The Death Of Ivan Ilych: Describe 19th Century Russia

Students Name:
Professor:
Institution:
Date of Submission:
The Death of Ivan Ilych
The author of the novel The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy wrote the book during a period he had been questioning the meaning of life that is basically wiped out by death. He had a confrontation with the question that was there any meaning in his life that would not be destroyed by the death that awaited him inevitably? The author's beliefs on religion were some of the answers to the questions he had on mortality. Those questions are reflected in The Death of Ivan Ilych.
In the novel, the author depicts how Ivan Ilych comes to recognition that his life that had been materialistic had after all been meaningless. Ivan gets to understand that his life has been wrong in all aspects (Tolstoy 34). Notably, it's only after he lets go of all the trivialities that are false in his life, can he be able to face death, accept it and with joy die peacefully. After the acceptance is when the beginning of a purified life came in true death. The story is all about the author’s subversive critique of Russian society in the 19th century while being sensitive to the theatrics of social life.
Ivan is a Russian bureaucrat in the mid-level who is in a bitter marriage and is slowly sliding into debt. However, things are about to change when he gets a new position in his place of work which has a higher salary of 5,000 rubles a year (Tolstoy 42). He goes out in search of a good residence that befits a man with such an income. He purchases cheap antiques that are supposed to give his house an aristocratic look and changes the whole outlook of the house. Even though Ivan terms his house uniquely glamorous, it was just the way the upper middle class in Russian society during that period who were living under moderate means but wanted to appear rich.
The Russian society is presented as a world of appearances that are trifling, with orders to deny the living and dying basic facts. Notably, this is evident when Ivan slips on a step ladder and his long slow death from the pain on his side gives him a good time to reflect on his life choices and make an observation of how his friends and family are responding to his slow demise. In a scene where Ivan’s daughter and wife come to see him just before heading out for the opera, looks like pure convection (Tolstoy 91). It...