The 'Death of Ivan IIych' depicts
the story of a man suffering from acute pain, and it unable to find escape in
the tortures of his life, the only shelter he took was his own self and become
a solitary, even though he departed himself from the social circle, but still he
was having a common talk with his colleagues about the court, at the initial
stage of his life, he was as happy as he wished for and lived the life to his
fullest, having all luxuries of his life, without having any glimpse of
realization of what he was doing with his life, he was just living as it was
supposed to, as others live; the concept of other in this Novella played a quintessential role, as he was living for others more than his own self, to
show his repute to the society, and finally, become fully dependent on others
for his treatment, Gerasim was the only one supporting him all the time,
Illness triggered his inner thoughts to ponder and observe his life deeply and
as it becomes more serious he also becomes more sensitive towards his thoughts, and questioned, '' Is there any meaning to life
at all?'' that was the starting point in his life when he started observing the
things, the materialistic things seem to him unworthy, the relationships,
respect, popularity was lessening its importance in front of him because of the
spirituality, the feeling of finding meaning in his life, he accepted them and
tried to solve them also that nothing remains for so long. He was suffering
more mentally. The foreshadowing in the novella depicts his thoughts, and his
past memories, the life in which he had run for a long period of time now seem
useless.
For him, death becomes his being and it made more sense
to him than anything, before that he was refusing the fact of death as we can
see in the text when he was repeating the syllogism about mortality that he
accepted about mortality, he was unable to apply on his own. But his illness,
pain; that become much spiritual for him than physical, and concept of death
that was abstract changed into concrete form.
Spending his time in the dark continually for several
days; as he was struggling, and dipped down in the dark cave but still
questioning and thinking existentialists questions that he asks from himself
become solved. And at the last moments of his life, he sees the light, all his
suffering, pain, and pangs converted into blessing and pleasantness and gone
forever. Here we also see Tolstoy depiction of his self, as he also realized
all the phenomena of life until the last moment the ultimate reality that is
death. But death is not the end, it’s another door towards heaven. The ‘light’
in the end serving as a seed sprouting from the soil, that first buries and
then initiates new life, pessimism he viewed now transformed into happiness and
optimism. His death also uncovers the existence of God in our lives that
without believing on spirituality and on Him we are living like sloths having
no aim and purpose, and the ‘Essentially’ of death, that we all will experience
is inescapable, it is a saying, ‘’ Death is the ultimate possibility of my
being’.
Henceforth, Tolstoy gives his message in an ambiguous way through his character by portraying in a realist way.
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