The Death of Ivan Ilych (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
By SparkNotes
()
About this ebook
Making the reading experience fun!
Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides: chapter-by-chapter analysis
explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols
a review quiz and essay topics
Lively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers.
Read more from Spark Notes
King Lear: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Fear Shakespeare Audiobook: Romeo & Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tempest (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Like It (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bird by Bird (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much Ado About Nothing (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMacbeth: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No Fear Shakespeare Audiobook: Julius Caesar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Years of Solitude (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeasure for Measure (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Merchant of Venice: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsiders (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomeo and Juliet: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Richard III (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atlas Shrugged SparkNotes Literature Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Winter's Tale (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Autobiography of Malcom X (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Merchant of Venice (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Gentlemen of Verona (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry V (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Raisin in the Sun (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTempest: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Comedy of Errors (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Fear Shakespeare Audiobook: Othello Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dune (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomeo and Juliet (No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomeo and Juliet SparkNotes Literature Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKing Lear (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRichard II (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to The Death of Ivan Ilych (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
Related ebooks
Study Guide to Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Leo Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilych" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Passage to India (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder Fire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to the Introductory Lectures of Sigmund Freud Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Quick Guide to "Nights at the Circus" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGale Researcher Guide for: Henry Fielding's Tom Jones and the English Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReady Reference Treatise: All My Sons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Study Guide for John Keats's "Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for William Congreve's "Love for Love" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide ... A Passage to India: notes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHowards End by E. M. Forster (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Wilkie Collins's "The Moonstone" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHound of the Baskervilles (SparkNotes Literature Guide) Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Study Guide to The Major Plays of George Bernard Shaw Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGale Researcher Guide for: Charles Dickens's Bleak House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to the Major Works by Jean-Paul Sartre Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for William Carlos Williams's "The Use of Force" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReady Reference Treatise: Barn Burning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Quick Guide to "Women In Love" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Walt Whitman's "A Noiseless Patient Spider" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to Tess of d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShakespearean Tragedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAntony and Cleopatra (MAXNotes Literature Guides) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to Franny and Zooey and Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to The Scarlet Letter and Other Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Book Notes For You
Summary of The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez: Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by John Gottman: Conversation Starters Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Midnight Library: A Novel by Matt Haig: Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 5 AM Club Summary: Business Book Summaries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The Creative Act: A Way of Being | A Guide To Rick Rubin's Book Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary of Ichiro Kishimi's and Fumitake Koga's book: The Courage to Be Disliked: Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Untamed by Glennon Doyle: Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery by Brianna Wiest : Discussion Prompts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Workbook for The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counter intuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence | Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Dirt (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel by Jeanine Cummins: Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary of Poverty, by America By Matthew Desmond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant: Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Workbook for Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5
Reviews for The Death of Ivan Ilych (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Death of Ivan Ilych (SparkNotes Literature Guide) - SparkNotes
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Leo Tolstoy
© 2003, 2007 by Spark Publishing
This Spark Publishing edition 2014 by SparkNotes LLC, an Affiliate of Barnes & Noble
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
Sparknotes is a registered trademark of SparkNotes LLC
Spark Publishing
A Division of Barnes & Noble
120 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
www.sparknotes.com /
ISBN-13: 978-1-4114-7477-2
Please submit changes or report errors to www.sparknotes.com/.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Context
Plot Overview
Character List
Analysis of Major Characters
Themes, Motifs, & Symbols
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Important Quotations Explained
Key Facts
Study Questions and Essay Topics
Review & Resources
Context
On August 28, 1828 Leo Tolstoy was born into a wealthy aristocratic family that resided at a country estate called Yasnaya Polyana, about 120 miles south of Moscow. Death visited the Tolstoy family early. When Tolstoy was only two, his mother died while giving birth to her fifth child. And Tolstoy's father followed suddenly in 1837. Orphaned but well off, Tolstoy was cared for by a succession of female relatives until he attained his maturity in 1848. Although he attended Kazan University for three years, he never completed a degree, choosing instead to return to Yasnaya Polyana to take up permanent residence.
The life of a wealthy Russian master was not for him, however, and in 1851 he joined his brother on active duty with the Russian army. It was during his tour of duty that Tolstoy published his first work, Childhood, an account of the life and experiences of a young boy. The novel garnered him immediate literary recognition. His celebrity status only grew throughout subsequent years as he published more stories and completed two sequels to Childhood: Boyhood and Youth. Yet in 1859, disillusioned with his calling as a writer, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana where he devoted himself to estate management and the study of educational practices. In 1862 Tolstoy married Sofia Andreevna Bers and seven years later, in 1869, published his epic work, War and Peace.Anna Karenina, the second long novel on which Tolstoy's fame as a writer is mainly based, followed in 1877.
From 1875–1878 Tolstoy experienced a period of increasing depression and psychological crisis that was to alter both his philosophy and his art. In A Confession, an autobiographical account of his life and moral struggle written after the crisis, Tolstoy writes that the principal cause of his depression was his inability to find an acceptable meaning in human life. The inevitability of death overwhelmed him, and all formulations of life's meaning appeared to him shallow and valueless. Neither the great philosophers of the past nor his contemporaries could provide him with satisfying answers. Desperate, he turned to the Russian people. Tolstoy found that the uneducated peasants possessed a definite conception of the meaning of a life, a comfort and security derived from irrational knowledge,
from faith in a creator God. This faith rescued them from despair and suffering and infused their life with meaning. Confronted with the choice of irrational faith or meaningless despair, Tolstoy chose faith. At first attempting to renew contact with the church of his childhood, Tolstoy eventually resolved to develop his own system of belief. And devoting the four years after his crisis (1878–1882) to that purpose, Tolstoy published a series of four works elaborating upon and explaining his unique religious philosophy, works that Tolstoy regarded as his most important achievement as a writer.
It is not insignificant that The Death of Ivan Ilych, written in 1886, was the first major fictional work published by Tolstoy after his crisis and conversion. Tolstoy's religious philosophy serves as a background to the understanding of the novel. Brotherly love, mutual support, and Christian charity, values that became essential to Tolstoy in the second half of his life, emerge as the dominant moral principles in The Death of Ivan Ilych. And just as Tolstoy's discovery of the true meaning of life led him to fulfillment and an acceptance of death, so too, Ivan Ilych's awakening exposes him to the light of a meaningful life and assuages his fear of dying. Thus, The Death of Ivan Ilych can be seen as a reflection and an elaboration of Tolstoy's post- conversion philosophical concerns. The novel is a fictional answer to the questions that plagued Tolstoy during the mid 1870s.
From the time of his conversion to his death, Tolstoy remained actively engaged in publicizing his religious beliefs. He wrote various pieces on social, political, and economic topics ranging from vegetarianism to capital punishment. In hopeless opposition to the government, nearly all of his writings were censored or banned. Tolstoy died in 1910 after nearly a decade of continuing ill health.
Plot Overview
The Death of Ivan Ilych begins at the chronological end of the story. A group of judges are gathered together in a private room of the courthouse when Peter Ivanovich, a judge and close friend of Ivan Ilych, announces that Ivan has died. Consoled by the thought that it is Ivan who has died and not them, the men in the room cannot help but think of the promotions and transfers that Ivan's death will occasion. That evening, Peter drives to Ivan's house to attend his funeral. But while looking at Ivan's corpse, Peter is bothered by an expression of disapproval and warning on Ivan's face. Ivan's wife Praskovya quizzes Peter about possible strategies to maximize her dead husband's government pension. On his way out, Peter encounters Gerasim, Ivan's sick nurse. Peter mentions that Ivan's death and funeral are a sad affair, and Gerasim surprises