The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy Essay -- Ivan Ilych Death Dying

In vitality we often consider ab out(p) death and what our life has cash in ones chips. We never suspect that we will pose ill and die, and we very r arely agonize over weather our life is what it should be until its too late, as demonstrated in Tolstoys The Death of Ivan Ilych. Throughout Tolstoys life he was religious and enjoyed life, but then as he reached the height of his fame and fourteen he began to question everything he had once believed in. Some people think that The Death of Ivan Ilych holds a lot of symbolism between the story and Tolstoys life. In The Death of Ivan Ilych there is a lot of symbolism of life and death as compared to Tolstoys life. Ivan Ilych was a man of success. He set out to achieve his goals, and make his money. He married the women he loved and had two beautiful children, living the exhaustively life with money and accomplishment. He didnt have normal worries like most working class people did, he just did what he set out to do and succeeded at that. It is noted that Ivan Ilychs life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible. (Arp, 512) Until one day he became sick. For months he primed(p) in bed in agonizing pain, and the doctors were left without agreeing knowledge on what he had. Close to the end of his life he began to wonder if his life was sincerely what it should have been and whether or not he achieved all he was supposed to. He questioned death as if to ask What is this? Can it be death?......Why these sufferings?(Arp, 553) The referee is now left with the question did he die from physical pain or from mental anguish also? It could be said that when he was dealing with his impending death he went through five psychological stages. First he went through denial and ignored the fact that he might be dying. He ignored his pain until it got to bad to cure. Second he went through anger. He became angry at his condition and took it out on his family, friends and servants. Then he went thro ugh a short period of bargaining, when he took communion for his wife he thought to himself To live I want to live (Arp, 556) All he wanted was to live his life like he knew he should have. The fourth stage was depression. This is the period he went through right before he recognize he was going to die. He felt that it would just be better if he died when he realized Yes, I am making them wretched, he thought. They are sorr... ...ndress uniform and went to the law courts. (Arp, 530-531) No one however, would know whether or not Ivan or the Unknown Citizen were hurt or gone because Had anything been wrong, should certainly have heard. (Arp, 672) not everyone is as observant to one persons needs as they should be. In the Death of Ivan Ilych the symbolism of death is very important. It shows that we should always look to the future and what we may become rather then the present and what we want at that moment. Will we turn out to be what we wanted to be, and live the fullest life possible. Its only up to us to decide that. Ivan Ilych was beginning to decide that when it was to late. In everyday life we take for granted that our values are sound and the projects and activities we take on are value doing. We never take a step back to realize that maybe we are doing something good or that maybe were not. We mainly concern ourselves with how we look in the end. That is something we should stop doing. We should follow the example of Ivan Ilych and make sure we live our lives to the fullest instead of realizing it when its to late. We should be like Tolstoy and realize that life is worth living.