Character Development Of Ivan Illych In Death Of Ivan Illych (Leo Tolstoy) - Essay Example

? CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT OF IVAN ILLYCH IN DEATH OF IVAN ILLYCH (LEO TOLSTOY) Ivan Illych was portrayed as an ordinary man who came to the realization of unavoidable facts of life, at the moments of his death. Death of Ivan Illych, as its name implies, is an event only to Ivan but for none. The painstaking acceptance about the past events is momentary for Ivan but, the readers are left to reflect on it. Ivan slowly starts loving his family, then at the first time think about death as certain facet of life. Then with great joy, arising from the complete liberation goes beyond life unknowingly. Character Development in Ivan Illych Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, known as Leo Tolstoy, was great Novelist story teller and playwright philosopher and educationist from Russia. His position among the novelist of the world literature is at the peak. He is unique in his views about moralistic and ascetic ideology which he acquired after a moral crisis and awakening in the 1870’s. It was a turning point for him and later he became a moral thinker and social reformer.. Many critics are of the opinion that the influence of Rousseau caused his rebellious attitude. The intense desire for resolve the deep rooted dissatisfaction with himself and the long perturbed search for meaning in life are dealt in his Confessions of Memoirs of Madman. The Death of Ivan Illych, first published in 1866 is a novella and one of the master pieces of his late fiction immediately after his religious conversion. The novella can be well thought-out as Tolstoy’s earnest commitment to view literary art as a means for bringing important truths to the attention of the reader. The novel tells the story of the death of a high court judge. Leo Tolstoy, through his early literary works made an effort to illustrate the existing traits in Russian aristocracy. He presented what he saw with simplicity and impassiveness. But later he modified his writing style to portray moral romanticism drawing ideas to the proper way of life.” The Death of Ivan Illych ‘is a superb example of Tolstoy’s revolutionary approach to life. His newly built attitude towards life and religion is expressed through the portrait of Ivan Illych’s character development. All the other characters stand for his earlier attitude towards life. He mocks at the people who live self-absorbed and lead a fruitless life. The story begins with the announcement of the death of Ivan Illych and the response of his colleagues to it. The thoughtlessness towards the sufferings of other people is demonstrated in this scene. Tolstoy illustrates lucidly how “the life of civilized people is a great life simply because it disguises and ignores its dark background, the metaphysical abyss and the reality of Death” (Sarah Lawall). This is true when analyze the first thoughts of these colleagues. They all thought about the impact it will make in their own position and financial endeavors. To understand what make others to think like that, we have to analyze who was and how he reached the present stage. A close analysis shows three different stages in the development of character of Ivan. At first we can see Ivan as an ordinary man who cares about others that surround him. Secondly Ivan seems to be preoccupied with death. Next he is found as a person who mourns at his lost life. Thus Tolstoy gives us a thorough description about the stages of character development of Illych. The evolution of Ivan from middle –class lawyer, to a spiritually heighted person on the death is eventful. Ivan Illych is presented as ordinary men who wish to get acquire the position of a lawyer. Tolstoy gives a beautiful description about his entire life. In his words, “an intelligent, polished, lively and agreeable man “, but his life was ‘terrible’. “Ivan is a cliche, a human cipher dutifully plodding through a miasma of works and days “. (Carter 15). At first we see an innocent young man who thinks about himself. Tolstoy says about Illych’s life “It had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible “. Tolstoy uses the supporting characters to exaggerate the alienation and his torments. For example his wife only remembers her suffering throughout his agony; Ivan’s daughter is only concerned about the delay in her marriage. His colleagues only think about promotion opportunities when Ivan is gone. Though Ivan is unaware of these thoughts in his death bed, Tolstoy indirectly asks the readers to analyze the life of such a person. By consciously detecting the mind of his characters, the writer affirms that one is judged on the way of his life and he has to answer for all his agonies alone. Thus he supports his belief in the simple life and makes others also realize as, Ivan realizes, the immortality of spiritual life. The second chapter emphasizes Ivan’s superficial life who never adjusting to himself and his feelings. He is materialistic keeping away from a moral life.”…To lead a decorous life approved by society, one must adopt a definite attitude …” He was only bothering about keeping up his appearances. “He only required of it these conveniences – dinner at home, housewife, and bed-which it could give him, and above all that propriety of external forms required by public opinion” In the third chapter Ivan had a fall from a stepladder. As we move we can see Ivan suffering from his injury and isolated further from his family. In Tolstoy’s words “He had to live thus all alone on the brink of an abyss, with no one who understood or pitied “. He never accepts his current situation and thinks that this is only a temporary injury and he will return to his old self. “I will take up my duties again – after all, I used to live by them “. But as the stage of illness continues it brings a revolution in the attitude of Ivan which can be said as a major one. Grasim is the only character who loves him and willing to suffer with him. Tolstoy presents Gerasim as a socially subordinate peasant boy, but higher in quality than the protagonist. The ideology of the novelist is conveyed through certain qualities of the servant. Through Gerasim Tolstoy contrasts the goodness of country side and dullness of city. The transformation in the life of Ivan is only due to the presence of Gerasim who evokes such divine feeling of love and selflessness. “ This embodiment of a natural countryside vigor owes much of his physical well –being t the city life whose ethos he is intended to encounter” (Shepherd 408) The first tint of love that Ivan expresses to the servant is unfamiliar to all others. Ivan slowly realizes what is more important in life. He starts to care about others to his best. When Ivan is on bed Grasim takes the role of a care-taker” Grasim’s modeling of caring and compassion set the stage for Illych to break free from his fears , face death and face himself “ (Taylor 304 ). In this stage that Illych felt a sense of alienation from his family. His new approach was not reciprocated. “Ivan was left alone with the consciousness that his life was poisoned and he was poisoning the lives of others, and that this poison did not weaken but penetrated more and more deeply into his whole being.” His wife simply treats him as a nurse, a patient. He was absorbed in his memories and reflections of his life his family went about their business. Illych himself felt that his family would be more comfortable without him. Towards the end of the seventh chapter we see Ivan not having a desire to come back to his old way of life. “ What tormented Ivan Illych most was the deception … The awful , terrible act of dying was , he could see , reduced by those about him o the level of a casual unpleasant , and most indecorous incident and this was done by that very decorum which he ha d served all his lifelong” . Ivan sees everything that he was unable to see in himself or in others. Another change in his thought pattern occurs during this time that he was ignorant of death. He fails to accept the universality of death. Because of a life of luxury and comfort Ivan thinks that he will never die or death is a dream which never occurs. He is so immersed in his life that he never thinks about his death. Tolstoy comments on Ivan when he says “but not only was he not accustomed to the thought, he simply did not and could not grasp it”, but his inner voice says ‘To live? How? ‘Why to live as I used to – well and pleasantly.’ Thus he recollects the pleasant moments in his life. At this point he asks “What if my whole life has really been wrong?” His mental anguish is at its height. The recognition of truth that his life was in vein and it was too late to do anything. It can be said as Ivan’s victory that he experiences what is called compassion and love towards the near and dear ones. He was taught the first lessons of love in his death bed. “Then he felt that someone was kissing his hand. H opened his eyes, looked at his son, and felt sorry for him. His wife came up to him and he glanced at her. She was gazing at him open mouthed, with tears on her nose and cheek and a despairing look on her face. He felt sorry for her too”. This event just before his death shows the complete transformation from the beginning to the end. The realization that life is not materialistic pleasures, but ethical and moral values, is to be kept the whole life. A spiritual man enjoys death, is a pass over, a transformation. But for Ivan only it becomes a transformation to his character and body. “And death…. Where is it? What death”. He did not identify death wrapping him. Through the portrayal of Ivan as an ordinary human being, Tolstoy brings the unhappiness in the mind of Ivan. He struggles to find his position in the social ladder of life. This resulted in the “dissolution of Ivan Illych’s singularity in the plurality of social conformity and aspiration” (Shepherd 404). In order to unravel the futility of materialistic view, Ivan should lead a pompous life. After receiving a good job Ivan decorates his apartment in order to produce a wealthy look. When he starts living in a high level that Tolstoy make him fall from a ladder. So Tolstoy brings the message that human life is always awaited with existential dilemma. Tolstoy was conveying the message of the need of simplicity, love and compassion in the daily life which seems to be essential in dealing with the trivialities of everyday life.(Valente 129) The state of disease is a gift offered by the novelist to create an atmosphere for the salvation of Ivan. The disease affected by the body leads to the conversion of his soul. Gary Jahn says about this “Tolstoy used health and disease in the story in a highly symbolic fashion and through this usage he emphasized the tension between the physiological and spiritual planes of human existence “(Jahn 98). To a great extend Ivan’s illness is due to the spiritual crisis. Tolstoy presents two different approaches to life through two entirely different characters, Ivan and Gerasim, the artificial pompous life, by mainly Ivan, and valid life by Gerasim. Tolstoy presents superficial relations, self interest and materialism as the characteristic features of artificial life. As a consequence, it keeps the true facts away from one’s life and leaves him alone at the shore of death. A valid life on the other hand is striking by love and consideration. The results of such authentic life are strong interpersonal relations and intrapersonal relations. The artificial life offers only emptiness and dullness. Tolstoy affirms that Christianity is the one that explains the death-conflict in the story. According to the bible “One must born again “to achieve heavenly experience. (John 3:3). Towards the end Ivan approached death with recognition of death itself, a kind of compromise that the hero is undertaking at the inevitable moment. The fact that the clear way to death is the proper attitude towards life is stressed by the life of Ivan. The emotional change we observe in Ivan at the time of death is due to the temporal change that occurs to his thought pattern due to essential realizations. His emotions slowly progress from terror to joy. Tolstoy announces that one can never steer clear of the inevitable realities in life. The confidence to face these realities is the recognition of unpredictable nature of life. This provides with the power to be happy at the face of death. The conflict with the inner and the outer self, or the spiritual and physical life is the basis of life. We see until chapter IX Ivan is purely physical being. Ivan upholds his physical pleasures and also mistake s it for his true spiritual power. The way to insight is slow and also last for a few moments. But that is enough for him to familiarize with the extreme joy of the spirit, slowly moves beyond death experiencing the real joy of freedom which only death offers. Thus through his character Tolstoy marks out the need of a spiritual life to confront the last moments and present before us a bitter fact that human being are unable to comprehend the bitter realities until death. Bibliography Lawall, Sarah.(2002), 3 vols. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Carter , Steven, (2003),” Tolstoy’s ‘The Death of Ivan Illych “ ,The Explicator Taylor, Susan L. “The Gerasim Model of Caregiving: Reflections on Tolstoy’s Novella Tolstoy, Leo ,(1981) The Death of Ivan Illych . New York, NY Shepherd, David “Conversion, Reversion, and Subversion in Tolstoy’s ‘The Death of Ivan Illych Jahn, Gary R.(1993) “The Death of Ivan Illych”: an Interpretation. NewYork, http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)61616-0/ http://3221-intro-to-lit.wikispace.com/ Read More