This feeling was nothing but an illusion which gave respectability to the mundane and trivial existence.

In his case the repression is so internalized and automatic that he carried a feeling of living a successful and responsible life. In this sense his approach toward his finality is an awakening to his own repressed reality. The story is also a metaphorical journey toward illumination, in that, Ilyich only truly understands the failure of his erstwhile existence upon the shock of facing death. In many ways this authorial position is resonant with Plato’s famous claim that “an unexamined life is not worth living”. Tolstoy is unambiguous in his stance that such a life is not worth living. Hence, looking the other way is the basis for his material and social success. If he had chosen to be morally upright whenever confronted with the flaws inherent in society he would not have had a successful career. As a consequence, his reputation and social goodwill will diminish. Had he dared question the flaws in the system and had he tried to distance himself from corruption that is ubiquitous in society then he would have made a lot of enemies. The reason why Ilyich had attained high office toward the end of his career is in large part because he went along with the established social, cultural and political norms. In other words, it is extremely difficult to live for one’s own aspirations and to fulfill one’s true calling with complete honesty, liberty and integrity. Indeed, it is the least controversial lifestyles are the most compromised in terms of essence. Through the torment and tribulations of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy is probing a problem all too common to humanity, namely, how one can live a life uncompromised.

And it is this major failure during his most productive years that troubles him from accepting his life’s termination. He led “the most simple, the most ordinary and therefore most terrible” sort of life. The main reason why Ivan Ilyich has such a hard time accepting his own death is because he has led an unfulfilled life. That would be too terrible.” (Bozovic, 2004, p.223) And it simply was not possible that he should have to die. Vanya, Ivan Ilyich, with all his thoughts and feelings, it was something else again. Caius really was mortal, and it was only right that he should die, but for him. “represented man in the abstract, and so the reasoning was perfectly sound but he was not Caius, not an abstract man he had always been a creature quite, quite distinct from all the others….

That man Caius The Death Of Ivan Ilyich Discussion Questions

A Morte de Ivan Ilich by Leo Tolstoy