Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych

Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych a Famous Novella Written by none other than Leo Tolstoy. In the Summary of the Death Of Ivan Ilych, we will discuss Tolstoy one of the most celebrated pieces of Late fiction.

The Story Is a work that presents a profound examination of materialistic values seen in society and the worth of a man’s life. Ivan Ilych, the man who the story revolves around, is a high court judge in St. Petersburg facing an existential crisis.

Tolstoy’s masterful storytelling brings forth a reality of death and its loneliness, a truly compelling read for those seeking an understanding of mortality and the meaning of Life, it would give you a sense of Profound satisfaction.

Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych Characters

Here is an assorted character list of Death of Ivan Ilych with a brief introduction for each:

Ivan Ilych Golovin: The Main character of the story, He is a high court Judge living a carefree life until he is faced with terminal illness leading to a reassessment of his life and an existential crisis.

Praskovya Fydorovna Golovina: She is Ivan’s wife, she feels inconvenienced by her husband’s illness, as it is interrupting her bourgeois lifestyle of its comfort and routine.

Pyotr Ivanovich: He is a colleague and a friend of Ivan’s, In the book it is seen that Pyotr shows shallowness and professional insincerity of the judicial bureaucracy.

Gerasim: He is Ivan’s servant, as seen in the story, he is the only one showing genuine sympathy towards Ivan’s condition.

Vasya(Vladimir Ivanich): Ivan’s Son, he is seen as being deeply affected by his father’s illness, as he loves his father deeply.

Liza: She is a young woman of marriageable age who is largely focused on her own social standing when Ivan her father is still under a serious Illness.

Mikhail Danilovich: The Doctor who is treating Ivan, isn’t seen as very supportive or caring of Ivan’s own feelings or emotions of Distress as Mikhail is more interested in the technicalities of Ivan’s disease.

Petrishchev: A minor Character in the Book

Schwartz: He is a carefree character who is jovial, being one of the colleagues of Ivan, throughout the story he is seen as largely unaffected by Ivan’s death.

Ivan Yegorovich Shebek: A minor character in the book.

Fyodor Vasilyevich: A minor character in the book.

Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych Themes

Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych, we find and describe a number of themes found in this masterpiece of Tolstoy, these themes interact with one another in a very original way. here we will discuss it in detail.

The Steadiness Of Death

Death is a largely involved theme in the story, Ivan’s steady approach towards death is also the story’s recognition of death and Ivan’s search for a compromise with death’s dreadful and eternal-ending power.

The life of Ivan who now knows of his coming of death is much like a fact for all that death is an inevitable fact of life that everyone must confront and would not let pass.

Societies Artificiality Seen In the Story

This theme presents Tolstoy’s own critiques of the superficiality and materialisticness of Russian middle-class societies. It was Ivan’s pursuit of Societal approval and material comforts that left him so unprepared before his encounter with death.

The artificiality of Ivans’s life still contrasted with his servant Gerasim’s authenticity who had accepted the reality of suffering and death.

Suffering And Illness Hand In Hand

Ivan’s Illness was a catalyst for his self-reflection and transformation. The theme of illness and suffering shown through Ivan’s physical suffering actually mirrors his spiritual and existential crisis. His Health getting worse and worse makes him forced to confront the emptiness and superficiality of his life.

Greeds, Selfishness, and Their Impact on Relationships

The story doesn’t skip showing the unsavory sides of many superficial societal relationships. It vividly describes greed and selfishness leading to shallow and fake human connections like Ivan’s relationships with his wife, children, and colleagues are clearly marked by self-interest and lack of empathy.

Inner Life VS. Outer Life

It shows a contrast between our inner spiritual life and our outer physical life. While Ivan Grapples with his impending death, he experiences a spiritual awakening.

He understands the need and importance of compassion, love, and real authentic relationships as before his death the relationships he had earlier in life with his wife, his children, and his colleagues, showed how contrasting and superficial they were filled with self-interest and lack of empathy, it was a stark contrast to what he actually should have gone for.

Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych Plots

Leo Tolstoy’s Novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich is filled with quite a bit of realistic plots, it depicts a story parallel to many of the realities of the real world and Russian middle-class societies.

The Story Begins in law courts in St. Petersburg, three friends and colleagues of Ivan Illych learn from the newspaper of his death.

Ivan was the son of a successful but still unremarkable father. He graduated from law school and held successive positions in provinces where he was known for good behaviour not just in office but even in his duties for society.

He married Praskovya Fyodorovna and had a daughter named Liza and a son named Vasya. However, very soon his wife’s disruptive behaviors start to ruin Ivans’s decorous lifestyle that was approved by society.

Afterwards, Ivan started to involve more of himself in his work while distancing himself from his family. Time passed and Ivan moved up the ladder in ranks. expecting the promotion of a presiding judge in a university town, but he got passed over for promotion.

Infuriated and feeling to have been under injustice, Ivan gets a leave of absence and moves with his family to his brother-in-law’s house in the country.

While living in the countryside he got injured from missing a step and banging his side, the injury did not seem serious, but after looking at the drapes that he had hung up he was happy about the appearance of his house.

Later, Ivan started to feel discomfort, his left side was not getting well, and he felt an unusual taste in his mouth. Soon even doctors couldn’t seem to find a solution, and Ivan has the realization that he is dying.

He becomes more and more depressed and even struggles to understand reality fully, everything is crumbling away, and like all other men, he will too die.

Remember, in Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych, we have very shortly described the summary of the book, and the actual book has described these events more deeply and vividly, be sure to read the Book if you enjoyed our Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych.

What is The Significance Of Ivan’s Illness In the Death of Ivan Ilych

Writing about the Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych, we came to the question, what is the significance of Ivan’s Illness?

The significance is very large, not just in the story but the whole meaning behind the book.

Ivan’s Illness removes the superficial and ingenuine life from its curtains and throws him into reality. The story clearly shows that Illness is used as a sign, in many points in life there can be many aspects that can throw us out into reality as Illness did for Ivan.

For Ivan, his Illness was the one that pushed him to realize the social values he had been cultivating and adhering to were all fake and that real compassion and love are true values of life.

Not only that, Ivan’s illness also shows that illness is an uncomfortable fact meaning that one’s life would not be in one’s own control, Ivan has to face the fact that he lives at the mercy of his body, and to a certain extent his caretakers and his family.

Ivans’s physical condition deteriorating from the illnesses also gives his spiritual self a rebirth. He reassesses his life and finds the real priorities, all his physical suffering and alienation lead him to this road.

Ivan’s illness also serves as a reminder of the materialistic values of society that never change unless you change yourself and you change the people around you.

Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych- Leo Tolstoy’s Thoughts

Summary Of The Death Of Ivan Ilych Here, we talk about the author’s thoughts while he created this book of wonder.

The Death of Ivan Ilych is a clear reflection and an elaboration of Tolstoy’s post-conversation philosophical concerns. After experiencing a period of increasing depression and psychological crisis, Tolstoy was unable to find an acceptable meaning in life.

He felt shallow and clueless in front of the inevitability of death. The cluelessness in finding the meaning behind human life overwhelmed him. In his despair, Tolstoy found that the Russian people who are peasants, possessed a definite conception of the meaning of life, that was derived from the comfort of believing in a creator God.

The faith rescued them from despair, and suffering and infused life with meaning. when he was confronted with the choice of irrational faith or meaningless despair, Tolstoy chose faith.

These were the thoughts that led Tolstoy to create The Death of Ivan Ilych. He showed what he found in his thoughts and showed the existential crisis every man faces in society, it is a novel that truly depicts Tolstoy’s discovery of a new series of understanding. If you are Out to read more, be sure to check out our collections of novels right now!