Leo Tolstoy was a
great humanist. Evolution of human
character was a subject of his close attention.
The main
personage of the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" is ordinary
official who conduct his life according to a strict social code, never deviating
from what was rule d by society, by his pleasure, by materialistic motives, but
never by conscience. His contact with his wife and children was limited and
shallow because he didn't find pleasure in this. His life satisfied him when he was healthy,
but when he faced with death his loneliness overwhelmed him. After the accident which starts his long
dying Ivan Ilyich realized that his life, though he has been successful and has
always done the proper things, is all false.
He understood that his life was meaningless.
As his illness progressed, Ivan Ilyich felt
increasingly the need to be loved. Only
in front of death he knew what real feeling is. Ivan Ilyich felt real empathy
and pity from peasant Gerasim and son Vasya.
His moral misery
was worse than physical. The result of
this was that Ivan Ilyich in dying became the individual that he never was in
his typical life. He understood that his notion about his decent and
helpfulness was just illusion. He felt
as if he were being squeezed down into a black hole and there at the bottom was
light. This metaphor serves as image of
physical death and spiritual rebirth.
His death gave birth to new
consciousness. He suddenly perceived
that man's essential life belongs to the spirit and well-being is achieved
through loving of people. He asked forgiveness of his family for his sins and
welcomed death... This moral transformation makes real end of his unreal life.
As a moralist
Tolstoy would like to play attention of Russian intelligentsia how badly they live,
how they waste their talents, strengths,
and capabilities. He called on moral self-improvement.
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