Subject: Tolstoy’s storyteller comments that Ivan Ilych’s life has been “most simple and most ordinary and hence most terrible” ( 731 ) . Explain how the events of Ivan’s life support this appraisal. What is awful about the ordinary?
There are many mileposts in one’s life. Graduating college. acquiring a occupation. acquiring married. purchasing a house and holding childs. For most people these are joyous events that are celebrated with household and friends ; and come with difficult work. However some people have a different mentality towards life. They perform undertakings for the mere interest of acquiring the occupation done and life about seems like a cheque list. There is a difference between being alive and genuinely populating. Bing alive is carry throughing the duties and responsibilities that are required of you. Truly life is when you seize every minute and do the most of it. One appreciates the little pleasances in life and is satisfied with what he or she has. It is easy to travel through life without recognizing you are non basking it. We get so caught up in seeking to be the best version of ourselves that we don’t stop and appreciate the little things that bring every twenty-four hours joy. In “The Death of Ivan Ilych” Leo Tolstoy examines the life of a adult male. Ivan. who would hold seemed to populate a typical life with equal wealth. high place. and household.
However as we read on we come to recognize that he is populating about robotically. Relationships don’t have much value in his life. He does what he thinks is the right thing to make. and follows the illustrations of everyone around him. He is scared of acquiring left behind and wants to do a name for himself. This leads to Ivan Ilych’s life being “most simple and most ordinary and hence most terrible” ( 1458 ) . His life ends up being a entire waste with no existent friends. no felicity and tonss of sorrow. It is non until Ivan is on his decease bed in his concluding minutes that he realizes that the personal relationships we forge are more of import in life than who we are or what we own. But by so it’s excessively late. Today’s society is really fast paced ; everyone is ever on the spell. Peoples think about the large image and lose the little inside informations of life. This is a really common error in the western civilization. All working people want to follow the book of life. but there are some extremists like Ivan that take it to the following degree. With every facet in his life he wants to be perfect and will make anything to accomplish and keep his position.
An illustration of his utmost behaviour is his love life. Ivan was at a point in his life where he settled down in a new town and life was pleasant. There “he met his future married woman. Praskovya Fedorovana Mikhel. who was the most attractive. clever and superb miss of the set in which he moved” ( 1461 ) . He establishes a light relation with her ; and slowly she falls in love with him. Ivan had no connotation of get marrieding her. he thinks of his matrimony chiefly in footings of himself. He thinks of get marrieding her merely because she had all the qualities that he thinks a good married woman is supposed to hold ; she came from a good household. was good looking. had an income and “it [ matrimony ] was considered the right thing by most extremely placed of his associates” ( 1461 ) . So Ivan gets married ; it doesn’t sound like he is frantically in love with her. It’s more like he marries her because other people tell him it’s a good thing to make and he doesn’t have any expostulations. For Ivan other people’s blessing and positions matter more than his ain positions. Marriage is one of the most of import and joyous events in one’s life ; most people get married when they think is the right clip for them and with whom they think is the right individual. nevertheless for Ivan it’s merely another undertaking on the checklist. In other words Ivan got married merely for the interest of acquiring married.
There was no joy or exhilaration ; he makes matrimony expression like a simple and ordinary event in one’s life. Relationships are easy to do but hard to keep. As Ivan’s married life goes on he realizes that matrimony is non as easy and pleasant as he thought. As things started to alter in his life. he felt down and helpless. He wants to get away and unrecorded life his ain manner. invite friends over for a game of cards and travel to the nine in the eventides. On the other manus his married woman wanted him to pass more clip with her and there was nil incorrect with that. it is expected. Every married woman wants her hubby to pass clip with her particularly while she’s pregnant. However for Ivan his work is more attractive because it brings him success and that’s what’s most of import to him.
He doesn’t understand the importance of household and ignores his married woman ; Ivan spends more clip at work and becomes more ambitious than earlier. Money is an indispensable demand in life and it is a man’s duty to supply his household with all the amenitiess of life. since the work forces are normally the breadwinners of the family. However if you pay excessively much attending to money it can damage your relationship with your household because you lose out on clip with them. Relationships with household have a much larger consequence on quality of life than money does. However Ivan fails to recognize this and concentrations wholly on work. it is non until he’s on his decease bed that he understands the importance of household in life but by so it’s excessively late.
Traveling back into his childhood it is clear that Ivan was merely what “he remained for the remainder of his life: a capable. cheerful. good-natured. and sociable man” ( 1459 ) . Everyone has person or the other who they look up to and follow in life. Ivan was attached to people of high place. hence established friendly dealingss with them. He took their design of life which consisted to wealth and societal position ; and blindly followed it. Ivan did all the things they did. even though he didn’t like what he was making. He was disgusted with himself and regarded everything he did to be incorrect but because all these things were done by people with good place. it did non affair ( 1459 ) . Childhood is the best portion for most people ; they do what they want. don’t attention about others and most significantly have merriment.
However Ivan got so caught up in being the best version of himself. he missed all these cheerful things. He did what he thought to be the right things. which were the things done by successful people. It is non bad to follow successful people. everyone should make that nevertheless non to the extent that Ivan did. He did non listen to his bosom or encephalon. He even chose his friends on the base of their societal position and non whether he liked them or non. If something seemed incorrect to him. he tried to bury it merely because it was regarded right by the people with good place. There wasn’t anything particular about his childhood. he fundamentally followed a book. After jurisprudence school Ivan’s life is pleasant ; he performs his occupation and makes his calling in the state. Later in his life he takes up the station of analyzing magistrate in a new town ( 1460 ) . His societal life picks up where it left off. Ivan “picked out the best circle of legal gentlemen and affluent aristocracy life in the town” ( 1461 ) to tie in with. Here’s another illustration where Ivan does something because it seems the right thing to make. He wanted to be recognized in society and be powerful so he establishes relationships with rich and powerful people. It didn’t affair if he liked them or non.
The relationships he developed with them were on the surface and were merely a show. compared to normal friendly relationships that last forever. These work forces did non hold any significance in his life and frailty versa ; this is proven when he passed off and his friends care more about their publicities instead than being sad on a loss of a friend. People ever compare their life styles and what they have to their friends and people around them. It’s a non-ending rhythm of ever desiring what you don’t have. Ivan was ne’er content with what he had. and it was apparent in his life picks. After working as an analyzing magistrate for a piece “he was anticipating to be offered the station of a presiding justice in a University town” ( 1463 ) . Alternatively to his horror a co-worker got the station. In response to this he discontinue his occupation. He began actively runing for a better place and succeeded. His friend helped him set down a place that was two times better than his old one.
He was thrilled that he proved his co-workers wrong who failed to appreciate him. It is apparent that he was more aroused to demo off his new place to his “enemies” than to be truly happy about being able to supply more for his childs and married woman. We should ever take a minute to step back and bask what they have before life makes us recognize it’s excessively tardily. With Ivan’s new occupation came more money. This led to a bigger and better life style. He bought a expansive house and furnished it with expensive pieces. Slowly his dream of holding everything he could of all time woolgather of was coming true. He had obtained the position he ever wanted. purchased all the expensive things and was easy acquiring satisfied with everything. As he settled in to the new life style he ever wanted ; he rapidly became world-weary. It wasn’t every bit great as he thought it would be. All throughout his life he ever looked at the large image. He was so concentrated on acquiring his dream occupation. house and life style that he didn’t enjoy and appreciate the little pleasances that came along the manner. He sacrificed all the little joys of life for the terminal consequence and now that it was clip for Ivan to bask the consequences of his difficult work. life took a bend in the opposite way. As he was puting up his new house. he injured himself while seting up drapes.
As clip went on his hurt got worse. and he was ne’er able to to the full bask the things he had worked for. Ivan’s life had no particular minutes. as he ne’er understood the joy in little accomplishments. He took them as simple and ordinary things. As we examine Ivan’s life it is clear to us that it was a entire failure as most of the clip he was lonely and didn’t have any friends or household he confided his concerns to. He ne’er paid attending to his relationships and did non do an attempt towards them. As his Injury gets worse it begins to take a toll on his life. coercing him to remain at place. Now that he is at place all the clip he begins believing of his life and starts reflecting on it.
Slowly everything hits him. All the errors he made are going seeable to him from his childhood to his relationship with his married woman to his occupation. He is recognizing he spent his whole life trailing what he thought would do him a happy adult male and that he truly wasn’t happy at all. He did non set up any friendly relationships at a immature age. and the 1s that he did were non existent. they were on the surface. His life is blinking before his eyes. The empty feeling he had his whole life is turning into sorrow. As he thinks about his errors he realizes that he intended to populate life in a certain manner. but ended up life in a wholly different mode. Like everyone else Ivan didn’t recognize this while he was doing these errors. He wasted his life running after wealth and position ; and failed to construct existent relationships. In world he didn’t achieve anything in life other than touchable objects. We as the reader saw these chances for him to alter throughout his life. As a kid Ivan didn’t like what he was making. He was disgusted with the things he did to go one of the high positioned people.
He could hold understood that this is non the right manner to populate life but he was so determined to accomplish his end he turned incorrect things into right in his eyes. Subsequently on in his life after he got married. his married woman showed frustration towards him. she wasn’t happy with the manner of his life style. Most people care about their close 1s and seek to alter for them. whereas Ivan ran off from the state of affairs and started working more and disbursement less clip with his household. He did the antonym of what a normal individual would make. Alternatively of listening to his bosom and encephalon he changed his ethical motives ; alternatively of beef uping his dealingss he neglected them. His life picks were ordinary ; it seemed like he was merely being alive and non genuinely populating. Normally when people die. they are remembered for all the memories and great things they did.
Their loved 1s grieve over the loss of a friend and household member. A individual leaves a bequest after go throughing off. Many want that bequest to be one of the good times and the memories spent with people you love. However Ivan was unsuccessful in making that. He was so haunted with being successful while he was alive it was apparent his friends were friends with him for all the incorrect ground. After having the intelligence of their friend Ivan’s decease the first idea of each of his friends was of the alterations and publicities it might occasion among themselves or their familiarities ( 1453 ) . Alternatively of being sad. his friends thought of the benefits they’d acquire. This shows the type of friendly relationship he had established with his friends. Not merely had his friends. his married woman excessively thought about the benefits of his decease. Her chief concern was “how she could obtain a grant of money from the authorities on the juncture of her husband’s decease ( 1457 ) .
This was a consequence of Ivan’s behaviour and deficiency of love towards her. She was a good and loving individual ; but over clip matrimony changed her. While Ivan was alive he didn’t dainty her with love or give her the topographic point of a married woman in his life. Ivan’s wife’s and friends’ behaviour give a perfect image of how he lived his life. He merely fulfilled his duties merely for the interest of acquiring them done. Ivan was ordinary in the sense that he had no friends or loved 1s. For an foreigner looking in on his life he had it all ; a large house. nice auto. married woman. childs and respectable occupation. However life is non about the touchable objects ; houses and autos are merely stuffs but life has a bigger significance than that.
At the terminal of the twenty-four hours if all the objects were to be taken off from him he has no relationships to keep onto. Life ever boils down to the relationships we have. our loved 1s and the felicity of our households. It is unfortunate that Ivan realized this when it was excessively late and he couldn’t make anything about it. Hence his life was “most simple and most ordinary and hence most terrible” . Ivan’s misinterpretation of the things that genuinely mattered in life is what made his life so awful. Love. regard. familiarity. and felicity are the things that truly make life worth populating non wealth. power. and belongings.
