces all aspects of

and they believed in Tolstoy's ideas about radical Christianity. life—including death.

As the Tolstoyan movement grew, Tolstoy found life on his

estate increasingly intolerable. In 1910 Tolstoy left his estate by
train with his granddaughter Alexandra and his doctor. The trio
stopped at Astapovo railway station so Tolstoy could rest and
recover from pneumonia. Instead, the great writer's illness
grew worse. He died of heart failure at the station on
November 7, 1910, at age 82.

h Characters

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Characters 5

Character Map

Gerasim
Strong, kind man

Schwarz Fedor Petrovich

Lawyer and magistrate Young examining magistrate
Servant

Colleagues

Betrothed

Ivan Ilych
Golovin
Colleagues Middle-class lawyer
and magistrate
Father Lisa Ivanovna
Peter Ivanovich
Golovina
Lawyer and magistrate
Young middle-class woman

Father
Spouses

Mother

Praskovya
Fedorovna
Vladimir Ivanovich
Golovina
Golovin
Mother Narcissistic,
Young law student
uncompassionate
woman

Main Character

Other Major Character

Minor Character

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Plot Summary 6

Full Character List Schwartz is a work colleague and

friend of Ivan Ilych. He appears at Ivan's
wake and is most notable for ignoring
Schwartz
or denying the death that has occurred
Character Description
and for his pursuit of pleasurable
pastimes.
Ivan Ilych Golovin is a bourgeois
Ivan Ilych
Russian professional man and
Golovin Ivan Egorovich Shebek is a public
protagonist of the novella.
Ivan Egorovich prosecutor who works in the same
Shebek courthouse and is an acquaintance of
Praskovya Praskovya Fedorovna Golovina is Ivan's Ivan Ilych.
Fedorovna wife and mother to his two living
Golovina children.
Fedor Fedor Vasilievich is a lawyer and
Vasilievich colleague of Ivan Ilych.
Gerasim is a Russian peasant and
Gerasim
servant to the family of Ivan Ilych.

Ivan Ilych's daughter, Lisa Ivanovna

Golovina, has adopted the norms and
k Plot Summary
fulfills the expectations of bourgeois
Lisa Ivanovna
society. At the end, she becomes
Golovina
engaged to be married but seems to
have little feeling for her dying father or The Funeral
anyone but herself.
The novel begins in the Law Courts with Peter Ivanovich telling
Ivan's son, Vladimir Ivanovich Golovin, is his fellow lawyers that he just read that Ivan Ilych has died.
Vladimir reserved but seems as yet to be Some of the men read Ivan Ilych's obituary, which has just been
Ivanovich uncorrupted by society's demands. At
Golovin the end, Vladimir seems to genuinely published in the local paper. The powerful and self-important
love his father. lawyers think only about how Ilych's death will affect their
chances of getting a promotion at work. Not one thinks about
Ivan Ilych's close friend Peter Ivanovich Ivan or about death.
appears only at the beginning of the
Peter story. He exemplifies an inauthentic The scene then shifts to Ivan Ilych's house where he is laid out
Ivanovich bourgeois attitude toward life, pleasure,
and where a funeral will be held for him. All of Ivan's colleagues
and denial of unpleasantness and
death. have assembled for the funeral. Yet, again, none of them thinks
of Ivan or of his death. They are intent on finding ways to
Zachar Ivanovich is Ivan Ilych's amuse or distract themselves so they don't have to think about
Zachar colleague and later a high-​ranking the inevitability of death. The talk at the funeral is trivial. Men
Ivanovich minister who gives Ivan a well-​paid job wink at each other in an effort to get a game of bridge going.
in the Department of Justice.
Peter Ivanovich does gaze at Ivan's corpse but is put off by its
expression of seeming disapproval. A while later Peter is drawn
Peter, the footman, is a servant to Ivan
Peter, the aside by Ivan's wife, whose crocodile tears hide her true
Ilych and his household. He helps Ivan
footman interest: can Peter manage to get more money for her from
while Ivan is dying.
Ivan's pension fund? Peter says he doubts he can manage that.
Fedor Petrovich is Lisa Ivanovna Later in the evening, Peter meets Gerasim, the servant. When
Golovina's fiancé. He is typical of the Peter says it's sad that Ivan has died, Gerasim says simply that
Russian upper bourgeoisie. He is a sooner or later everyone dies. Peter finds this disconcerting.
Fedor
seemingly bland and unremarkable
Petrovich He feels "a certain discomfort" and thinks that "[inevitable
character who has little to do with the
story aside from his relationship with death was] not applicable to him."
Lisa.

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Plot Summary 7

illness that can be cured but a matter of life and death. Ivan is
A Proper, Promising Life terrified of dying and finds no solace in his wife or colleagues
who themselves avoid thinking about or discussing mortality.
Then the story shifts to 30 years earlier. The reader learns that Ivan feels totally isolated and becomes increasingly desperate
Ivan had a normal childhood. He decided to study law in his as his incessant pain gets worse.
early teens and excelled at his studies. It is in law school that
Ivan internalizes the values and mores of the upper-middle In a short time Ivan can no longer work because the pain keeps
class that he will be part of as a practicing lawyer. After getting him from paying attention to the cases he's working on. He
his law degree, Ivan works as an examining magistrate in an stops working and takes to spending his time lying on the sofa
unidentified Russian province. He gets married and his wife at home. The pain increases and he can find no position that
gets pregnant. Her pregnancy alters his wife's behavior and alleviates it, though having his legs raised slightly helps a bit.
the acceptable decorum of the household that Ivan values so One day Ivan asks Gerasim if he would hold his legs up higher.
much. Ivan tries as much as possible to avoid being with his Gerasim is more than willing to help and he spends hours with
wife. He works late. He stays out with his friends. Ivan Ivan's legs resting on his shoulders. Ivan feels at ease with
succeeds in establishing a distant attitude toward his family Gerasim because the man is accepting of death. In addition, he
that he will maintain for many years. thinks nothing of helping Ivan with those physical needs that
others would find unbearably unpleasant. Ivan takes great
When Ivan is passed over for a promotion at work, he's furious. comfort in Gerasim's help and his authenticity and lack of
He takes a leave from work and moves his family to his pretense.
brother-in-law's house in a rural area. There he broods and
determines to take no position that pays him less than 5,000 Everyone else around him refuses to acknowledge, let alone
rubles per year. Ivan travels to St. Petersburg to find a good- talk about, Ivan's impending death. Only Gerasim accepts
paying job. While in St. Petersburg, by good luck Ivan learns death as a natural part of life and so sees Ivan's situation as it
that a friend of his has gotten a high-power job. The friend truly is. Ivan's family, friends, and doctors all deny Ivan's clearly
obtains a well-paying job for Ivan in St. Petersburg. Ivan is impending death because acknowledging death is just not
ecstatic and prepares his family for the move to the great city. considered proper for people of their class. Ivan feels
Ivan finds a house for his family and then he throws himself increasingly isolated from everyone except Gerasim, whose
into buying the best, or most fashionable, furniture and other presence he finds comforting.
household necessities for his new home. As he's putting up
drapes, Ivan has a mishap on the ladder. He bangs his side
against the window frame and is slightly bruised. The bruise Facing Life, Facing Death
hurts a bit but Ivan thinks nothing of it because he's so
wrapped up in preparing his new home. Ivan's family moves One night Ivan has a dream in which he's being pushed into a
into the new house, and they all seem quite happy with their black sack. In the dream Ivan wants to fall into the sack and yet
new life. Ivan still likes escaping from his family and develops a is terrified of it. When he awakes, Ivan hears for the first time
liking for playing bridge. his inner voice speaking to him about his life and his impending
death. Ivan can no longer leave the sofa, but he spends his
time thinking about and analyzing the life he has led. He comes
Hints of Mortality close to accepting that his life has been a fraud, something
inauthentic that did not come from his innermost and truest
After a while, Ivan notices a disturbing pain in his left side—the self. Ivan is tormented, too, as he tries to figure out a reason
side of his body that crashed against the window frame. He for his terrible suffering. Why must he suffer? Why should he
tries to ignore it, but the pain gets continually worse. The be the one dying? Whenever he comes close to true
incessant pain makes Ivan irritable. He sees several doctors understanding, Ivan's mind withdraws from the truth about his
about the pain, but none of them can diagnose the cause, let life. He thinks his life was good because it was proper since he
alone cure it. Ivan takes the various medicines he's prescribed did everything right according to society's dictums.
but none has any effect on his pain. Eventually, Ivan becomes
depressed. One night he realizes his condition may not be an At the insistence of his wife, Ivan sees a priest and takes Holy

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Plot Summary 8

Communion. One night Ivan is with Gerasim when he suddenly

has serious doubts about whether he's lived the life he should
have lived. He thinks again of the black sack. He thinks about
the terrible pain that comes from both being pushed into it and
not being able to just fall in himself. Ivan starts to understand
that the artificial and trivial life he's lived is preventing him from
entering the black sack and whatever relief he might find there.
Then an unnameable force strikes Ivan in the chest and side
and pushes him into it. Once inside, Ivan experiences an
intense light. While Ivan is experiencing this, his son has
approached the sofa and knelt beside his father. Ivan's hand
touches his son's head. Ivan feels sad for the boy and for his
wife as she approaches her dying husband. In dying Ivan
realizes that every aspect of his life—his family life, his working
life—has been totally artificial and inauthentic and apart from
all those around him as they have been from him. As he dies,
Ivan lets go of all the artificiality that had in a way imprisoned
him in a life that was not truly correct at all. Ivan experiences
intense joy, sighs, and dies.

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Plot Summary 9

Plot Diagram

Climax

7
Falling Action
6
Rising Action
5 8

4
9
3
Resolution
2
1

Introduction

7. Ivan Ilych falls through the black sack and into the light.
Introduction

1. Ivan Ilych becomes a lawyer, a husband, and a father.

Falling Action

8. Ivan Ilych realizes there is no such thing as death.

Rising Action

2. Ivan's life is dedicated to propriety and pleasure.

Resolution
3. Ivan gets a top job through an acquaintance's referral.
9. Family and colleagues gather at Ivan Ilych's funeral.
4. Ivan is injured decorating his fancy new house.

5. Ivan's injury causes him to become gravely, fatally ill.

6. Ivan finds peace when he sees the artificiality of his life.

Climax

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Plot Summary 10

Timeline of Events

Early life

Ivan Ilych, an average conformist and amiable man,

becomes a lawyer.

1859

Ivan works as a provincial government assistant.

1864

A new law code helps Ivan get promoted to examining

magistrate.

1866

Ivan meets and marries Praskovya Fedorovna; they have

children.

1869

Ivan is promoted to assistant public prosecutor; he

comes to loathe his wife.

1876

Ivan is promoted to the post of public prosecutor.

September 10, 1880

Ivan becomes a government minister, buys a house, and

moves to St. Petersburg.

Fall 1880

Ivan injures his side while hanging drapes in his new

house.

1886

Ivan begins feeling pain in his side; his marriage is torture

for him.

Early winter 1880

Ivan consults several doctors; none can diagnose his

pain.

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Plot Summary 11

Late winter

Ivan's pain is constant; he feels that he's dying but still

hopes for a cure.

Early spring

Gerasim helps the nearly helpless Ivan.

Spring

Ivan's condition worsens; his family finds him

burdensome.

Spring

Ivan's inner voice can't explain his suffering but

questions the life Ivan has lived.

Spring

Ivan dreams of the black sack.

Two weeks later

Ivan realizes he's moving ever more quickly toward

death.

Two weeks later

Ivan hates his family's falseness and lies; only Gerasim

comforts him.

A while later

Ivan falls through the black sack into the light.

In one instant

Ivan realizes the falseness of the life he's led; his love
redeems him as he dies.

Days later

Ivan's family and colleagues gather for his funeral at

Ivan's house.

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 12

Fedorovna, draws Peter Ivanovich aside and speaks to him.

c Chapter Summaries Peter feel uncomfortable, thinking he'll have to comfort the
weeping widow. At first, the two discuss how terribly Ivan Ilych
suffered in the weeks and days before he died. The topic

Chapter 1 makes Peter Ivanovich "afraid for himself." Then the

conversation turns to its main purpose. The tearful Praskovya
Fedorovna wants to talk to Peter Ivanovich about getting more
money from Ivan's pension out of the government. Praskovya
Summary Fedorovna assures Peter Ivanovich that her "grief [does not]
prevent her from attending to practical affairs." She asks Peter
In 1882 at one of the law courts in Russia, a group of
to find out if there's anything he can do to get her an additional
prosecutors, lawyers, and magistrates are in a room at the
"grant of money from the government." Peter Ivanovich admits
courthouse during a trial when one of their members, Peter
sadly that there's nothing he can do in this regard.
Ivanovich, enters to tell them that their acquaintance Ivan Ilych
has died. The assembled men are quite shocked at the news, Upon leaving the wife, Peter Ivanovich sees and greets Lisa
although they've known that Ivan Ilych has been ill. The men Ivanovna Golovina, Ivan Ilych's daughter, her fiancé, and Ivan's
have been colleagues of Ivan Ilych's for many years, and most teenage son, Vladimir Ivanovich Golovin. Vladimir's "tear-
plan to attend his funeral the following Friday. Ivan's stained eyes [reveal him to be] pure-minded." Then everyone
acquaintances at the courthouse think only about how his attends the funeral service. Peter Ivanovich is careful not to let
death might benefit their professional advancement. Of course, the corpse or the service be a "depressing influence" on him.
the uppermost thought in their minds is relief that "it is he who When he leaves the service, Peter runs into Gerasim, the
is dead and not I." Still, propriety demands that they attend servant. Peter says to him, "It's a sad affair." Gerasim replies
Ivan's funeral, which most of them find an irksome duty. calmly, "It's God's will." Then Gerasim helps Peter Ivanovich
into a sledge, which whisks him off to Fedor Vasilievich's place
On Friday, Ivan's courthouse colleagues and friends assemble
for a pleasant night of cards.
at his home for the funeral. Peter Ivanovich goes into the room
where the body is lying in its open coffin. He feels
uncomfortable and does not know what it is proper for him to Analysis
do in such a situation. He notes the Church Reader (a lay
reader of the Bible) and the holy icons (paintings of Jesus The author uses Chapter 1 to set the stage for the rest of the
and/or the Virgin Mary) on the walls. He sees several of Ivan's novella, even though it is chronologically the end of the story.
relatives arrayed around the body. Peter Ivanovich glances at The author places Ivan Ilych's funeral at the beginning. This
the corpse and is surprised that Ivan Ilych looks calmer and approach gives Leo Tolstoy the freedom to show how
more dignified in death than he often looked in life. Peter inauthentic, trivial, and materialistic the lives of Ivan's friends,
Ivanovich is disconcerted by the corpse's expression, which colleagues, and family really are. It suggests that Ivan's life was
seems to be "a warning to the living." Peter Ivanovich is too very likely the same. The first chapter allows the author to
discomforted to think about what this means, so he hurries out satirize and criticize the vapid life of upper-middle-class
of the room. Russians of the time. It also foreshadows Ivan Ilych's spiritual
journey away from this superficial way of life.
Upon leaving the room with the body, Peter Ivanovich meets
his colleague Schwartz. Schwartz had winked at him For a moment the men in the courtroom are surprised by Ivan
mischievously earlier, seeming to imply some pleasurable Ilych's death. Then they immediately bury all thoughts about
pastime to come after the funeral. Schwartz is a dapper mortality and concentrate on how it might increase their
pleasure-seeker. Peter Ivanovich knows he will probably power. Peter Ivanovich, like others in Ivan Ilych's circle, cannot
unwrap "a new pack of cards ... [and their] evening would be deal with the idea of mortality. They quickly turn their minds
spent agreeably." away from death and toward how this particular death might
benefit their careers. Self-aggrandizement is not just a means
Before the funeral service starts, Ivan's wife, Praskovya
of ignoring mortality, it is apparently a guiding principle of the

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 13

upper-middle-class life these men lead. Praskovya Fedorovna Golovina, Ivan's wife, is also a slave to
propriety insofar as she sheds tears for her dead husband.
Though they would like to avoid anything to do with death, That her tears may not be an authentic expression of her
propriety forces these gentlemen to attend Ivan's funeral. They feelings is implied. This is evident when she says, "I consider it
are really quite annoyed at having to do so. There is no hint an affectation to say that my grief prevents my attending to
that these men will attend the funeral to pay their respects to practical affairs." Even Peter Ivanovich recognizes that her
Ivan Ilych or to comfort the grieving family. They attend the mournful demeanor is "this woman's dissimulation." For her,
funeral only because it is the proper thing for men of their attending to practicalities may be a distraction from her
class to do. These middle-class men are ruled by propriety, supposed grief. She is concerned with money on the day of her
which forces them to make the tiresome journey to Ivan Ilych's husband's funeral. This implies that it is not attending to
home. Propriety—doing the correct or proper thing as practicalities that is an affectation but her false show of grief
demanded by upper-middle-class society—is the guiding factor that is her affectation. Praskovya exhibits other aspects of
in the lives of these people. proper, or acceptable, upper-middle-class
behavior—selfishness and greed. She, too, seems to refuse to
Attendees at the funeral deny the reality of death and distance
think about death. She replaces thoughts of mortality with the
themselves from it, thinking it has no relevance to their own
desire for money that will satisfy her materialism.
lives. Schwartz conveys to Peter Ivanovich his assurance that
"Ivan Ilych has made a mess of things (has died)—not like you Praskovya Fedorovna's materialism is a symptom of her
and me." Schwartz seems to exempt the living from ever absolute commitment to bourgeois acceptability. It is clear that
having to face death. When Peter Ivanovich looks at Ivan's Ivan Ilych was also in thrall to the materialism mandated by
corpse, he seems to recognize an expression of "warning ... not upper-middle-class society. When Peter Ivanovich enters a
applicable to him." Yet the nearness of death makes Peter feel sitting room with Ivan's wife, what he notices most is the
"a certain discomfort" that he cannot abide, so he hurries out amount of stuff the room contains. He notes, perhaps
of the room. In speaking with Ivan's wife, Peter manages to admiringly, that "the whole room was full of furniture and knick-
distance himself from death. He asks for details about her knacks"—not to mention antiques. Peter remembers that "Ivan
husband's death "as though death was an accident natural to [himself] had arranged this room and had consulted him
Ivan Ilych but certainly not to himself." He offers no comfort to (Peter) regarding this pink cretonne with green leaves." The
the widow. In fact, their conversation lacks any sincere or true overstuffed room helps the reader understand how immersed
exchange of feelings. in materialistic values Ivan Ilych was before he died.

Peter Ivanovich's discomfort is relieved by the promise of Ivan Ilych's terrible suffering is a somewhat false and extremely
masking thoughts of death with the pursuit of pleasure. Peter uncomfortable topic of conversation between Praskovya and
encounters Schwartz who, he feels, "was above all these Peter Ivanovich. When she says that Ivan "suffered terribly in
happenings and would not surrender to any depressing his last days," all Peter can think of to say is the nonchalant
influences." Schwartz, too, distances himself from the reality of "did he?" Peter Ivanovich tries to distance himself from Ivan's
death by smothering it in the pursuit of pleasure—especially suffering. But he is "suddenly struck ... with horror" as he tries
games of cards. Schwartz and Peter Ivanovich escape the to convince himself that such suffering "should not and could
funeral as soon as they can to gather at a friend's house to not happen to him." The suffering is too awful and too closely
play bridge. The card game is a distraction that will enable tied to death for Peter Ivanovich to allow himself to fully
them to banish all thoughts of mortality. contemplate it.

In contrast to Peter Ivanovich's (and the others') dread and

denial of death, the author introduces the character of
Gerasim. He is Ivan Ilych's assistant and servant. Gerasim is Chapter 2
the only person present, as far as the reader knows, who
accepts death as a natural part of life. He says, "We shall all
come to it someday." This causes Peter Ivanovich to hasten
outside and escape to his bridge game.

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 14

After five years working in this province, Ivan Ilych benefited

Summary from judicial reforms. He was offered and accepted the post of
examining magistrate in another province. At his new post, Ivan
This chapter describes Ivan Ilych's early life and covers
Ilych was just as proper (comme il faut) as he had been in his
approximately the first 17 or 18 years of his marriage. His life is
former job. He inspired respect in his colleagues and found the
described as ordinary and therefore terrible—terrible because
new job far more interesting than his previous one. His new
ordinary middle-class life demanded total conformity to
position also afforded him greater deference from petitioners
trivialities. The reader learns that at his death, Ivan Ilych was a
than his earlier position had. Ivan had enjoyed being envied by
45-year-old lawyer at the Court of Justice.
the petitioners in his former job. Now he felt that "everyone
Ivan's father was a government official who rose so high was in his power" and enjoyed "the attractions of his office."
through the ranks, he "[could] not be dismissed." He couldn't
In his new town, Ivan Ilych assumed a more aloof attitude
be fired, though he was a "superfluous [member] of the Privy
toward the authorities. But he sought out and cultivated those
Council." Ivan was the middle son of three, and his middling
of the highest status and wealth in the legal profession. His
position seems to define his middling life. While his older
new set of friends and acquaintances introduced him to bridge
brother achieved great success and his younger brother "was
(vint), and he became an avid player.
a failure," Ivan achieved middling success. As a child, his
behavior was also middling—not too serious and not too wild. After two years at the new post, Ivan Ilych met the woman who
He was, the author states, "a happy mean between [his two would become his wife. Praskovya Fedorovna was attractive,
brothers]." Ivan completed his schooling and enrolled in law clever, from a good family, and quite proper in her behavior. He
school where he was "a capable, cheerful, good-natured, and took her out dancing, and in that way stole her heart. When she
sociable man." All in all, the picture of Ivan Ilych is one of a declared her love, Ivan thought, "Really, why shouldn't I marry?"
perfectly normal representative of his class and society. And so he did.

Ivan always cultivated "people of high station" and pursued the With his new wife, Ivan entered into a whirlwind of shopping to
pleasures of youth with them. Upon graduating from law set up their household. Ivan Ilych believed that his marriage
school, Ivan bought fashionable clothes from the best tailor in would improve his stature in society because getting married
St. Petersburg. He purchased necessities from the "best was the correct thing to do. Things changed, however, when
shops" in the city. He then sets off for his post as a special his wife quickly became pregnant. Ivan thought her condition
assistant to a governor of a distant province. made her, and his life, rather "depressing and unseemly." He
sought to escape the situation but could not. All of his wife's
In his new locale, Ivan sets himself up in "as easy and
lightheartedness (de gaiete de coeur) vanished, and Ivan's life
agreeable a position" as he had as a law student in St.
became unhappy and burdensome. She began to find fault with
Petersburg. He does his job well. He takes time to "amuse
everything. Though he tried to endure her moods, Ivan
himself pleasantly and decorously." He always behaves with
eventually began to consider divorce. The birth of their
dignity and treats others with respect. He is proud of his
daughter only made matters worse, as Praskovya demanded
reputation for being "incorruptibly honest."
from him sympathy he could not or would not give her. So, Ivan
At work Ivan is "reserved, punctilious, and even severe." When Ilych rededicated himself to work and to advancing his career.
he's out socially, he is "amusing and witty ... always good-
Ivan Ilych viewed his marriage as he viewed his official duties.
natured and easygoing (bon enfant)." He has an affair with a
He acted the role of husband. After three years in this job, he
young woman and sometimes avails himself of the pleasures
was promoted to assistant public prosecutor, who had the
offered by women "of doubtful reputation." Yet he does
power to imprison anyone he chose. His wife had more
everything with "such a tone of good breeding," his reputation
children but became more querulous after each birth. Ivan tried
is not tarnished. His less-than-proper behavior is excused as
to ignore her complaints.
sowing his wild oats or "youth must have its fling" (il faut que
jeunesse se passe). Yet whatever he did, he did it "with clean Four years later Ivan was appointed public prosecutor in yet
hands, in clean linen." another province. His salary was higher but still could not cover
the family's expenses. Praskovya did not like the new town.

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 15

Two of their children died. Praskovya blamed Ivan for "a taste for frivolous gaiety," while he's "exceedingly reserved,
everything that went wrong or that upset her. They argued punctilious, and even severe." It's likely that neither of these
fiercely about the children's education. The couple lived in "an attributes reflects who he truly is—his inner self.
ocean of veiled hostility' and were aloof with each other. Over
time this life came to seem normal to Ivan Ilych. He spent as Ivan's promotion gives him more power. Still, it does nothing to

little time with his family as possible and focused increasingly reduce the decorous, correct life he leads, both at work and at

on his official duties. He enjoyed the immense power over leisure. Ivan's proper pursuit of pleasure takes on a rather

people his job gave him. He was known for being good at his sinister cast when he becomes an examining magistrate. He

job, and this pleased him. This state of affairs lasted another begins to enjoy the power he has over others—even their envy

seven years. His first daughter was 16 and his only living son or fear of him. Ivan is described as relishing the power to help

was still a schoolboy. Both children seemed to have "turned or hurt others at his whim. Although he is invariably polite, it is

out well." an uncomfortable reality of upper-middle-class propriety that it

sometimes endorses the capricious, even cruel, exercise of
power. When promoted to assistant public prosecutor, Ivan
Analysis Ilych has even greater power over people's lives. He finds this
power "made his work still more attractive" than ever.
Ivan Ilych is portrayed as an ordinary, middling sort of person.
His new job further reveals his Ivan Ilych's lack of self-identity.
He is assiduous, smart (but not too smart), and amiable, but not
He chooses his friends based on their wealth and social status,
too severe or wild. His is the norm, the mean, the typical boy
not on his liking for them. He plays bridge with his new friends
and man.
because that is the acceptable card game for people of that
As a quintessentially normal person, Ivan Ilych is the class. The reader is told he enjoys winning, which he does
personification of propriety, of doing the expected and correct frequently, but not that he actually enjoys the card game itself.
thing. Everything he does is weighed against what other people
The reader also does not know if Ivan Ilych enjoys dancing,
will think of it. If they would approve or think it proper, he'll do it.
which he'd done previously. As an examining magistrate, he
If not, he won't. Ivan Ilych seems to have no individuality or
dances to show "he could do it better than most people," not
proclivities. The reader never learns what he likes, what he
necessarily because he gets pleasure out of it. Dancing is
enjoys, what he reviles. He seems incapable of independent
considered a proper pastime, so Ivan indulges in it for that
discrimination or reflection. He has no opinions. He buys
reason—and to show off. But the reader never learns how he
clothes and other goods based on the quality of the store, not
feels about it (or even if he has feelings about it). It is while
on what he likes. He seeks out friends based on their social
dancing that Ivan meets Praskovya, his wife to be. Ivan's total
status—the higher the better. He is drawn "to people of high
lack of affect, of feeling, is revealed when he says he'll marry
station as a fly is drawn to the light, assimilating their ways and
her because she's in love with him. Of course, marrying is
views of life and establishing friendly relations with them." His
considered right and proper by all the best people, so Ivan
ideas seem to be taken wholesale from those of the upper-
concludes, "Really, why shouldn't I marry?" There is no hint of
middle-class people he cultivates and the prevailing notions of
emotion, of feeling, of an interior life that generates
propriety and decorum. As a young man, nothing seems to
preferences or impels one action instead of another. The
affect him: "he succumbed to sensuality ... but always within
narrator says, "The marriage gave him satisfaction ... [and] was
limits, which his instinct unfailingly indicated to him as correct."
considered the right thing by the most highly placed of his
Ivan Ilych's life is one wholly ruled by propriety and associates." Only propriety determines Ivan's marriage.
decorum—by the approval of others gained through the
Ivan Ilych soon comes to feel betrayed by marriage, which
adoption of their ideas and behavior. Yet in the life he has
quickly loses its attractive decorousness. Ivan persists with
chosen, Ivan seems perfectly content to have no personal
Praskovya because it is considered proper and despite his
qualities. He does his work well and earns promotions. He
growing impatience with her "disagreeable moods." Marriage
pursues pleasure and enjoys things that are pleasant, but does
may be proper, but Ivan soon learns that it's not always
so with decorum—in a way that "people of rank" would approve
pleasant or pleasurable. The social value placed on pleasure
of. In some ways, he seems to embody a contradiction. He has

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 16

interferes with the duties and obligations of married life. Ivan As a young man, Ivan Ilych was considered "le phénix de la
Ilych evinces increasing selfishness as he seeks always to famille," or "the phoenix of his family." The phoenix is a
distance himself from his family. Again, there is no emotional mythological soaring bird that might represent high
connection between him and them. The reader is told that achievement, which was expected of the bright and conformist
several of Ivan's children die, but he seems to have no Ivan. Yet the mythological phoenix also symbolizes rebirth and
emotional reaction to their deaths. Their deaths just make renewal. It dies, burns, and then rises again from the ashes.
"family life ... more unpleasant for him." What kind of inner life The phrase foreshadows Ivan Ilych's death later in the book.
can a man have who finds the death of his children merely
unpleasant? Ivan seeks "the pleasures and amenities of life," Before he leaves for his first job, Ivan Ilych buys a medallion on

which are absent with his family. So, he looks to "secure his whose chain he has inscribed the Latin words respice finem

own independence ... to secure for himself an existence (look to the end). The phrase might advise the budding lawyer

outside his family life [which] became still more intolerable." to always keep in mind the end result of the cases he works

Ivan Ilych becomes aloof from his family to the extent that this on. However, this phrase may also foreshadow Ivan's future

emotional distance becomes normal to him. He seeks to insofar as it points him toward the end of his life. The import

escape from "the unpleasantness" of family life, while retaining may be that Ivan should bear in mind that he is mortal and so

the outward appearance of a proper Russian husband and should live his life understanding that it is finite. The phrase is a

father. cautionary one that reminds Ivan to accept the inevitability of

death for every person, and therefore live an authentic and
Over time Ivan Ilych becomes "almost impervious to [his wife's] meaningful life.
grumbling," which he finds intensely annoying. It seems that at
no time does Ivan even attempt to understand his wife as an
individual with her own needs and feelings. This inability to Chapter 3
relate to her mirrors his own inner emptiness. Perhaps he
cannot conceive of a person having a unique inner life that
diverges from prescribed social propriety. There may be more
Summary
to Praskovya than Ivan cares to fathom, but as the reader will
discover, she, too, is in thrall to propriety.
After 17 years of marriage and many years as a respected
public prosecutor, Ivan Ilych is overlooked for a sought-after
Ivan's selfishness consumes him. Married life for him was the
promotion. The insult is a "cruel injustice" that makes Ivan
provision of "conveniences—dinner at home, housewife, and
irritable and querulous. Ivan finds that his salary is too low to
bed." It includes "that propriety of external forms required by
support his family (in appropriately decorous fashion), and the
public opinion." Perhaps as Ivan is devoid and incapable of
family is in debt. To save money, Ivan Ilych takes a sabbatical
individuality or human connection, he assumes that his wife
from work and goes with his family to live with his brother-in-
must be the same. Ivan Ilych's life "continued to flow as he
law in the country. Rural life bores him so much, Ivan falls into a
considered it should do—pleasantly (i.e., away from his family)
depression. He realizes he must do something to get his life
and properly."
back on track.
All in all, the life described in this chapter is more akin to a
Ivan Ilych decides to travel to St. Petersburg to see if he can
death-in-life than a life truly lived. Ivan Ilych is revealed as
obtain a position. He's determined not to work for less than
almost a nonentity—a man without preferences, feelings, or
5,000 rubles a year. As luck would have it, a well-connected
true human connection. Socially sanctioned propriety and
acquaintance enters Ivan's first-class train carriage and tells
sophisticated airs are what fill the void within him. That Ivan or
Ivan that legal reforms have been enacted. The new heads of
the author sometimes uses French phrases such as "bon
the ministry have been Ivan's colleagues, and they're sure to
enfant" (easygoing) and "comme il faut" (proper) serves to
give him a post with a good salary. Sure enough, Ivan contacts
emphasize the affectation, the striving for false and alien
his colleague Zachar Ivanovich, who gives Ivan a high-paying
Western culture intended to impress others with one's
job in the Department of Justice in St. Petersburg.
cosmopolitan sophistication.

Ivan Ilych hurries home to tell his wife, who is delighted at the

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 17

news. They even begin to get along better. But Ivan Ilych "unanticipated and unpleasant occurrence." This indicates that
cannot tarry in the country. He is soon off to the city to find a it upset his view that life should be pleasant because it follows
house for his family and to furnish and equip it. He finds a the proper rules. Ivan Ilych is thrown off balance by the
wonderful house and takes great pleasure in decorating it. He randomness of this slight. In his decorous and ordered world,
enjoys finding just the right furniture, wallpaper, and other such unforeseen events should not occur. In this instance,
essentials that will make the house a fine and acceptable randomness is not part of Ivan Ilych's reality. By chance, Ivan
place. Ivan is so absorbed in buying things for his house he Ilych meets a colleague on the train and uses that connection
sometimes becomes absentminded at work, where he to get a high-paid job. Yet he does not seem to acknowledge
daydreams about interior decorating. that his good fortune came from a random encounter.
Obviously, there is irony here: the contradiction can only be
One day while Ivan Ilych is up on a ladder putting up drapes, he explained by the outcome of the random event. If the outcome
loses his balance slightly. He "knocks his side against the knob is positive for Ivan, then chance is proper and pleasant. If the
of the window frame." The mishap causes a painful bruise, but outcome is detrimental, then chance is unacceptably improper
the injury seems so minor Ivan quickly forgets it. When his and unpleasant. The author is satirizing Ivan's view of events as
house is fully decorated, Ivan thinks it perfectly charming. It is affecting only his own self-interest.
just the type of interior decoration that is considered proper
for a man of his standing. Another unpleasantness Ivan Ilych has to contend with is the
debt he has incurred in living beyond his means. This is in part
Leo Tolstoy satirizes what is too often the slight dissatisfaction due to living up to the expectations of the elites he wishes to
people feel on moving into a new house. The author remarks impress. His indebtedness upsets Ivan's life still further when
that when all was completed, the family thought the house was he must move to the country. There he sinks into depression
one room too small. In addition, once the interior was finished from ennui (boredom) because "it was impossible [for him] to
and there was nothing left to plan or to buy, Ivan Ilych became go on living like that." The simple life of the country gives Ivan
rather bored. His main preoccupation was no longer available no outlet for his fixation on status and propriety. It does not
to him. He even occasionally became irritable at having nothing offer many opportunities for the pleasant pastimes he pursued
left to buy for his new home. in town. It is clear that Ivan Ilych gets his sense of self from the
approbation of wealthy, high-status colleagues and
Ivan Ilych worked each day at the law courts. He gained a
acquaintances. It can be assumed no such people live in the
reputation as an efficient minister. So, everything was going
country near Ivan's brother-in-law. Ivan's depression likely
well at work. At home, too, things were satisfactory.
stems from the fact that he's untethered to the society from
Sometimes he and his wife gave dinners or parties for people
which he creates his identity. In the previous chapter, it
of "good social position." Once they even organize a dance
became clear how empty Ivan Ilych truly is. Without others to
party at their home, though its cost causes some friction
reflect back to him an image of a proper, decorous, and
between Ivan and Praskovya.
important man, Ivan feels that he is nothing.
Life was good, and the couple became part of a group of the
Ivan Ilych's pursuit of propriety and decorum acceptable to the
"best" people, while shedding their less affluent and powerful
upper classes of St. Petersburg immerses him in a whirlwind of
friends. Ivan's daughter, Lisa, was now of marriageable age and
acquisitiveness. Ivan Ilych becomes obsessed by the
had many suitors. One in particular, Fedor Petrovich, became a
materialism that is part and parcel of the upper-middle classes.
favorite.
He takes enormous pleasure in finding and buying furnishings
and other necessities that are comme il faut (proper) in his

Analysis social circle. The narrator says, "He saw what a refined and
elegant character, free from vulgarity, [the house] would have
when it was ready." Ivan Ilych even has dreams about interior
Ivan Ilych considers it a gross injustice that he's passed over
decoration. Thoughts about arranging his home interior
for a promotion. For him, it seems to be a matter of propriety.
compromise his attention at work. For Ivan, having a
He was due a promotion and it's unthinkable, or not proper, for
fashionable house will ease his acceptance by the upper
him to be overlooked. Further, Ivan views this impropriety as an
echelons of society to which he so desperately wants to

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 18

belong. treatment of these lesser beings. The narrator says, "Soon

these shabby friends ceased to obtrude themselves and only
Ivan's accident while hanging drapes can be interpreted in the best people remained in the Golovins' set.
several ways. For example, it's said that "he made a false step
and slipped" while on the ladder. The false step may be the act
that wrenches Ivan out of the upper-class orbit he aspires to
be part of. A false step is indecorous and improper. It's a
Chapter 4
mistake, and as such, violates the propriety that Ivan slavishly
follows to gain entry to the social elite. The false step causes
Ivan Ilych to slip, or fall down. In this situation he probably slips
Summary
down a few rungs on the actual ladder he's standing on. Yet
As the months pass, Ivan Ilych believes he's in good health,
this may also indicate that he will likely slip down several rungs
even if sometimes he "had a queer taste in his mouth and felt
on the social ladder as well. The incident and the resulting
some discomfort on his left side." The discomfort grows worse
painful bruise will have profound effects on Ivan Ilych's life. It
and interferes with Ivan's normal life. It makes Ivan irritable, and
will affect his health and will result in his fall from polite society.
he often quarrels with Praskovya, who finds Ivan's bad temper
The fall from the ladder may also represent the falling away of
trying. Ivan most often becomes angry during dinner, and his
the foundation of Ivan's life of trivial propriety.
wife realizes his ire is related to the "taking of food." She
Ivan Ilych's relentless status-seeking and ambition—and his comes to the conclusion that her husband has a terrible
utter lack of an inner self—is made clear. He thinks that "the temper, and she wallows in self-pity at how miserable she's
thing was to exclude everything fresh and vital" in his dealings become because of it. Praskovya even begins "to wish he
with his new colleagues. He was determined not to "disturb the would die." She realizes that would not help her because then
regular course of official business, and to admit only official she'd have no income. She's upset that "not even his death
relations with people." Ivan must keep all interactions with could save her" from her unhappiness.
colleagues official and not let anything original or personal
One evening Ivan Ilych admits that his bad temper results from
intrude. He is described as "possessing the capacity to
how ill he feels. Praskovya suggests he see a highly reputable
separate his real life from the official side of affairs and not mix
doctor, which he does. The doctor treats him with the same
the two." The question arises, "What is his real life?" for he's as
hauteur that Ivan Ilych had treated his petitioners in the law
much an empty vessel (committed to propriety) at home as he
court. He is puffed up with self-importance and certain that if
is at work. Yet this situation reassures Ivan Ilych that
the patient does what he says, he'll be cured. After the
"everything was as it should be."
examination, the doctor offers some possible diagnoses but
The narrator says, "The pleasures of [Ivan's] work were states that it needs to be confirmed with further tests. Ivan
pleasures of ambition; his social pleasures were those of Ilych only wants to know if his case is serious, but the doctor
vanity." Ivan Ilych's pleasure consists of trying to be accepted ignores him. The doctor is focused on a diagnosis, not on the
by people of ever-higher social status. His vanity is satisfied severity of the illness. Just as Ivan Ilych did in court, the doctor
when these people treat him as one of their own. He sees and sums up his findings but seems unconcerned with their gravity.
values himself only through their eyes. Another source of Ivan Ilych feels bitter because the doctor is so callous and
pleasure for him is playing "a clever and serious" game of nonchalant when Ivan's condition might be quite serious.
bridge with rich and important men, a "game" he was good at, Finally, he asks the doctor outright, "Is this complaint
until he wasn't, as at his own funeral! dangerous, or not?" The doctor unhelpfully replies that he's
already told Ivan Ilych "what [he] considers necessary and
Ivan Ilych pursues upper-class acceptance. He makes a proper."
concerted effort to "shake off the various shabby friends and
relations who with much show of affection, gushed into the On the way home, Ivan Ilych mulls over what the doctor said,
drawing room." It's possible that these shabby acquaintances trying to tease meaning out of the obscure scientific language
were, like Ivan, using him to improve their social standing. But he'd used. Nothing the doctor had said addresses Ivan's main
Ivan's ambition overrides any scruple he might have in his question: Is he seriously ill? "Or is there as yet nothing much

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 19

wrong?" Ivan concludes that the essence of what the doctor happening to him. Others thought life was going on as usual.
said was that his condition "was very bad." This conclusion They were annoyed, not concerned, with his depression "as if
makes Ivan depressed, and he becomes more acutely aware of he were to blame for it." His wife blames Ivan for not "keeping
the persistent ache in his side. to the treatment prescribed for him," which is why she blames
him for not improving.
At home, Ivan begins telling Praskovya what the doctor said,
but she and Lisa quickly find the story tedious. Praskovya tells People at work also treat Ivan Ilych in a new way, "as a man
Gerasim to fill Ivan's prescription and reminds Ivan to take his whose place might soon be vacant." Sometimes his colleagues
medicine as prescribed. Then he will get better. This makes try to joke with him to improve his humor. Schwartz,
Ivan feel somewhat relieved. Ivan does take his medicine as particularly, uses "jocularity, vivacity" to amuse Ivan Ilych. Ivan
told to. He hears from the doctor that there was a reacts with intense irritation at these efforts because they
"contradiction between the indications from the examination of "reminded him of what he himself had been ten years ago."
the urine and the symptoms that showed themselves." Ivan Occasionally Ivan Ilych and his acquaintances sit down to a
realizes that, obviously, the doctor had misdiagnosed the game of bridge. In one memorable game, he and his partner
problem or doesn't know what he's talking about. nearly "make a grand slam." But the big win is spoiled when
Ivan notes his "gnawing pain [and] that taste in his mouth."
Still, Ivan dedicates himself to "the exact fulfillment of the Under these conditions, a grand slam seems ridiculous to Ivan
doctor's instructions." Ivan Ilych becomes preoccupied with Ilych. Ivan deliberately plays the wrong cards, and the victory
illness and asks awkward questions when any illness comes up slips out of reach. His bridge partner is furious, but Ivan Ilych
in conversation. doesn't care. The other players are aware that Ivan Ilych is ill
and offer to stop playing so he can rest. But Ivan wants to keep
Because he's following the doctor's orders, Ivan tries to
playing, even though "he had diffused [a] gloom over them and
convince himself that his pain is getting better. Yet as soon as
could not dispel it."
something goes awry in his life—an argument with his wife or a
colleague at work—the pain intensifies. The narrator says, Later, Ivan realizes that through his illness and depression "he
"Now every mischance upset him and plunged him into was poisoning the lives of others." Lying in bed at night, Ivan is
despair." Ivan becomes furious with those who caused the wracked with physical pain and fear. Yet each morning he has
mishap. His "fury was killing him" because it made him feel to get up and go to work. Part of his suffering is that he is
much worse. He does not try to remain calm, which might totally alone with it. He feels that no one understands what he's
alleviate his pain. Instead, Ivan Ilych becomes more sensitive to going through.
even the tiniest impropriety or annoyance. So, his pain grows
worse and worse.

Ivan Ilych turns to reading medical books and consulting more

Analysis
doctors, most of whom seemed to feel that Ivan's condition
Ivan Ilych's suffering is both physical and psychological, and it's
was indeed getting worse. Ivan goes to see a celebrated
made worse by the isolation that walls him off from others. His
doctor who treats him with the same callousness as the first
physical pain gets worse over time, despite the doctor's
one. This only "increases Ivan's Ilych's doubts and fears" about
treatment. His psychological, even spiritual, suffering and
his health. So Ivan consults yet another doctor whose
isolation are made clear at the end of the chapter. He realizes
diagnosis directly contradicts the diagnoses of the previous
that "he had to live thus all alone on the brink of an abyss, with
ones. This last doctor predicts that Ivan will recover, but he is
no one who understood or pitied him." His wife, Praskovya,
beset by doubts. Some of Ivan's acquaintances suggest he see
blames him for his illness and depression. She insists, contrary
a homeopath or a faith healer, but Ivan Ilych decides he will not
to evidence, that Ivan does not "keep to the treatment
see any more doctors.
prescribed for him." Her dismissive attitude and faultfinding
Ivan Ilych follows the treatment of the first of several further isolate Ivan Ilych from those in whom he might find or
"celebrated doctor(s)", but it does not help. His incessant pain expect comfort.
increases, and he feels that "something terrible, new ... was
His growing pain and illness make Ivan Ilych more depressed,
taking place within him." Only Ivan Ilych was aware of what was

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 20

which casts a pall of gloom over his life and the people he is an accused person." While Ivan Ilych wants to know how
with. He recognizes that the psychological depression caused serious his illness is, his doctors talk only of "floating kidney[s]
by his pain and illness "poisoned his life and the lives of others." ... or appendicitis." The author describes the self-important
As his illness progresses, his suffering and depression cause callousness of the doctors and their focus on details, while
this poison to "penetrate more deeply into his whole being." ignoring the living patient before them. The author is pillorying
the primacy of Western science and medical knowledge and
Ivan's colleagues react to his illness mainly with selfishness. technology (such as it was at that time). The author ridicules
When they realize he's ill, their first thoughts are about how the the doctors by stating that each comes up with a different
vacancy at work (Ivan's death) might result in their promotion. diagnosis. If at that time medical science and doctors' skills
This attitude mirrors that of Ivan's colleagues in Chapter 1 were so useful, surely they'd agree on what was wrong with
when they first learn of his death. Some of his acquaintances, him. But they don't. Each doctor who examines and treats Ivan
such as Schwartz, try to use humor to bring Ivan Ilych out of his Ilych is celebrated and highly reputable, but they're all equally
funk. But now Ivan recognizes how trivial and meaningless useless when it comes to helping him. None of the doctors
such efforts are. He sees how they're primarily intended to deign to answer Ivan his most pressing question about his
distract others from the (unpleasant) seriousness—and condition.
reality—of Ivan's grave situation. Ivan's growing impatience with
social trivialities is evident during the bridge game. Ivan One celebrated doctor puts Ivan in his place by telling him, "I
purposely makes a wrong move to prevent him and his bridge have already told you what I consider necessary and proper."
partner from getting a grand slam. When his partner gets And that was that. Leo Tolstoy's description of medical
terribly upset, Ivan thinks "it was dreadful to realize why [I] did professionals and their self-importance and superiority is likely
not care." a critique of the West's rational egoistic elevation of science
above everything else. In these chapters the doctors behave
Ivan's wife, Praskovya, also views Ivan's illness through the lens as if they're knowledgeable and competent, yet they cannot or
of her own selfishness. When Ivan is irritable at dinner, will not answer Ivan Ilych's most basic human question about
Praskovya does not try to understand what he's going through. his condition: "Was his case serious or not?" The doctors
Instead, she "began to feel sorry for herself, and the more she refuse to address this existential but nonscientific plea.
pitied herself the more she hated her husband." When she
contemplates Ivan's death, she's irritated because "she [was] Everyone around Ivan Ilych reacts to his awful situation with
dreadfully unhappy ... because not even his death could save indifference. His doctors are indifferent to him and do not treat
her." Later, Ivan recounts to her (and their daughter, Lisa) what him like a suffering human being. His wife and family are
transpired at the doctor's office. The women quickly find "this indifferent to his suffering. His wife thinks Ivan's illness is his
tedious story" impossible to concentrate on. So Praskovya and own fault, and this makes it easy for her to dismiss his illness
Lisa get ready to go out. Later, "his household and especially with crass indifference. Ivan's colleagues are indifferent to his
his wife and daughter ... saw [him] as an obstacle in their path" illness insofar as he's experiencing it. They see it only in terms
to pleasure. In seeking pleasure they have no use for Ivan's of making their lives better or more pleasant. They seek to
complaints. Here again, it's clear that Ivan Ilych and his wife raise his spirits so he doesn't make them feel unpleasantly
and children have no true human connection. Their self- gloomy when they're around him. However, they don't really
absorption and disinterest in each other guarantee Ivan's care about what he, as a person, is going through. Ivan Ilych
isolation at this time when he has the greatest need for realizes that "things were bad, but that for the doctors, and
comfort and understanding. perhaps for everybody else, it was a matter of indifference."

No matter whom Ivan Ilych interacts with, he seems to find only Propriety and pleasantness directly affect how Ivan feels and
indifference to his suffering and his need. His doctors are the degree of his suffering. It is his total absorption in propriety
indifferent to his need to know how gravely ill he really is. The and pleasantness that makes his illness worse. Every time
reader should note that doctors treat Ivan with an indifference something happens that irritates Ivan, "he was furious with the
that resembles Ivan's haughty and indifferent attitude toward mishap, or with the people who were causing the
those he dealt with at work. The narrator says, "The doctor put unpleasantness." Mishaps are breaches of propriety, and Ivan
on just the same air towards him as he himself put on towards Ilych cannot abide improprieties because propriety rules his

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 21

life. Instead of "ignoring unpleasant occurrences" and not Praskovya comes home and while she welcomes her brother,
getting irritated and furious about them, he becomes Ivan looks at himself in a mirror. He's horrified by how much
increasingly sensitive to them. His reaction to unpleasant he's changed. Even his arms are thin as sticks.
events and impropriety cannot be changed because
correctness defines him. Ivan "said he needed peace, and [yet] Ivan tries to distract himself by sitting down and reading some

he watched for everything that might disturb it and became law papers, but he can't concentrate. He tiptoes out to where

irritable at the slightest infringement of it." The reader might his wife and brother-in-law are talking. Ivan overhears his wife

consider the extent to which Ivan Ilych's total identification with tell her brother that "he's exaggerating" the terrible change in

propriety and pleasantness might actually cause his illness to Ivan's appearance. But her brother insists Ivan "looks like a

get worse. There is even the possibility that it might cause it to dead man." Praskovya tries to contradict him by saying that

become fatal. some doctors say "quite the contrary." Ivan Ilych has heard
enough. He goes into his own room and lies down, thinking
For a time Ivan Ilych retains his unswerving belief in propriety about the doctors he's seen and the floating kidney they think
and order. He determines to take the medicine the doctor he has. Then he decides to go immediately to see his friend
prescribes for him. He is certain that if he rigidly follows the Peter Ivanovich. With Peter Ivanovich, Ivan goes to see a
advice of a celebrated medical man he will be cured. Believing doctor.
in an acceptably ordered life has been the cornerstone of Ivan
Ilych's existence. Yet as he assiduously follows doctor's The doctor reviews his case and tells Ivan Ilych that his trouble

orders, he begins to question the value and propriety of an is only with his vermiform (meaning "wormlike") appendix. The

orderly, and thus, predictably good life. Ivan's identity is doctor says it is a small thing that's easily fixed. Ivan Ilych feels

compromised as he begins to succumb to doubt about confident that all will be well. He is even cheerful when he gets

propriety and the pronouncements of respected, upper-class home and eats dinner. After dinner, he tries to work but can't

experts. concentrate. He spends some time with guests, having tea in

the drawing room. Yet he knows he must think about the
As his pain and illness worsen, Ivan Ilych's toleration of the "intimate matter ... [of his] appendix." He thinks that it should
social conventions he once lived by diminishes. He no longer not be a serious matter to have the offending appendix
can bear the trivialities that once made up his pursuit of absorbed into his body or evacuated from it. He's feeling so
pleasure. Illness has made Ivan Ilych see these silly pastimes optimistic, he gets up and takes another dose of medicine,
as trivial and meaningless. He does not care about bridge or thinking "I'm feeling better, much better."
fatuous jokes because he's coming to realize how very ill he is.
It's not stated here, but he may be approaching a realization He lies down to go to sleep, imagining his appendix being

that his illness may be fatal. The terror he feels when he lies absorbed. But then the old familiar pain gnaws at his insides.

awake in bed foreshadows the coming recognition of this The terrible taste returns to his mouth. He is distraught,

mortality. muttering, "My God ... it will never cease." Suddenly it strikes
Ivan Ilych that the situation is not one of a diseased appendix
or kidney, it's a matter of "life and ... death." He realizes he's

Chapter 5 been deceiving himself—he may die at any time.

Ivan Ilych begins to contemplate death. "When I am not, what

will there be?" he thinks. Then his being rebels and he thinks,
Summary "No, I don't want to [die]!" He hears the gaiety in the drawing
room and ponders the indifference of the healthy to those
It's just before New Year's, and Ivan Ilych's brother-in-law has facing their mortality. They have no pity for him. But Ivan
come to visit. Ivan greets him when he gets home from work, understands that they, too, will die one day.
but Praskovya is out shopping. The brother-in-law is shocked
by how gaunt and ill Ivan looks. He and Ivan agree that Ivan has Ivan is choked with anger at his fate. He refuses to believe that
changed. Later, Ivan Ilych tries to get his brother-in-law to talk all people are condemned to die. After a while, he understands
about his looks, but he refuses to be engaged. When he must calm himself. He reviews the progress of his illness
from the beginning when he knocked his side against the

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 22

window jamb, then contemplates all the time spent with all the heart." He stops breathing. He tries but fails to light a candle.
doctors, to no avail. "Can it really be death?" he wonders. Ivan Ilych is, in a way, mimicking death—as the cessation of
breathing and losing the light of life when entering the
In his rage, Ivan knocks over an end table. He hears the guests darkness of death. As will happen in succeeding chapters, Ivan
leaving. His wife comes into his room to find out about the Ilych struggles to understand death: "Then where shall I be
crash she heard. Ivan tells her he knocked the table over by when I am no more?" He resents the fun the guests are having
accident. Praskovya says they should have another specialist but he understands. "Fools! I first, and they later, but it will be
come and diagnose Ivan's condition. He refuses. As his wife the same for them" as it is now for me. Ivan still finds it
kisses his forehead, Ivan feels only hatred for her. "impossible that all men have been doomed to suffer this awful
horror."

Analysis Praskovya is likely either indifferent to or in denial about her

husband's death when she suggests he see yet another
Ivan Ilych has always lived according to how others see him. doctor. Her reliance on and faith in yet another doctor is not
Ironically, it is when his brother-in-law looks shocked at how ill only a result of her indifference and denial—it's also an
Ivan looks that Ivan seems finally to realize the gravity of his expression of her slavish attitude toward propriety. But Ivan
illness. He sees it in his brother-in-law's face. The narrator refuses. Note at the end of the chapter (and occasionally in
says, "That stare told [him] everything." Only after this does subsequent chapters) Praskovya refers to Ivan as Jean, the
Ivan go to take a long look at himself in the mirror. He, too, is French name for Ivan (or John). Using a French name for Ivan
shocked by how gaunt and sick he looks. is just another example of falsity and pretentiousness. Calling
Ivan Jean underlines the Westernization and affectation she
Before his brother-in-law opened Ivan's eyes to the
assumes is the proper way for a woman of her class to act in
seriousness of his condition, Ivan had avoided truly looking at
this situation. It's no wonder Ivan "hates her from the bottom of
himself in the mirror. His avoidance was his denial of mortality
his soul" when she puts a condescending but proper kiss on
and likely his refusal to confront his fear. Ivan hears his
his forehead. (Note that for upper-class Russians, French had
brother-in-law say, "Why, he's a dead man. Look at his
long been the preferred language. But for upwardly striving
eyes—there's no life in them." Then Ivan begins to accept how
middle-class people such as the Golovin family, it is an
seriously ill he is. All the energy he put into denial seems to fall
affectation intended to make them seem more upper class
away from him. Yet he has not yet given up hope but goes with
than they really are.)
Peter Ivanovich to see yet another specialist. The author
skewers doctors again here. The doctor's explanation is
absurd (the appendix cannot be absorbed into or evacuated
from the body), but Ivan Ilych takes comfort from it. In a last-
Chapter 6
ditch effort to do the proper thing, Ivan downs some more
prescribed medicine. He's so deluded, he thinks he can feel his
appendix shrinking and his pain abating. But quickly the pain Summary
returns.
In his heart, Ivan Ilych knows he's dying but can't truly grasp
At this point, the voice in the story shifts somewhat, as the the reality of death. He had learned the logic that all men are
reader hears Ivan Ilych's inner voice and thoughts. (The mortal, but he finds it impossible to apply that logic to himself
narrator is no longer the only or primary voice telling the story.) and his own death. Death may apply to men in general, but Ivan
From this point in the novella, Ivan's inner life becomes more can't grasp how it can apply to him as an individual. He recalls
important and is revealed more often through his own words his childhood and all the things that make him a unique human
and thoughts. The reader can better identify with Ivan Ilych via being. Because of his uniqueness, dying for him "would be too
his own voice as he faces death. terrible."

Ivan Ilych is terrified. "I am going ... Where? A chill came over Nothing has prepared Ivan for death, which had been
him, his breathing ceased, and he felt only the throbbing of his acceptable in the abstract but unthinkable—and perhaps

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 23

irrelevant—in a personal sense. Ivan cannot understand how

such a thing can happen to him, so he tries to drive all thoughts
Analysis
of death from his mind. Of course, the thoughts—and the
Ivan Ilych can no longer ignore his suffering. He cannot stop
reality—of death keep intruding. Ivan strives mightily to erect
being aware of his pain or his mortality. To keep these
the mental screens that had previously served to block
thoughts at bay, he seeks to erect screens to block them from
unpleasant thoughts from his mind. Yet they are incapable of
his mind. Ivan seeks a method that will keep him in denial about
screening out his thoughts about death. As his thought
his impending death. None of the screens is able to maintain
screens no longer shield him from thoughts of his mortality,
him in a state of denial. As each screen crumbles, Ivan comes
Ivan Ilych thinks maybe he'll go back to work. He hopes that
face to face with his pain, death, and fear. The narrator says, "It
the law courts will occupy his mind and distract him from the
would ... stand before him and look at him ... and he would again
idea of mortality that haunts him.
begin asking himself whether It alone was true."
Ivan Ilych imagines how it would be back at work. He envisions
The reader should note that in this chapter the author uses the
himself conversing casually with his colleagues and speaking
word "It" to refer to either or both pain and death, in this way
during court proceedings. But then his imagination shows him
not confusing the two but melding them. For Ivan Ilych, both
how, in the midst of the proceedings, the pain in his side would
pain and death are now inevitable—both are the "It" that he
return. The pain would be so acute that Ivan Ilych would lose
must face. Ivan "should look at It, look It straight in the face:
track of the proceedings altogether. He would make mistakes
look at It and without doing anything suffer inexpressibly." In
in court and the pain and his illness would be clear to his
this, as in similar sentences, the "It" can be replaced with either
colleagues. The pain would block out everything else and
the word "pain" or the word "death." If "It" refers to pain, it
"stand before him and look at him" and force him to confront it.
associates the pain with death, so the two are inextricably
Ivan would return home defeated, understanding that work,
linked.
too, could no longer act a screen to keep out the pain. Even
worse, it would force him to accept that it was part of him and At the beginning of the chapter Ivan Ilych tries to use
he would "suffer inexpressibly." schoolboy logic to argue his way out of his fate. Logic is an
acceptable and proper way to approach problems for
Ivan Ilych looks for new screens to wall off his suffering.
educated, upwardly mobile, middle-class men like Ivan Ilych.
Putting the house in order sometimes served to distract him
Ivan cannot force the logical argument that in the abstract all
from his suffering. Ivan prowls the house, setting objects that
men die to the particular logic that he, as an individual, should
had been disturbed in their rightful place. Sometimes he
not die. Logic does not help him devise an orderly argument
rearranges the furniture. Praskovya and he occasionally fight
that exempts him from mortality.
over these rearrangements. However, Ivan welcomes these
arguments because they distract him from his pain, or from his Logic fails to free Ivan Ilych from his fate. Therefore, he falls
impending death, for a few minutes. back on distractions sanctioned by the propriety of his
class—on the artificiality of objects. He fusses about the house,
When his wife says, "Let the servants do it. You will hurt
looking for trivial untidiness that he can correct. Or he
yourself again," Ivan sees a sudden flash of his pain and death.
rearranges objects in the drawing room for no apparent
Then he is no longer distracted and his mind becomes focused
reason. These actions hearken back to the supposedly happy,
on his side, which invariably was terribly painful. Again, Ivan is
materialistic time when Ivan first bought and decorated the
forced to stare his pain in the face. Ivan is confronted by reality
house. Perhaps he hopes that fussing with objects and trivial
and thinks, "It really is so ... It can't be true, It can't, but it is." He
disarray will distract him now as it did then. But these pursuits
then goes into his study to lie down and to face his pain and
are artificial and have no lasting effect on the morbid thoughts
mortality head on.
that haunt his mind.

Ivan's arguments with his wife sometimes distract him from his
morbid thoughts. She points out that by moving furniture, Ivan
may "hurt [him]self again." Her comment sharply reminds Ivan
of the accident that led to his illness and pain. Ivan ponders the

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 24

absurdity of his fate: "I lost my life over that curtain as I might which Ivan can rest his feet. Gerasim places the chair near Ivan
have done when storming a fort. Is that possible? How terrible and lifts his feet onto it. Ivan notices that he feels better when
and how stupid." Ivan's life was destroyed while he was Gerasim is holding his legs higher in the air before he settled
decorating his house in the style that was considered proper them on the chair. So Ivan asks him if he would mind holding
for a man of his standing. Ivan now sees how ridiculous that his legs up higher than the height of the chair. Gerasim does so
fate is. Ivan's life had been based on a propriety and decorum gladly. Ivan invites him to sit down while he rests Ivan's legs on
in which everything had to be proper and in place. Even now he his shoulders, a position that definitely makes him feel better.
hopes occupying himself with artificial decorum will protect
him. But, of course, it cannot and does not. Despite his efforts Thereafter, Ivan often calls Gerasim in to hold his legs on his

at losing himself in restoring an orderly life, he ends up isolated shoulders. The two men talk together. Ivan is drawn to the

and alone "with It: face to face with It. And nothing could be willingness to help and the simplicity of his servant. Somehow

done with It except to look at it and shudder." Gerasim's brimming health and energy do not offend Ivan but
actually soothe him.

It seems that what bothers Ivan Ilych the most is the lie
Chapter 7 everyone is determined to believe about him—that he is not
dying. Others try to convince themselves (and Ivan) that he is
just a bit ill and will soon recover. Ivan Ilych knows that's not
Summary true—in fact, "the deception tortured him." He can't bear being
"forced to participate in that lie." Only Gerasim did not
Ivan is three months into his illness. He and everyone else participate in that lie, and this comforts Ivan. Gerasim even
realize that the main consideration is "whether he would vacate speaks to Ivan directly about his impending death. Gerasim
his place" and how everyone would be affected by that. Others says "he was [helping] a dying man and hoped someone would
may long for Ivan to die so they no longer have to deal with the do the same for him when his time came."
unpleasantness of sickness and death.
The lies others believe about his condition further upset Ivan.
The painkillers Ivan is given barely alleviate his suffering. They He wants them to pity him—as a parent would pity a sick and
just make him more depressed. A new diet leaves Ivan without suffering child. Ivan is ashamed of feeling this way and knows
any appetite. Ivan needs help with his bodily functions, and this he cannot ask for pity from anyone, especially his family. Only
is an undignified torment to him. When Gerasim, his young Gerasim acts in a way that is "something akin to what he
assistant and servant, takes on the role of helper, although Ivan wished for." Gerasim naturally treats Ivan in a way that
is still somewhat embarrassed he also feels better. Gerasim is comforts him. Ivan feels that if he could get the pity he wants,
a "clean, fresh peasant lad" who is not at all discomfited by he would then be able to draw on reserves of strength. He
handling Ivan's bedpan. No matter what he's doing, Gerasim is could rely on that strength if he was visited by one of his
"cheerful and bright." When Ivan is too weak to rise from the colleagues from work. As it is, the lie that surrounds him is
commode and pull up his pants, Gerasim helps him. Gerasim leaving him weaker than ever.
"refrains from looking at his master out of consideration for his
feelings." However, he still projects the "joy of life" that infuses
his whole being. Analysis
Ivan Ilych asks Gerasim if these tasks aren't "very unpleasant For nearly all of the people surrounding Ivan Ilych, his illness
for you." Ivan then asks for Gerasim's forgiveness for making and impending death are an unpleasantness they refuse to
him undertake them. But Gerasim smiles and assures Ivan Ilych think about. If they think about Ivan's death at all, it is in terms
that "it's a case of illness with you, sir" so no apology is of how they can benefit from it. The people around Ivan are in
necessary. denial about his terminal condition. "What tormented Ivan Ilych
most was the deception, the lie, which for some reason they all
Ivan Ilych asks Gerasim to help him move to the sofa, and
accepted, that he was not dying but was simply ill, and the only
Gerasim lifts him gently and settles him there. Gerasim turns to
need [was] to keep quiet and undergo a treatment and then
leave, but Ivan asks him to stay and place a chair nearby on

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 25

something very good would result." Their denial of mortality is last days."
based on a social construct that rejects unpleasantness and all
things indecorous and improper to upper-class society. His Only Gerasim "did not lie ... he alone ... simply felt sorry for his

family, acquaintances, and colleagues long to be "released ... emaciated and enfeebled master." In his isolation, Ivan is

from the discomfort caused by his presence." Of course, their heartened to hear Gerasim say, "We shall all of us die, so why

attitude leaves Ivan Ilych in greater isolation. He has no one to should I grudge a little trouble?"

turn to for comfort or to discuss honestly his impending death.

Gerasim, the servant, is the only person who accepts death as Chapter 8
a natural part of life. He says, "What's a little trouble? It's a
case of illness with you, sir," as he helps Ivan on the commode
and with his bedpan. The "undignified" bodily functions that
Summary
cause Ivan torments of embarrassed helplessness are
accepted by Gerasim as just another part of life. Ivan
Ivan Ilych is in unremitting pain, and he knows his life is
comments on "how easily and well you do it all." He recognizes
"inexorably waning." As he's offered his morning tea, Ivan Ilych
that none of this personal, even intimate, assistance bothers
realizes those around him "want things to be regular." He
Gerasim in any way. Ivan Ilych does not even resent Gerasim's
rejects the tea and asks to be left alone. Then, Ivan doesn't
vitality. The young man's good nature actually soothes him.
want to be left alone. He asks Peter, the footman, for his
Gerasim does not deem it a sacrifice to spend hours each day
medicine, though he knows it won't help. Peter returns with tea
holding Ivan's legs on his shoulders. Without saying it, Gerasim
and helps Ivan Ilych wash and put on a clean shirt. While
shows through his "easy, willing, and simple" actions that he is
washing, Ivan avoids looking at his emaciated body. Drinking
happy to help Ivan Ilych. Gerasim acknowledges the true
the tea brings back the pain, but Ivan sends Peter away.
nature of Ivan's condition. Gerasim knows what everyone else
around Ivan denies: that death is a natural part of life. Ivan Ilych is in a state of conflict with himself. He sometimes
feels hope but often feels despair. Always, he feels pain. When
To maintain their denial of Ivan Ilych's dire situation, all of the
he's alone, he wants to call someone to be with him, but when
people around him (except Gerasim) have fabricated a lie
they're with him they perpetuate the lie about his condition.
about his condition. This "deception tortured [Ivan]." Worse, in
dealing with him they force Ivan to participate in the lie that After an hour or so, Ivan hears the doctor enter the house. The
bolsters their denial. Ivan correctly sees their lie as something doctor is falsely hearty and cheerful as he enters Ivan's room.
"to degrade ... (dying) to the level of their visitings ... a terrible On some level the doctor knows his cheerfulness is phony, but
agony for Ivan Ilych." The lie so infuriates Ivan he sometimes he can't stop himself from acting this way. The doctor talks
wants to shout at them, "You know and I know that I am dying. about the weather before asking Ivan how he feels. He knows
Then at least stop lying about it!" But Ivan never has the the doctor doesn't really care, but he says, "The pain never
courage to confront them. What torments Ivan further is that leaves me and never subsides. If only something ...." The doctor
this is "the very decorum which he had served his whole life replies that yes, "you sick people" always talk like that. The
long." doctor examines Ivan Ilych, though both of them know it's
"nonsense and pure deception."
For the first time in this chapter, Ivan Ilych begins to recognize
the artificiality of his former life of decorum. Similarly, he is just Praskovya enters his room. Ivan Ilych "hates her with his whole
starting to open to his authentic inner self (the self that knows soul" for her insisting on the lie she tells herself and forces Ivan
he's dying; that seeks comfort). This self had been buried to (supposedly) accept. Praskovya's attitude is that his illness
under the propriety of exterior trivialities. Ivan rejects the falsity is Ivan's own fault. She thinks he's "not doing something he
of the life he led prior to his illness. He used to ignore or deny ought to do and was [therefore] himself to blame." She
anything unpleasant or indecorous. Now "no one felt for him explains Ivan's faults to the doctor, ending by saying that
because no one even wished to grasp his position." The falsity Gerasim holding his legs up must be bad for Ivan. The doctor
that isolates Ivan and denies his reality—and prevents any real says he is amused by "sick people's ... fantasies."
human connection with his family—is, he says, "poisoning his

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 26

Praskovya then tells Ivan that another doctor will be coming to

see him later that day. She pretends she's doing this for Ivan's
Analysis
sake, but he knows that's a lie. The "celebrated specialist"
Ivan Ilych's suffering never ceases and even gets worse. His
arrives, and Ivan submits to yet another examination. Again,
only relief from this suffering—from this reality—would be
there's talk of Ivan's kidneys and appendix. It is as if there is
death. Adding to Ivan's suffering is his isolation. When Gerasim
still a chance that they can be fixed and save his life. Ivan
is not around, Ivan is caught between two conflicting desires:
knows better. He wonders why no one can speak to him about
the need for company and the desire to be alone. Both needs
the real topic of concern—the question of life and death that
are compromised by the falsity and deceptiveness of those
he is facing. Yet in the doctor's presence, Ivan Ilych shows that
around him—they deny the true severity of his condition and
he has still not given up hope. He asks the doctor "whether
that he's dying.
there was a chance of recovery." The doctor implies that "he
could not vouch for it but there was a possibility." Ivan is torn between his conflicting desires, between his
authentic understanding of what is happening to him and his
The glimmer of hope the doctor offered is soon dissipated.
fear of it coming to pass. On one hand he yearns for death as a
Ivan Ilych descends once again into depression and his pain
welcome end to his suffering. On the other hand he is still
returns. After dinner, which Ivan could barely nibble at, his wife
terrified of dying. In his mind: "If only it would come quicker! If
walks into his room dressed in her finest clothes. She and Lisa
only what would come quicker? Death, darkness? ... No, no!
(and Lisa's fiancé) are going to the theater to see the famous
anything rather than death!"
Sarah Bernhardt in a play. She lies that she'd prefer to stay
home with Ivan, but the box at the theater is already paid for. The same ambivalence is revealed in his attitude toward his
Lisa and her fiancé enter Ivan's room. Lisa looks lovely but doctors. In a sense, Ivan despises the false heartiness and
reveals that she's "impatient with [Ivan's] illness and suffering." misplaced confidence of the doctors who come to see him. He
Fedor Petrovich, Lisa's fiancé, is dressed to the nines and has understands how little they know and how false their promises
his hair done a la Capoul. Finally, Ivan's son, Vladimir, comes in. of recovery actually are. The author even adds a touch of
The dark rings under his eyes seem to indicate that he may humor to mock doctors' misplaced overconfidence and
have been crying or that he's losing sleep worrying about his showmanship. Leo Tolstoy describes one doctor's "gymnastic
father. movements" during his examination, exertions no doubt
performed to cover up his ignorance. Ivan's ambivalence, or his
The group sits and tries to make conversation, but it's
continued fear of death, becomes sadly clear. Despite his
awkward. Lisa asks if her mother has brought the opera
doubts about the efficacy of medical treatment, he still
glasses. They talk about the famed Sarah Bernhardt and
experiences a flicker of hope. The doctor encourages Ivan's
whether or not she is a great actor. Ivan Ilych starts staring
hope. Of course, Ivan's sliver of hope quickly disappears as his
straight ahead "with glittering eyes ... evidently indignant with
pain returns with full force.
them." The conversation ceases and a long, awkward silence
ensues. No one is willing to break the silence by saying Ivan's doctors are as false and deceptive as his family, who
anything about Ivan's true condition. Finally, the awkwardness persist in lying about his condition. Both are creatures of
is broken by Lisa, who says it's time for them to leave. They all propriety. The doctors cannot let down the mask of certainty
rise, no doubt in relief, and leave for the theater. and optimism with which they approach every patient. In fact, it
becomes clear that his doctors hardly know who Ivan Ilych is.
After they're gone, Ivan feels better because "the falsity had
Like many doctors, they refuse to refer to him as an individual.
gone with them." Despite this, Ivan is still in pain, is still wracked
"Yes, you sick people are always like that," the doctor says. For
with fear, and is still ground down by the monotony of his
them, Ivan is one of a huge class of malfunctioning bodies, not
dying. The minutes tick by toward Ivan's death. Ivan Ilych asks
an individual. When Praskovya mocks her husband, the doctor
that Gerasim be brought to him.
smiles and says, "These sick people do have foolish fantasies."
(Note: Victor Capoul (1839–1924) was a French operatic tenor The doctor's attitude deepens Ivan's sense of isolation. It's a
known not only for his good looks but also for the masses of violation of propriety for him to mention that he's dying or for
wavy hair on his head.) them to confirm his terminal condition.

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Praskovya enlists the doctors' approval in her continued asks him to leave. Once Gerasim is gone, Ivan Ilych begins to
propagation of lies about Ivan's condition. She tries to assert weep because he is so helpless and lonely. He feels that God
her reliance on propriety by showing how improper Ivan's is cruel and that God is absent. He asks God why He's afflicted
behavior is. His wife dismisses Ivan's experience of relief when him in this terrible way. Ivan does not expect and does not get
Gerasim rests Ivan's legs on his shoulders. She blames Ivan for an answer to this question. His pain gets worse.
his own illness because he does such silly things. It's clear she
has no idea who Ivan is or what he is experiencing, and never After a while, Ivan stops crying and becomes quiet. His

has. Further, she does not want to know, because illness, attention becomes acute, and he feels as if he is attuned to the

suffering, and death are indecorous and must not be given inner voice of his soul. He repeatedly asks his soul, "What do

reality. It's no wonder that upon seeing his wife, Ivan "hates her you want?" When his soul seems to reply that what he wants is

with his whole soul." to live, Ivan asks his inner voice, "To live? How?" Ivan Ilych tells
his inner voice/soul that he wants to live as he'd done before,
The family gathering prior to their departure for the theater "well and pleasantly." The voice repeats this statement but
reveals the unbridgeable distance between them and Ivan. It casts it as a question.
makes painfully clear how isolated Ivan truly is. His wife
chatters about Sarah Bernhardt's talent. His daughter is clearly Ivan Ilych then imagines the best moments of his pleasant life.

"impatient with illness, suffering, and death because they He's somewhat nonplussed to realize that—except for some

interfered with her happiness." Only his son, Vladimir, seems to memories of early childhood—none of the pleasant moments

be emotionally distressed by his father's condition. The others seem pleasant anymore. What he had regarded as pleasant

limit the conversation to trivialities and, tellingly, to the experiences as he grew up now seem joyless, even nasty to

performance they're about to see that night. The irony is they him now. Ivan sees that the older he got, the less his pleasant

are all performing for each other and for Ivan. They're using memories were actually joyful. Rather, they became

artificiality, as in a performance, to avoid acknowledging reality. increasingly worthless as he aged. Ivan recalls a few fleeting

Ivan's reality opens an awkward silence that demolishes the moments of pleasure at law school and in his early legal

family's pretense and trivial conversation. When they leave, career. Finally, he understands that his marriage and his

Ivan is relieved that "the falsity had gone with them." mature career as an official were plagued by disappointment,
greed, and acquisitiveness. He realizes that what he had
viewed as rising in life had actually been "going downhill" in life.

Chapter 9 His reliance on others' opinion of him made him think he was
rising when he was actually declining in his life. Ivan Ilych sees
that he must face death after living such a trivial, meaningless
life. He wonders what it all means. It occurs to him that maybe
Summary he has not lived life as he should have, if he really could be said
to have lived at all.
When Praskovya returns from the theater, she wants to send
Gerasim away and sit with Ivan Ilych by herself. But Ivan says, Ivan is somewhat confused by this thought because, after all,
"No, go away." Ivan takes some painkillers and falls into a kind he lived his life properly and with requisite decorum. He cannot
of vision or dream. imagine that a life based on propriety could be senseless and
trivial. He ponders how his life may have been different.
In it, Ivan and his pain are being pushed into a "narrow, deep
However, he still rejects the notion that he should have ignored
black sack." They are pushed ever deeper into the sack but
propriety as the guiding principle of it.
never seem to reach its bottom. Ivan becomes increasingly
frightened, even though at the same time he truly wants to fall
through the sack. He is ambivalent about what to do because
Analysis
he struggles at the same time as he wants to cooperate with
falling into whatever it is. Suddenly in his dream, Ivan Ilych When Ivan Ilych rudely dismisses his wife, telling her to go
breaks through and comes to wake up. Gerasim is sitting with away, he is rejecting the artificial life she represents. In
him quietly, Ivan's legs resting on his shoulders. Ivan quietly rejecting her, Ivan has prepared himself for opening to his

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 28

inner, authentic self. germane to Ivan Ilych's current predicament. He has been
afraid of dying. But he starts to understand that his life has
Ivan breaks through his total absorption with his physical self been to now a kind of spiritual death because it was so
to make contact with his authentic, inner self—his inner voice, inauthentic. That inauthenticity caused Ivan's soul to atrophy
or as the story says, his soul. This is the first time he has done and nearly die. Yet when Ivan moves through the black sack,
this. The breakthrough allows Ivan to begin to question the he may die physically but be reborn spiritually.
authenticity of the life he has lived. His dialogue with his inner
voice revolves around what he now wants. What might be After he awakes from his dream, Ivan feels helpless and lonely.
called his ego-mind tells his inner voice that he wants to live. It He feels that God has treated him cruelly. He asks God, "Why
is not just to live but to live "well and pleasantly," as he says he hast Thou done all this? ... Why dost Thou torment me so
has done his whole life. Ivan's soul wonders at this choice, terribly?" This quote is reminiscent of the question Christ
repeating his ego's answer in the form of a question: "As you asked God as He was being crucified: "Why hast thou forsaken
lived before, well and pleasantly?" Ivan's authentic inner voice me?" It's not clear if the author means to draw parallels
is trying to lead him to see how artificial and inauthentic this between Ivan Ilych and Jesus Christ, or if he sees Ivan Ilych as
so-called pleasant life really was. a Christ-like figure. It's up to the reader to decide if this is what
Leo Tolstoy meant and how it fits into the story.
Ivan comes to realize that, except for a few events during
childhood, pleasant experiences were in reality "worthless and
doubtful," without joy. The older he got and the more he relied
on propriety and the approval of others, the more joyless his
Chapter 10
life became. Ivan sees his adult life as a series of
"disenchantments ... hypocrisy ... [and] deadly preoccupations
about money." He thought his life was rising when it was
Summary
actually declining. Only after this realization does Ivan for the
Two weeks later and Ivan Ilych is so ill and weak he can no
first time entertain the notion that "maybe I did not live as I
longer leave the sofa. His pain increases, and he thinks about
ought to have done." Ivan has seen in his mind the artificiality
what is really happening to him, tossed between two
and inauthenticity of the life he's led, yet he can't quite yet
conflicting moods. Sometimes he experiences despair and the
bring himself to renounce it. Ivan is not yet ready to jettison
fearsome anticipation of his own death. At other times, he feels
propriety as the pillar of the good life and the guiding principle
hopeful and he attends to the state of his body, looking for
of a life well lived.
signs of improvement. Before, he had experienced these mood
Ivan Ilych dreams of the black sack, which symbolizes several swings—dread and hope—since he first became ill, but now
aspects of dying. On the most basic level, the black sack they are more intense. Sometimes Ivan is transfixed by the
symbolizes death. This is why in his dream Ivan fears being state of his kidney or by the terror of his impending death since
pulled into it. He's frightened of the process (of dying), yet he cannot deny that his physical condition has been
"wants to fall through," and suddenly he does. The black sack deteriorating for months.
represents only death, which is why Ivan is fearful of it. It may
Even though he lives in town and is surrounded by his family,
also represent liberation from suffering, which is why Ivan is
Ivan Ilych feels more alone and isolated than ever before. It is
also attracted to it. When Ivan dreams that he breaks through
as if he were "at the bottom of the sea or under the earth." Ivan
the sack, it may mean that he has conquered his fear of death
can think only of his past, beginning with memories of his early
and now may begin to die peacefully.
childhood and moving forward toward his present situation.
The black sack may also in a sense represent rebirth. It is Sometimes the beautiful simplicity of his childhood memories
described as "narrow and deep," which may liken it to a birth pains him and he wrenches his mind forward to his current
canal. Ivan may want to fall through the bottom of the black situation. He preoccupies himself with minute examinations of
sack so he may find rebirth in a new, and hopefully more the sofa he lies on. However, he finds doing that again leads
authentic, life. his mind back to his childhood. Ivan tries to bury these
thoughts, but he's unable to do so.
The black sack and its various representations may be

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 29

The "chain of memories" from his childhood to his adulthood it seems that Ivan Ilych is not yet ready to accept his soul's
brings Ivan to thoughts of the progression of his illness. He answer. When he asks "Why these sufferings?" his soul wisely
realizes that earlier in it "there had been more life" and more replies "For no reason—they just are so." Yet this truthful
goodness in it. Over time his illness has grown worse. Ivan answer does not stop Ivan from seesawing from deep despair
realizes that during this period, both his life and his illness had to fervent hope that he might still recover. When he's in his
merged. He realizes "the pain went on getting worse and hopeful "physical body" mood, he attends to his organs to
worse, so my life grew worse and worse." His childhood had determine if they are healing. It seems he cannot accept the
been a time of joy. Yet everything after that became "blacker pointless randomness of his death.
and blacker and proceeded more rapidly—in inverse ratio to
the square of the distance from death." (The closer he was to When Ivan feels oppressed by his loneliness and isolation, he

death, the worse his life became, and the more quickly it describes it as like being "at the bottom of the sea or under the

became worse.) Ivan feels like he's falling ever more quickly earth." Both are places where dead bodies are buried. The

toward his end. implication is that perhaps in some way Ivan is already
somehow dead. He may be dead perhaps spiritually or in terms
His suffering and yearning to understand might be eased if of his existence in the material world. He may always have
there was some way or something he could do to gain been dead and not alive in terms of his essence.
understanding. He wants to find an explanation for what's
happening to him. Here again, he thinks that maybe if he'd lived Ivan Ilych reflects on the beginning of his life as "one bright

a better life an explanation would come to him. But once more, spot." It becomes "blacker and blacker as he ages and

he rejects that his life should have or could have been proceeds more and more rapidly" as he nears death. The

different. growing blackness may indicate that his (spiritual) illness (his
inauthenticity) has been growing worse since his childhood.
The blackness may also link this image to the black sack. The
Analysis author may be intimating that as Ivan goes through life, he's
entering further and further into the black sack of death. He
Ivan Ilych's life is contracting, and the brevity of this chapter may experience the light of rebirth when he comes out the
reflects that. He is stranded on the sofa he can no longer other side.
leave. His thinking is limited to memories or to noticing minute
The author uses the metaphor of a falling stone to reflect the
and pointless details of his immediate material surroundings,
"falling downwards with increasing velocity" toward death. Ivan
such as the sofa he's lying on.
thinks, "Life ... flies further and further towards its end ...
Time is contracting for Ivan. His happiest memories are of his resistance was impossible. He stared at the back of the sofa
childhood, but he tries to banish these memories to and waited—awaiting that dreadful fall and shock and
concentrate on his current experience. Perhaps by doing this, destruction." Ivan ignores the wisdom imparted to him earlier
he thinks he may postpone the moment of his death by making by his inner voice. He again thinks, "If I could only understand
each present minute and second last longer. Perhaps he's what it is all for! But that is impossible." He cannot accept that
trying to find where in his childhood or youth his life went death may be random or that it's trying to teach him something
wrong. He's looking for what caused the spiritual disease that about a life he thought was well lived.
has turned into the illness now killing him. Occasionally, Ivan
At the end of this chapter, Ivan Ilych is still not ready to accept
finds that he can rest in happy childhood memories, and this
that the life of propriety he's lived has been trivial and
slows time down for him. But when these memories become
inauthentic. "An explanation would be possible if it could be
too vivid, Ivan finds them too painful for him to recall, and he
said that I have not lived as I ought to. But it is impossible to
forces his mind back to the present.
say that." Ivan "remembers all the ... correctitude and propriety
He continues to dialogue with his authentic inner voice. It of his life." He once more rejects the possibility that living for
answers his question, "What is this? Can it be that it is Death?" propriety may be "inauthentic and artificial." He thinks "that, at
by telling him, "Yes, it is Death." Ivan's inner voice, his authentic any rate, [it] can certainly not be admitted." Yet immediately he
self or soul, does answer the questions Ivan keeps asking. But yearns for an explanation for his "agony ... [and] death."

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 30

He recognizes that they exemplify the artificiality and

Chapter 11 falseness of the life he's led. He comes to the awful realization
that his life has been "a terrible and huge deception." This
awareness increases his physical suffering tenfold.
Summary
At some point Ivan wakes from a period of opium-induced
This short chapter emphasizes both the short time span it unconsciousness. His wife comes into his room and asks him
covers and Ivan Ilych's headlong rush toward death. Two to take communion, and Ivan Ilych agrees. She sends for the
weeks have gone by since the events in Chapter 10. Fedor priest. The priest hears Ivan Ilych's deathbed confession, which
Petrovich visits to propose marriage to Ivan's daughter, Lisa. reveals all of Ivan's doubts. Confession seems to alleviate
Praskovya comes into Ivan's room to tell him the good news, some of Ivan's pain. For a while, Ivan once again feels a spark
but Ivan's condition has deteriorated. He's lying on his back, of hope that his body may heal and he may live. Ivan is deeply
staring ahead of him. Ivan Ilych looks at her with "great moved when he receives the sacrament from the priest,
animosity," saying, "For Christ's sake let me die in peace." though the story has not said before that he is religious.
When Lisa comes into the room, Ivan looks at her with the
After the priest leaves, Praskovya comes into Ivan's room.
same hostility. Lisa asks about his health, and Ivan says "he
Everything about her reminds Ivan once again how false his life
would soon free them all" of his clearly unwelcome presence.
has been. As this revulsion for her and his own life washes over
The women sit for a few minutes in silence and then leave.
him, Ivan's dreadful pain returns. The usual pain is
Lisa complains to her mother that although it's a shame her accompanied by new torment: "a grinding shooting pain and a
father is sick, "it's not our fault," so they shouldn't be feeling of suffocation." Ivan yells at her to "go away and leave
inconvenienced by him. A while later the doctor comes, but me alone."
Ivan makes the medical man admit that there's nothing he can
do for him. Ivan asks him to "let me be." The doctor goes into
the drawing room. He tells Praskovya how serious Ivan's case Analysis
is and that the only thing that can now be done is to give him
opium to ease his pain. The appearance and behavior of Ivan Ilych's family and doctor
seem to indicate that they are in denial about the seriousness
Ivan is certainly in terrible physical pain, but it is his "mental of his condition. Lisa says, "I am sorry for papa, but why should
sufferings which were his chief torture." His psychological we be tortured." She is the voice of middle-class propriety for
torment arises when, at night, he sees the good-natured which any unpleasantness is to be avoided or denied. After
Gerasim asleep (supposedly with Ivan Ilych's legs on his Ivan Ilych has confessed to the priest, Praskovya comes into
shoulders). The sight of the simple, kind Gerasim forces Ivan his room and asks, "You feel better, don't you?" to which Ivan
Ilych to question whether the life he's lived has been wrong in replies, "Yes." But this brief interchange opens Ivan's eyes even
some way. more to the deception she represents and to the falsity of his
life.
Ivan Ilych considers more seriously than ever before the
previously impossible notion that he has not lived as he should This brief chapter inches Ivan Ilych a bit closer to acceptance
have done. He recalls the times he suppressed his own views of his dying and, more crucially, of the possibility, even
that contravened "what was considered good by most people." certainty, that the life he's lived has been artificial and
Perhaps he should have followed his instinct to resist. The inauthentic. He comes as close as he's ever been to accepting
more he thinks about it, the more he sees his behavior and his "that he had not spent his life as he should have done." Ivan
life as false. Ivan worries about dying with all these lifelong berates himself for those times when "his scarcely perceptible
regrets on his conscience. attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the
most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses
Ivan Ilych begins to review his entire life from this new which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the
perspective (that his life has been false). The next day he real thing, and all the rest false." Clearly, Ivan had had only a
watches how his wife, family, and doctor behave toward him. tenuous connection to his authentic inner self, for it is the

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Chapter Summaries 31

authentic self that made him aware that he could act connection and how it affects his death.
authentically and not just properly. Yet Ivan now reproaches
himself for being too fearful and weak to oppose propriety and
act according to his inner truth. Ivan "tried to defend all those Chapter 12
things (capitulations) to himself and suddenly felt the
weakness of what he was defending (propriety). There was
nothing to defend." Ivan finally sees a life of decorum and
Summary
propriety for the empty, soulless shell it really is.

From the time at the end of the last chapter when Ivan Ilych
Now that Ivan has realized this he begins to be plagued by
sent his wife away, he begins incessant screaming that
regret, which is reinforced when he reviews his life. He
continues for three days. The narrator tells the reader that his
understands "that it was not real at all, but a terrible and huge
screaming resulted from Ivan's realization "that he was lost ...
deception which had hidden both life and death." Ivan Ilych has
[and] that the end had come."
made a huge advance in his approach to death. He finally
accepts that his life has been inauthentic and ruled by artificial
The extreme brevity of this chapter reinforces the fact that
propriety. It remains to be seen in the final chapter how this
"time did not exist for him" anymore. Ivan Ilych is struggling
realization affects his dying.
against being pulled into the black sack, or toward death,
which is dragging him in against his will. Ivan knows "that he
Though he may not be consciously aware of it, his physical
cannot save himself ... [and] every moment he felt ... he was
suffering is shown to be intertwined with his psychological or
drawing nearer and nearer to what terrified him." Ivan's terror
spiritual suffering. After Ivan Ilych clearly sees how false and
and his struggles against death are desperate because of his
inauthentic his life has been, "his consciousness (of his life's
belief that "his life had been a good one."
artificiality) intensified his physical torment tenfold." Living a life
that was "a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both
Ivan suddenly feels "some force [strike] him in the chest and
life and death" from him makes Ivan's physical condition much
side." Then he "fell through the [black] hole (in the black sack)
worse. Spiritual inauthenticity increases Ivan's physical
and there at the bottom was a light." Leo Tolstoy likens this
torment. When the priest hears Ivan's confession, Ivan's inner
sensation to the feeling of moving backward in a train when it's
soul is eased, and this is connected to his feeling somewhat
really moving forward. In this instance, Ivan "becomes aware of
better physically. However, when his pain abates somewhat
the real direction." When Vladimir, Ivan's son, comes up to his
and he begins to hope "to live. I want to live!" he again slides
father's bed weeping, Ivan's flailing hand brushes against his
toward greater suffering. He suffers because he is, for a
son's head. Vladimir takes his father's hand and kisses it. The
moment, not accepting the reality of his condition, which his
narrator relates that "at that moment Ivan Ilych fell through (the
inner self acknowledges.
black sack) and caught sight of the light." Ivan wonders, "What
is the right thing?"
When Ivan tells his wife that "yes" he's feeling better, he
immediately succumbs to greater pain than before. Praskovya
In the two hours before his death, he remains aware of those
represents not only denial of death but everything about Ivan's
around him. He feels pity for his weeping son and wife. He tries
life that has been a "falsehood and deception." His inner voice,
to ask for forgiveness but cannot speak coherently. Then he
or soul, rejects her and all she stands for. Here, his hatred for
feels all his attachments falling away from him. He is almost
his wife and her denial of the truth cause him even more
unaware of his pain, which seems weak and remote. He
terrible suffering. The inauthentic life that Praskovya embodies
wonders where death is, but then realizes death is the light. He
seems to cause Ivan's soul to rebel against the artificial life
is no longer afraid of death. He exclaims, "What joy!"
both she and he have led. That inner spiritual rebellion is
manifested by more intense physical pain. Ivan Ilych is For his assembled family, all this took place in the two hours
beginning to recognize how his spiritual suffering arose from before Ivan died. To them, he still seems to be suffering
his inauthentic life. He may also be aware that his spiritual terribly. But Ivan is free of suffering—he experienced all this in
suffering is intensifying his physical suffering. In the last a single instant. His family hears Ivan Ilych's death rattle, and
chapter, the reader will come to see how he reconciles this they know it is over. As Ivan Ilych draws his final breath, he

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Quotes 32

understands that "death ... is no more." and his weeping son kisses that hand. It then becomes clear to
Ivan that "the right thing" is to open his heart, his inner being, to
feel compassion for his family. Ivan feels pity for his son, and
Analysis even his wife. He pities them because they are still trapped in
an artificial life and because he sees their suffering. He feels
Ivan Ilych suffers torments of fear as his death nears. He the pity for them that they had been incapable of or unwilling to
screams because in death "there was no return, that the end give him when he so desperately needed it. Their distress
had come ... and his doubts were still unsolved and remained impels Ivan to want to beg their forgiveness for all the suffering
doubts." In his mind, Ivan Ilych "struggled in that black sack into he has caused them. Ivan cannot say the words coherently, but
which he was being thrust by an invisible, irresistible force." He the simple impulse to seek forgiveness and feel compassion
struggles "knowing that he cannot save himself ... [and] despite for his family redeems Ivan Ilych's misguided life. His
all his efforts he was drawing nearer and nearer to what redemption comes from opening his heart to them through his
terrified him." newborn, light-infused soul.

Ivan's awful suffering is caused by being forcefully thrust into Ivan's flailing hand touches his son's forehead and his son
the symbolic black sack and by "his not being able to get right kisses that hand. At the same time, Ivan Ilych is also
into it." Clearly, Ivan is ambivalent about the process of dying connecting physically and lovingly with another human—for the
that's gripping him. He has a last-ditch effort at self- first time in the story. This human connection further opens
justification for his inauthentic and artificial life. Ivan Ivan Ilych's heart and redeems him.
understands that "he was hindered from getting into [the black
sack] by his conviction that his life had been a good one. That The black sack is a symbol of rebirth, eventually, after death. It
very justification of his life held him fast and prevented his channels him into a new and joyous life. Ivan falls through the
moving forward, and it caused him the most torment of all." sack into the light. He feels "what had been oppressing him ...
was all dropping away at once from two sides, from ten sides,
Time then becomes extremely compressed. What his family and from all sides." His old life and its barriers to authentic
experiences as two hours during which Ivan dies, he experience fall away from him. He thinks, "How good. How
experiences his death as a mere instant. simple" death is. After his transformation and rebirth, he
understands that "in place of death there was light," which
Suddenly a force hits him, and he plunges through the bottom
enraptures his reborn spirit. When Ivan says, "So that's what it
of the black sack. There he sees a light and experiences an
is," he is referring to death as a process of being reborn in the
epiphany. By falling through the imagined sack, his attachment
light. As a new being of light, Ivan Ilych understands that "death
to his life of propriety is ripped away. Similarly, the metaphor of
is finished ... It is no more." Ivan Ilych is not speaking of this
the moving train explains Ivan's epiphany. Ivan had always felt
particular personal death but of death in general. Death is no
his life of propriety was propelling him forward. In fact, it was
longer a terrible and fearsome thing but rather a liberation into
moving him in a backward direction that deadened his spirit. He
joy. Ivan Ilych's joy evokes Leo Tolstoy's religious belief that
realizes now that his life of decorum and propriety was all
living an authentic life allows a person to die a peaceful and
misdirected. Ivan falls through the black sack into the light.
joyous death.
He's freed from the artificial life that had killed his soul and
moves into the light in which he is reborn as a joyful, spiritual
being.
g Quotes
The train metaphor encompasses both acceptance and
redemption. Before he fell through the black sack Ivan Ilych
had struggled against death. Once he falls through it, he finds "[Death] had happened to Ivan
acceptance of death in a space of blissful light. Ivan then
Ilych ... it should not and could not
wonders, "What is the right thing?" Falling into the light has
already revealed to Ivan the falsity of the life he has lived. The happen to him."
question remains, as Ivan touches his son's head with his hand

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Quotes 33

— Peter Ivanovich, Chapter 1

that class."

Peter Ivanovich is at Ivan Ilych's funeral. Here, he is distancing — Narrator, Chapter 3

himself from death, saying that it might happen to others such
as Ivan Ilych, but it could never happen to him. Peter
This quote reveals the conformity that rules Ivan Ilych's life.
Ivanovich's thoughts represent the denial that people of his
There is nothing in his house that is personal to him. Everything
class have when it comes to facing death. They dissociate
he has he owns because it is just like the things others in the
themselves from it.
upper classes also own. Ivan Ilych doesn't even know what he
likes or doesn't like. He accepts others' ideas of what is proper
and decorous to have in one's home, and that is what he puts
"Ivan's life had been most simple, in his home.
most ordinary and therefore most
terrible."
"Ivan concluded that things were
— Narrator, Chapter 2 bad ... [but] for everybody else it
was a matter of indifference."
This famous quote redefines the words "simple" and "ordinary."
They do not mean plain and average. Instead, "simple" and — Narrator, Chapter 4
"ordinary" refer to Ivan Ilych's life of extreme conformity and
perhaps to the lives of all conformists. They refer to his
Ivan Ilych is becoming increasingly ill from the knock on his hip
internalization of all the values, thoughts, and mores of the
and the pain it's causing him. He realizes that he's becoming
prevailing upper-class culture. His life is "terrible" because it is
seriously ill. Yet for others—particularly his family and
not his. It is false and inauthentic because everything about it is
colleagues—his pain and his illness are an inconvenience. His
based on the propriety and decorum that enslaves him.
illness interferes with their pursuit of pleasure, so they ignore it.
His illness is also viewed as rather improper, so others remain
studiously indifferent to it (and his pain).
"The marriage was considered the
right thing by the most highly
placed of his associates." "It seemed ridiculous that in such
circumstances he should be
— Narrator, Chapter 2
pleased to make a grand slam."

Ivan Ilych marries because that is considered the right, or — Narrator, Chapter 4
proper, thing to do among the upper class he wishes to be part
of. He clearly does not marry for love, but for propriety, in order
Ivan Ilych is quite ill and often in great pain. Because he can no
to conform to others' notions of how life should be lived.
longer tolerate his wife's presence, he pursues his old
pleasures. Here, Ivan is playing bridge with some of his
acquaintances. During the game he deliberately sabotages a
"[Ivan's house had] all the things "grand slam" that would win the game. He does that because
people of a certain class have in he suddenly realizes how trivial winning a card game is for a
man who is so sick and who is likely dying. This is one of Ivan
order to resemble other people of Ilych's first "rebellions" against the customs and proprieties of

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Quotes 34

upper-class life that had so far ruled his. isolated in his pain and must face his death alone. Yet looking
at his death directly fills Ivan Ilych with terror and fear.
Contemplating his death makes him shudder as he lies alone
"There was light and now there is on the sofa in his room.

darkness. I was here and now I'm

going there! Where?" "We shall all of us die, so why
should I grudge a little trouble?"
— Ivan Ilych Golovin, Chapter 5

— Gerasim, Chapter 7
Ivan Ilych is thinking about his life, how it once seemed filled
with light—or at least the proper pastimes deemed acceptable
Gerasim is of the peasant class by birth, a simple man who has
by his cohorts. Now, however, he is dying, and he feels
a deep understanding and acceptance of death as a part of
surrounded by darkness. He is still here in life, but he knows
life. He is glad to help the increasingly helpless Ivan Ilych as his
he's going there (into death). He wonders what death is like
illness progresses. Gerasim willingly assists with the most
and where the dead will go.
intimate functions of his body. For Gerasim, who is at ease with
the body and with its inevitable demise, it's not "trouble" to help
a dying man. Gerasim accepts that everyone dies, so being
"All that had formerly ... hidden ... with Ivan Ilych as he faces death is no hardship—and not
improper—for him.
his consciousness of death no
longer had that effect."
"When they had gone ... Ivan Ilych
— Narrator, Chapter 6
... felt better; the falsity had gone
The propriety of upper-class life demands that one hide with them."
consciousness of death—and of anything else that is
unpleasant or indecorous. Before his illness, Ivan Ilych had — Narrator, Chapter 8
hidden his awareness of death as well as anybody of that
class. Now he is finally having to face death, to try to accept it.
As Ivan Ilych becomes more accepting of his impending death,
The hold propriety (and denial) had on him weakens as his
he cannot abide the falsity and lies his family tells him. They
illness worsens. He can no longer use it to ignore or deny his
perpetuate the lie that another doctor or another medicine may
impending death.
cure him. Ivan Ilych knows better. He comes to the point where
he can't stand being around his family because they treat him
with such deception. In this quote, Ivan Ilych is relieved when
"[He'd be] alone with It ... nothing his family leaves his room because they take their lies and
falseness with them. He can contemplate his death truthfully
could be done with It except to
and, in a way, in peace.
look at it and shudder."

— Narrator, Chapter 6 "Maybe I did not live as I ought to

have done ... but I did everything
Ivan Ilych is essentially ignored and abandoned by his family, all
of whom are in denial about his unpleasant death. Ivan Ilych is properly."

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Symbols 35

— Ivan Ilych Golovin, Chapter 9

l Symbols
As he nears death, Ivan Ilych starts to wonder if perhaps he did
not live an authentic life. Yet at this point, whenever he thinks
that might be true, he rejects the idea. He still cannot accept Black Sack
that a life in which he did everything properly (following upper-
class propriety and expectations) could be the wrong kind of
life. Whenever he has doubts about his life, he reminds himself
When he's dying, Ivan Ilych dreams of falling into a black sack,
that a life of propriety must be the one he "ought to have lived."
a symbol that primarily represents death. His feelings toward
the black sack are ambivalent; although he feels like he wants
to fall into its depths, he also fights against being pushed in.
"He looked at Gerasim and
His resistance to entering the black sack reveals the battle
thought: "What if my whole life has between his fear of death and his acceptance of it. Yet once
been wrong?"" he breaks into it, Ivan experiences a light and the fear of death
no longer has power over him. It may also be that the black
sack symbolizes rebirth in its likeness to a womb. The pain that
— Ivan Ilych Golovin, Chapter 11
Ivan feels as he falls into the black sack may be akin to the
suffering of birth. The light he sees may be his entry into a new
Gerasim lives a simple life in the true sense of that word. He incarnation or perhaps his spiritual rebirth after death. The two
does not deny death but accepts it. Ivan Ilych begins to were linked in the beliefs of the author in his spiritual
understand the wisdom in Gerasim's simple life. His recognition conversion.
of Gerasim's simple wisdom and acceptance makes him think
that he should have lived a life like Gerasim's. Maybe, Ivan Ilych
thinks, the life he did live was "wrong" because it was so false
and based so much on denial of the realities of life. Phoenix

"There wasn't fear because there Ivan Ilych is said to be le phénix de la famille, or "the phoenix of
his family." In mythology, the phoenix is a long-lived, high-flying
wasn't death ... In place of death
bird who dies and then rises again from the ashes of its former
there was light." self. The phoenix is associated with the sun and thus also
symbolizes renewal, as the sun renews itself when it rises
— Ivan Ilych Golovin, Chapter 12 every morning. In many ancient mythologies, the phoenix
represents immortality. In the Christian tradition, the phoenix
sometimes symbolizes resurrection. In a literal sense, the
When Ivan Ilych dies, he moves into and is reborn in a joyous
above French expression reveals the family's confidence in
light. He loses all his fear of death because once he's in the
Ivan's rise to great heights within society.
light he understands that there is no such thing as death.
Instead, there is the light of the soul that leads to renewal and Referring to Ivan Ilych as a phoenix may also represent Ivan's
rebirth. Death, as humans conceive of it, does not exist, ultimate rising above his physical death and emerging as a
according to Leo Tolstoy's beliefs. spiritual being who is beyond death. Ivan is said to be a
phoenix to show that there is really no such thing as death.
Death is simply a step toward spiritual rebirth and nothing one
should fear.

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Themes 36

death. For the characters in the story, death is something that

Doctors may happen to strangers. It is inconceivable that it can and will
happen to them. The social identity of the people of this time,
place, and class is rigid and prescriptive. Without a spiritual
Ivan Ilych has no use for his doctors, who try to act as if they awakening, it is impossible for them to free themselves from it
know what ails him and how to cure it but who are totally so that they can access their inner being, or soul, which
incapable of diagnosing or treating it. Doctors, and medicine in accepts and has no fear of death.
general represent the author's—and Ivan Ilych's—disdain for
and distrust of modern science and technology, especially as it
is venerated by the rational egoists. Neither has the ability,
knowledge, or understanding to help Ivan Ilych. Yet like him Artificiality and Authenticity
and others of his class, the doctors play their roles to the hilt.

Doctors and medicine are also denigrated as Ivan Ilych comes

The lives of the upper-middle-class characters in the novella
to understand that his illness may, perhaps, be worsened by
are bound by the expectations of others of their class. It has
the false life he has led, something the doctors cannot be
become second (or perhaps even first) nature for them to
expected to diagnose or treat. Ivan's experience of dying is an
pursue the ambitions and trappings acceptable for people of
experience of opening to his inner spirituality, which doctors
their social standing. Their lives are, therefore, artificial
cannot understand. Thus, doctors also represent a secular
because they are wholly defined and circumscribed by the
hindrance to their patient's acceptance of the inevitability of
dictates of others in their social class. Everyone feels forced to
death.
live according to these strict but accepted social norms. No
one feels inclined to or able to break free from these societal
expectations. For this reason, no one is attuned to their inner,

m Themes
rather than their false exterior, being.

Ivan Ilych finally breaks through the psychological prison of

societal expectations that he has allowed to define his life.

Mortality Therefore, for the first time, he touches his deep and authentic
inner being. This inner self, or soul, is authentic because it is
beyond the reach of social norms and artificiality. Its essence
is truth and acceptance of every aspect of life. In releasing his
The novella is a story about mortality—the inevitability of inner being, Ivan Ilych frees himself from the soulless
death—and how people deal with it. The heart of the novella straitjacket of society's demands and dictates. When he lets go
explores people's denial and fear of death. The story explores of these, he can find peace and acceptance.
the ways in which people go out of their way to deny it and
refuse to deal with it. They ignore death and distract
themselves from the fact that death is a natural part of life.
Bourgeois Acceptability
Immersing oneself in the artificiality and distractions of
everyday life is one way that people deny, or refuse to think
about, their own (or others') mortality. In the novella, the people
Ivan Ilych and others in the story accept and live by the
at Ivan Ilych's wake think and talk about anything, no matter
dictates of their social class. They are upwardly striving
how trivial, to distract themselves from death. The guests at
bourgeois and accept all the modes of behavior, of thought
the wake even surreptitiously make plans to slip away for a
and opinion, of dress and decoration that their social class
game of cards. They will think of and do everything they can to
prescribes. Like many bourgeois, they are addicted to
avoid acknowledging the fact that death comes to everyone.
materialism and acquisitiveness. These become for Ivan (and
Fear is a primary motivating factor in the characters' denial of his wife) a distraction from what is happening to them in the

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Motifs 37

real world, particularly Ivan's illness. They accept without

question the rightness of the values imposed on them by Suffering
others in the upper-middle class.
In his dying, Ivan Ilych suffers unimaginable and unbearable
The author frequently uses the words "propriety" and pain. Yet it has many dimensions. He does not only suffer
"decorum" to describe Ivan and his cohorts. What matters most physically but also spiritually as he tries to find meaning in his
to people of this class is that they look and act in a way that is death.
considered proper—that is, having propriety—to other
bourgeoisie they know. They must behave with decorum, with The author explores the many types of suffering that an

a reserve and a style of appearance, thought, and action that inauthentic life may inflict on people. Ivan Ilych suffers from

others of their class recognize as acceptable. emotional isolation (from his family and colleagues), indignity
(in the helplessness his illness forces on him), fear, and doubt.
In his work, as Ivan Ilych advances up the career ladder he also The modes of pain that can beset a person in extremis who
enjoys exerting the power of his office over others who are has lived an inauthentic life are manifold.
beneath him in status or class. He tries to exert his power
gently and congratulates himself for this, but he does get
satisfaction from knowing or thinking he knows he is better Selfishness, Pleasure, and
and more powerful than others.
Isolation
Ivan Ilych's way of life, as prescribed by his time and class,
Acceptance and Redemption instill in him the drive to be selfish. He seeks always to
maximize his own interest and his own pleasure, even at the
expense of the feelings and experiences of others. For some
Before he becomes mortally ill, Ivan Ilych denies death as middle-class Russians of that age, selfishness might lead to
vehemently as others do. Yet as he comes to realize that his advancement and so serves the ambition that is so highly
illness will be fatal, he slowly comes to accept the fact that he valued by the bourgeoisie.
is dying. The process is long and psychically painful, but it
These motifs are found throughout the novella. At Ivan's wake,
begins to free him from his fear and agony.
his colleagues think mainly of escaping the presence of death
Once Ivan Ilych has accepted his mortality, he is able to let go into one form of pleasure or another. Throughout Ivan Ilych's
of the artificial trappings that had constituted and defined his life, he seeks pleasure as often as he can. His pursuit of it
life. By the end of the novella, Ivan has freed himself from the isolates him from his family, which, in the end, leaves him alone
falseness that has characterized his life. As society's illusions on his deathbed. His family, too, seeks pleasure, and they are
fall away from him he finds redemption in his death. The joy only too eager to get away from the dying man to pursue it.
Ivan Ilych experiences in death reflects Tolstoy's religious idea
of living an authentic life, which allows one to die with joy when
life is over. e Suggested Reading
Beard, Mary. "Facing Death with Tolstoy." The New Yorker, 5
Nov. 2013.
b Motifs
Brombert, Victor. "The Ambiguity of 'Ivan Ilych.'" Raritan, vol. 26,
no. 1, 2006, p. 152.

Kaufman, Andrew D. "Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich:

Reader's Guide." National Endowment for the Arts., n.d.

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The Death of Ivan Ilych Study Guide Motifs 38

Matual, David. "The Confession as Subtext in The Death of Ivan

Il'ich." The International Fiction Review, vol. 8, no. 2, 1981, pp.
124–28.

Wiseman, Michael C. "Ivan's Transformation and Coming to

Terms in Leo Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan Illyich.'" Inquiries, vol.
2, no. 3, 2010.

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