The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy

The Ilych novella was Tolstoy’s first work of fiction proceeding an incredible emotional struggle laden with deep existential questions and heavy bouts of depression. Tolstoy’s personal struggle with the unavoidable awareness of humanity’s fragile mortality and the ultimate meaning of a seemingly transient but very personal existence was finally resolved by his conversion to a radical expression of Christianity. Tolstoy’s expression of the faith was, however, markedly different from the simple faith expression of the Russian peasants to whom he had initially turned for answers to his big questions. Too, it should be noted, that Tolstoy’s Christian expression is very different from the “born-again” expression of modernity’s Evangelical America, lest anyone actually try to appropriate him. Tolstoy’s Christian expression was for the most part religiously humanistic, it seems. So, Jesus’ ethical teaching and practical example were the spiritual and moral priority.

Tolstoy’s conversion also marks an abrupt change in the theme of his work. Tolstoy’s post conversion writing primarily shares the same theme: Religion and Philosophy. The Death of Ivan Ilych, as the very first work following Tolstoy’s conversion, is heavy with religious themes, such as: The Right Life; The Impending Death; The Spiritual and Physical Conflict. Philosophical themes are present too and manifest in the author’s deconstruction of Bourgeois society, aristocrat mentality, and personal alienation.

The Death of Ivan Ilych is a stark parabolic exposition of human life. Human beings are, for whatever reasons, very much aware of their instinctive need to live life correctly. That said, “correctly” can be defined in a multitude of ways and therein exists the gray and the tension. This tension is obvious in the life and experiences of Ivan Ilych. Ilych believes that the correct life can be achieved through prosperity, propriety, upward social mobility, and class. The character’s unmovable dedication to these things actually becomes the catalyst for his greatest personal shortcoming and eventual undoing: His need to placate the opinions and expectations of the Bourgeois.

Ivan Ilych sifts all of his life through the Bourgeois filter of propriety. The result is an extreme and unquenchable dissatisfaction with nearly all aspects of his own life and life situation. When real-time difficulties that conflict with his image of the correct life arise, Ilych retreats to activity that is more in tune to the aristocrat fantasy. Interestingly, Ilych becomes increasingly intolerant with nearly all of life and like a junkie he continues to inject and retreat into a self-deluding fantasy life that is far removed from his reality. His marriage is, as a result. reduced to a necessary but uncomfortable formality. His wife’s marital needs and real-time struggles go ignored by Ilych and results in a downward spiral that only causes deeper separation and deeper dissatisfaction. All of Ilych’s life follows suit. Dissatisfaction meets the character at every turn and he responds by losing himself in the only aspect of his life that even hints of aristocrat propriety: His work’s formality. Ilych washes every aspect of his life with this formality. The result, ironically, is not a Bourgeois social reality, but a miserable real-time existence that is wasted on social fantasy and personal illusions that have no practical value or use.

Tolstoy’s Ilych is an extended religious parable. And like a good parable, it raises more questions than it does answers. It’s a story that causes the critical reader to think about bigger questions. Through Ilych, Tolstoy is critiquing the Bourgeois social values of his day, and the effect that such values have upon real lives and real living. Ilych is the living embodiment of the question of salvation. Where from does salvation come? That’s the primary question, but that’s not the only question. If that question is asked, another will surely follow: “What are we actually being saved from?” The joy of salvation requires a bitter antagonist, or there is no reason to be saved at all. Tolstoy’s story is religious in that it forces us to look deeper at our slavific concepts. Said differently, The Death of Ivan Ilych forces readers to wrestle with the big idea of salvation (protagonist), what we are being saved from (antagonist), and the practical effects of salvation (does it usher life?).

Ilych thought salvation would follow the embrace of the aristocracy’s propriety. He was wrong. In fact, the opposite was the result; instead of salvation, Ilych was destroyed by the illusion of the Bourgeois.

Ivan Ilych physically died as a result of his fall and bruised side, but he literally died before that unfortunate event. Life was drained from Ilych at the moment when he decided to embrace the Bourgeois illusion. This illusion blinded Ilych to all of life. Ilych was blind because the aristocracy’s propriety had no room for life’s beautiful messes. Ilych’s propriety only made room for the formal, and life, if it is anything at all, is not formal. Life is messy. Plans are abruptly changed. Beauty is found in the many, many moments of linked spontaneity. If salvation is drained – or removed – from these links, then life itself is reduced to a death-inflicting illusion. True salvation introduces no such illusions, but instead introduces the saved to real life. Said differently, an authentic offer of salvation will be accompanied by an invitation to actually embrace and engage real life and real living, rather than offer a false door of escape.

Could we still learn from a story written in 1886? Absolutely. Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych could be easily rewritten today, and many of our own names could replace that of Ivan Ilych.

Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories (Penguin Classics). London: Penguin Classics, 1989. Print.