The Death Of Ivan Ilych

Albert Einstein says, “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value”. Unfortunately Ivan Ilych a member of the Court of Justice based his life purely on success therefore he just merely existed. In Leo Tolstoy’s thought inciting novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych, he tells the story of how Ivan Ilych Golovin resists himself in the shadow of no emotion and cannot grasp the exquisiteness of living a true life because he is born into a society that teaches that one must be emotionless. Hence he is not capable of understanding another person’s faults and only gains liking though the materialistic. The example Tolstoy implements on his readers per Ivan is that no one can live an authentic life devoid of love and compassion
because without them life will form a series of deceitful apprehensions and unfulfilling desires.
It is mutual for one to go to the society as reference and help when one does not understand a certain situation.
It is also common for one to avoid the situation in its entirety. After Ivan marries Praskovya Fedorovna, Ivan reveals what his true intentions for marrying her are when he says, “He was swayed by both these considerations: The marriage gave him personal satisfaction, and at the same time it was considered the right thing by the most highly placed of his associates” (Tolstoy 9). Ivan is influenced by his want of more possession and his colleagues. He knows that if he is to marry Praskovya he will gain more land and eventually more respect from his associates of higher standing since he listened to their opinion. Ivan would not lose anything if he married Praskovya he would only benefit. Ivan’s marriage to Praskovya is important because it reveals that love is something incomprehensible for him and that he believes marriage is solely a treaty that binds two families to eventually benefit and live easier. His choice also shows that he does not believe there will be any complication he merely cares about the outcome, not the process. Ivan’s morals and wishes are centered on sanctioning society’s demand. In addition, Ivan expresses the strategies and pleasures he not only has at his work but also in his personal life before becoming ill by saying, “The pleasures connected with his work were pleasures of ambition; his social pleasures were those of vanity; but Ivan
Ilych's greatest pleasure was playing bridge. He acknowledged that whatever disagreeable incident happened in his life, the pleasure that beamed like a ray of light above everything else was to sit down to bridge” (Tolstoy 14). Ivan’s pleasure came from power and achievement at work, being prideful with his friends, and losing track of time playing bridge. Ivan’s pleasure are essential since it shows that the unpleasant things of life included love for Ivan, since he cannot handle the disagreeable aspect of life he excluded it with bridge. His only happiness comes from success or fantasy he has no love to reside and this makes his life a loathing. Without compassion one is not able to show what one really feels. With the absence of love he is not capable of caring for others and lives a life of falsity.
Empathy can adjust one’s thoughts during a complication and make one accepting of another faults.
Regrettably society teaches Ivan to be self-seeking and take only his personal wanting into consideration. After the birth of their new born child both Praskovya and Ivan are quite irritated with each other. Ivan expresses his trouble with maintaining and caring for the baby by saying, “With the birth of their child, the attempts to feed it and the various failures in doing so, and with the real and imaginary illnesses of mother and child, in which Ivan Ilych's sympathy was demanded but about which he understood nothing, the need of securing for himself an existence outside his family life became still more imperative. (Tolstoy 9) The birth of Ivan’s child only brought trouble to him. At the time he would try to feed his child he would fail and is insecure. Ivan’s incapability to care for his own child is significant because it displays that he did not know how it was to have compassion. Also, it reveals that he prioritizes work in front of his family. What should be the adorations of his life are simply disruptions to his effort to being successful at his work and being valued by society. Furthermore, at the time Ivan is suffering from his sickness he is visited by his family. He responds to their fake love by saying to himself, “their every word and movement confirmed to him the awful truth that had been revealed to him during the night. In them he saw himself -- all that for
which he had lived -- and saw clearly that it was not real at all, but a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death”(Tolstoy 33). Ivan suffers even more when his family comes in because he knows that they still are captives to society which makes them actors and not true presenters of hope. Ivan’s judgements are of paramount importance since it shows that all of the members including not only his family, but his doctors and footman too are hostages of the falsehood of his class. The class jointly condemned each other from sympathizing. Hence they could not have any value except for their social rank which did not go hand in hand with happiness. Consequently, life is extinguished, society creeps in the shadow of no emotion and is not present in the real world.
Altogether, by holding in his emotion Ivan is holding in his life and cannot experience the splendor of living. Stuck inside a statue