The Theme of Love and Death in Tolstoy's the Death of Ivan Ilyich

Author(s): Temira Pachmuss

Source: The American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Feb., 1961), pp. 72-83
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 THE THEME OF LOVE AND DEATH
IN TOLSTOY'S
THE DEATH OF IVAN ILTICH
TEMIRA PACHMUSS

IN HIS Ispoved' (Confession), Tolstoy gives us a painful picture of a

man who, in his search for a solution to the problems of human
existence,experiences the same feelingsas a man lost in a dense wood:

He comesto an open plain, climbsup a tree,and sees around him endless

space, but nowherea house-he sees darkness,but again no house. Thus
I lostmyway in the wood of human knowledge,in the twilightof mathe-
matical and experimentalscience,which opened beforeme a clear and
distanthorizonin the directionof which therecould be no house, and in
the darknessof philosophy,plungingme into a greatergloom with every
step I took,until I was at last persuaded that therewas, and could be, no
wayout. When I followedwhat seemed the brightlightof learning,I saw
thatI had only turnedaside fromthe real question. Notwithstandingthe
attractionof the distanthorizon,unfoldedso clearlybeforeme, notwith-
standingthecharmof losingmyselfin theinfinity ofknowledge,I saw that
the clearerit was, the less necessaryit was to me, the less did it give an
answerto myquestion.1

Modern science has increased, rather than decreased, the need for
speculation on being, truth,and knowledge: "Studying shadows in-
stead of objects, men have quite forgottenthe object whose shadow
theyare studying,and engrossingthemselvesmore and more with the
shadow, have reached complete darkness and rejoice that the shadow
is so dense."2 Science, Tolstoy maintained, "perverts the conception
of life by supposing itselfto be studyinglife when it is studyingmerely
the phenomena that accompany it. The longer it studies its phenom-
ena, the fartherdoes it diverge from the conception of life it wishes
to study."3 Science does not give an answer to the question of our
existence but only reassertsthat we live in a world of outward ap-
pearances and illusions.

If we turnto thosebranchesof knowledgein whichmen have triedto find

a solution to the problemof life-physiology,psychology,biology,sociol-

L. N. Tolstoy,Polnoe sobranie sochinenii (Moscow: GIKhL, 1959), XXIII, 21.

2Leo Tolstoy, On Life, trans. and with an Introductionby AylmerMaude (London:
Oxford UniversityPress, 1934), p. 164.
3 Ibid.,
p. 163.

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 Tolstoy'sDeath ofIvan Ilyich 73

ogy-we meet with a strikingpovertyof thought,with the greatestob-

scurity,withan utterlyunjustifiablepretensionto decide questionsbeyond
theircompetence,and a constantcontradictionof one thinkerby another,
and even by himself.If we turnto the branchesof knowledgewhich are
not concernedwith the problem of life but findan answerto theirown
particularscientificquestions,we are lost in admirationof man's mental
powers; but we know beforehandthat we shall get no answersto our
questionsabout lifeitself,forthesebranchesof knowledgedirectlyignore
all questionsconcerningit.4

Tolstoy's endeavors to solve the riddle of life and death originated

not so much fromhis intellectual curiosityas fromhis deep spiritual
fearof death. Tormented by the question "Is thereany meaning in my
life which can overcome the inevitable death awaiting me?" Tolstoy
found himselfon the brink of suicide. "There is nothing worse than
death," he wrote in a letter fromNice to the poet Fet on October 17,
1860. "And when you fullyrealize that with it everythingcomes to an
end, then there is nothing worse than life either." One night in 1869,
while on a journey fromNizhnij Novgorod to Penza Province, Tolstoy
had a harrowing experience which he recorded in his autobiographi-
cal Zapiski sumasshedshego(Memoirs of a Madman) some fifteenyears
later. On his trip he reached the town of Arzamas and spent the night
in a small house where he actually saw and feltthe approach of death;
like some physical presence, it murdered his sleep and filled his mind
with thoughtsof dissolution and the end of all he held dear. In the
depths of his thoughts there was always that terrible apparition of
death, and in a few years it reappeared to demand an answer to his
question: "Around me is death and destruction.Then why live? Why
not die? ... What is life for? To die?"5
Countess S. A. Tolstoy, who knew of Tolstoy's ever-gTowingfear of
death, recorded in her diaries that "his fear of death was enormous."6
We find a similar reference in the reminiscences of Mme Tatyana
A. Kuzminskaya, Countess Tolstoy's sister,who wrote in May, 1866:
"Tolstoy spoke often of death. I remember his saying once: 'Really,
how peaceful is our life! Yet if one thinks deeply and pictures death
vividly,then one cannot live!' "7 Many writersand scholars also com-
mented on Tolstoy's anxiety. Maxim Gorky, for example, wrote:
"All his life Tolstoy feared and hated death, and all his life there

4Tolstoy, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii,XXIII, 18.

5Leo
Tolstoy,Father Sergiusand Other Stories (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1912), p. 243.
6 Countess
Tolstoy's Later Diaries 1891-1897 (London: Victor Gollanz, 1929), p. 216.
7T. A. Kuzminskaya,Tolstoyas I Knew Him: My Life at Home and at Yasnaya Polyana
(New York: Macmillan, 1948), p. 366.

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74 The AmericanSlavic and East European Review

throbbedin his soul the 'Arzamasianterror'-musthe die?"8Gorky

aptlylikenedTolstoy'sfearofdeathto thefeelingsof "a youngrecruit
whois besidehimselfwithfearand anxietyat an unknownbarracks."9
AnalyzingTolstoy'sfearof death,Thomas Mann wrote: "Tolstoy's
strongest,mosttormenting, deepest,and mostproductiveinteresthas
to do with death. It is the thoughtof death which dominateshis
thoughtsand writing,to such an extentthatone may say no other
greatmasterofliteraturehas feltand depicteddeathas he has-felt it
with such frightful penetration,depicted it so insatiablyoften....
Death is a verysensual,veryphysicalbusiness;and it would be hard
tosaywhetherTolstoywas so interested in deathbecausehe wasso ...
interestedin thebody,and in natureas thelifeofthebody,or whether
it was theotherwayabout."10
DmitrijMerezhkovskij claimedthatTolstoytaintedthesoul of an
entiregenerationwithhis fearof death: "If in our timepeople are
afraidof death,have such a convulsivefearof it, as no one had ever
experiencedbefore,ifall ofus in thedepthofour hearts,in our flesh
and blood feelthis'cold tremor,'a chill piercingto themarrowofour
bones,it is Tolstoywhomwe mustchieflythankforthisfear.Tolstoy
had no doubt,no hesitation,and no uncertainty about death,thatit is
a 'transitioninto nothingness,'a transitiondevoid of everymystery.
His terrorwas inconsolable,fruitless,senselesslydestructiveand
calculatedto dryup theveryspringsoflife."ll
Many Tolstoyscholarsbelieve thatTolstoy'sfearof deathwas not
so muchspiritualas physical.'2They maintainthatTolstoyloved life
so muchthathe fearedto thinkofitsend.The presentwriterdoes not
attemptto challengethisview,especiallysinceTolstoyhimselfin his
diaries,letters,and essaysexplainedhis fearofdeathin preciselythat
fashion,as we see,forexample,in his essayOn Life: "Indeed thefear
of death is due only to the fearof losing the good of life at bodily
death."13However,even a thinkingman is not alwaysaware of the
real causes of his fears.In The Death of Ivan Ilyich,the workthat
revealsTolstoy'sown state of despair at the thoughtof death, the
hero'sfearofdeathis causedbya feelingquite different fromhis love
forlife.Besides,Tolstoyhimselfin some of his worksascribedman's

8M. Gorky, Vospominanija o L've Nikolaeviche Tolstom (Berlin, St. Petersburg,

Moscow: Izd. Grzhebina, 1922), p. 47.
Ibid.
10Thomas Mann, Three Essays (New York: A. Knopf, 1929), pp. 106-07.
"lDmitrij Merezhkovskij,L. Tolstoj i Dostoevskij: Zhizn', tvorchestvoi religija (St.
Petersburgand Moscow: Volf, 1912), pp. 37-38.
12
See, forexample, Janko Lavrin, Tolstoy: An Approach (London: Methuen, 1948).
IS Tolstoy, On Life, p. 77.

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 Tolstoy'sDeath ofIvan Ilyich 75

fearof deathto his guiltyconscience,as we can see again in his essay

On Life: ". . . the fear of death is not in reality a fear of death but of
falselife.... Men are horrifiedat the thoughtof death not because
theyfeartheirlifemayend withit,but becausephysicaldeathclearly
showsthemthe necessityof the truelifewhich theydo not possess.
And thisis whymenwho do not understandlifeso disliketo thinkof
death.For themto thinkofdeathis thesameas to admitthattheydo
notliveas theirreasonableconsciousness demandsthattheyshould."'4
whilerecognizingthephysical
A criticas sensitiveas Merezhkovskij,
natureof Tolstoy'sdread of death,maintainedthatthisfeelingdid
not originatein the novelist's"bodilyfear,"but had a metaphysical
character:"This fearis of a moreinwardand profoundkind,and its
originis abstractand metaphysical ratherthananimal."'5One of the
mostrecentcriticsof Tolstoy,GeorgeSteiner,says: "Like Goya and
Rilke,Tolstoywashauntedbythemystery ofdeath.This hauntedness
deepened with the years... his whole being rebelled against the
paradox of mortality.His terrorswere not primarilythose of the
froma despairofreasonat thethoughtthatmen's
flesh... he suffered
livesweredoomedthroughillnessor violenceor theraveningsoftime
to irremediableextinction,to that inch-by-inchdisappearanceinto
the 'dark sack' which Ivan Ilyich records in his last agonized
moments."16
Tolstoyhimselfseemedto feelthatman'sfearofdeathwas a result
of sham civilization,whichwith its poisonsaffectsthe human mind
and heart.Civilization,withits awakeningof the individualand his
againstthe group,with its strife,division,and falsity,
self-assertion
corrupts man's world outlook and nature.It spells moral ruin, uni-
versalegoism,spiritualdisintegration, and the tormenting feelingof
solitude.In theworksofTolstoythethemeoflonelinessand isolation
frequently formsthecentralpointofhisethicalspeculations.Treating
thevariousaspectsofthisproblem,he showsisolationto be thelogical
consequenceof man'sselfishness and of thefalsityofhis life.Civiliza-
tion teaches man to concentrateon his own personality,his own
interests,and particularlyon social decorum. He remainson the
surfaceof life; incapable of profoundexperiencesin his innerlife,
man lives in the illusion thatif his existenceis in accordancewith
social decorum,he lives an ideal life. In reality,however,Tolstoy
warns,man's real lifeslips by. Such "civilized"people in mostcases
wake up only when theyconfrontdeath and suddenlyrealize that
p. 115.
14Ibid.,
15
Merezhkovskij,L. Tolstoj i Dostoevskij,p. 39.
6George Steiner,Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky(New York: AlfredA. Knopf, 1959), p. 251.

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76 The AmericanSlavic and East European Review

theirsuperficiallife,devoid of anydeep and genuinefeelings,keeps

themin innerisolationfromtheirfellowmen.
No carefulreader of Tolstoy can miss the novelist'sdeeply felt
convictionthatthelifeof"civilized"manstandsin flagrant opposition
tohumanlifeas createdbyGod and nature.The deathofa "civilized"
and consciousman is painfuland uglybecause he lives a falselife,
filledwiththelies,artificiality, and corruptionof moderncities.The
descriptions of death scenes in Tolstoy'sworksstronglysuggestthat
thenovelistconsideredman'sperverted worldoutlookhismostserious
diseaseand thegreatestevil in his life.The writermade his beautiful
adulteress,Anna Karenina,perishat the momentshe became con-
vinced thather life had been based on false assumptions,and that
because of theseshe had been draggedinto a blind alleyfromwhich
she could findno wayout. Polikushka,in the shortstoryof thesame
title,was led into a false life because he was misunderstoodby his
fellowcreatures,and was finallydriven to suicide. In Tri smerti
(Three Deaths), the spoiled upper-classlady-because of her "civi-
lized Christianity,"whichaccordingto Tolstoyengendersselfishness
and self-centeredness-died a mostpainfuldeath comparedwiththe
death of an old peasantand a felledbirch tree.The main moral of
thesestoriesis the fallacyof moderncivilizationand the inferiority
of the culturedand sophisticatedman, withhis shamvalues, to the
illiteratepeasant,withhisinnatewisdomand goodness.The primitive
Russianman humblyacceptshis deathwithoutundergoingthepangs
of an inner struggle.Admiring,like Tolstoy, this featureof the
Russian peasant,Turgenev exclaimed: "How wonderfullythe Rus-
sian peasantdies! His conditionbeforedeath can be called neither
indifference nor insensitivity;he dies as ifperforminga ritual: coolly
and simply."17 Like Tolstoy,Turgenev insistedthat thosejust and
righteouspeople who had lived close to nature and in complete
harmonywithit would die a beautifuland peacefuldeath.
In Tolstoy'sKrug chteniia (The Circle of Reading) we findmuch
evidencethat the novelist'sthoughtsabout death were stronglyin-
fluencedby the philosophyof stoicism,especiallyby the views of
Senecaand MarcusAurelius,who maintainedthatthedeathofa man
whosesoul is infestedwith fearsand lustsis accompaniedby much
suffering and pain,whereasthedeathofa righteouspersonis peaceful
and quiet, despitethe presenceof tormenting physicalpain. In The
Circle of Reading, Tolstoy said: "The bettera man's life the less
17I. S. Turgenev, Smert',in Zapiski okhotnika.Vol. I of Sobranie sochinenii (Moscow:
Izd. Pravda, 1949), p. 165.

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 Tolstoy'sDeath ofIvan Ilyich 77

dreadfuldeathis to him and the easierit is forhim to die."18"One

shouldlivein sucha wayas notto feardeath."19
Tolstoydescribeda most terrifying agonyin The Death of Ivan
Ilyich.Ivan Ilyichalso liveda falselife,filledwithlies and artificially
multipliedneeds.All his colleaguesliked him,and yet,on receiving
thenewsofhisdeath,theirfirstthoughtswereofthechangesand pro-
motionsit mightoccasionamongthemselvesor theiracquaintances.
They gave no thoughtto the deceasedhimself,who had but recently
lived amongthem.Even in the beginningof the workwe maycon-
jecturefromIvan Ilyich'sfeelingof lonelinessthatthesenseof isola-
tion while dyinghorrifiedTolstoyas much as the thoughtof death
itself.This isolation,thenovelistwarns,influences man'srelationship
withnature,whichincludesnotonlyhislifebut hisdeath.Affected by
"civilization,"Ivan Ilyichhad escapedreal life and failed to see his
innerloneliness.He was completelyabsorbedin self,and thisabsorp-
tion,in turn,intensified the feelingof solitudehe experiencedat the
approach of death. The verybasis of Ivan Ilyich'srelationshipwith
naturewas corrupt;however,althoughable to escape real life,he
could not escapedeath.
We findtheconsciousness ofthislonelinessat themomentofdying
notonlyin theworksofTolstoybut also in manyotherwritings, such
as theEnglishmoralityplayEverymanand Hugo von Hofmannsthal's
adaptationJedermann.When Everymanfeltthe approachof death,
he soughtdesperatelyto finda companionforhis last journey,and
whenhe failedto do so,he was overwhelmed bydespairat his terrible
loneliness.A man like Ivan Ilyich,who duringhis life had no real
contactwithhis closestrelativesand was so alienatedfromnaturethat
he could place no trustin it,had to experiencehis separatenessin full
measure.This same lonelinessmade him while dyingwant to weep:
"...he wishedmostof all forsomeoneto pityhim as a sick child is
pitied.He longed to be pettedand comforted."As soon as he knew
thatdeathwas approachinghim,he felt"a loneliness,in themidstof
a populous town and surroundedby numerousacquaintancesand
relations,yetwhichcould not have been morecompleteanywhere-
eitherat thebottomof thesea or underthe earth."He wantedto be
loved and to be pitied;he wantedothersto feeland sharehis distress
and sorrow:"And he had to live thus all alone on the brinkof an
abyss,while no one understoodor pitied him." He remainedalone
withdeath: "And nothingcould be done withit exceptto look at it
18L. N. Tolstoj, Krug chtenija (Berlin: Izd. L. P. Ladyzhnikova,1923), I, 183.
19 Ibid., I, 297.

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78 The AmericanSlavic and East European Review

and shudder.""He wepton accountof thisterribleloneliness... and

the absence of God." Slowly Ivan Ilyich came to understandthat
lonelinesshad alwaysbeen aroundhim,but he had been blind to it
becauseofhisfalseideasoflife.He had alwayslivedforhimselfalone,
near his fellowcreatures,yet never in real communitywith them.
Tolstoy called these wrong ideas of life "falsity,"describing"the
approachof thatever-dreaded and hatefuldeathwhichwas the only
reality,and always the same falsity."This "falsity,"in Tolstoy's
opinion,sprangfromman'soverrating himself.Ivan Ilyich'sapproach
to life had always been completelyegocentric;he consideredhis
existencethe centerof the universe,neverbeing able to understand
thathe, as a human being,was just a small particlein nature.His
individualistic outlookwas thetrapin whichhe remainedall his life.
"Caius is a man,men are mortal,therefore Caius is mortal,"argued
Ivan Ilyich. "That Caius-man in general-was mortal was com-
pletelycorrect,buthe wasn'tCaius,notman in general,but a creature
quite, quite differentfromall others."
This attitudewas the reasonwhyonly "I" had meaningforIvan
Ilyich,never "you." As a result,his whole life was filledwith un-
ceasingcare forhimselfand his own comfort, and thisattitudeeven
characterized his familylife.He cared forhis own feelings,neverfor
thoseof his wife.Even thedeathof his childrenmeantnothingmore
to him than an inconvenience.He alwaysdid what was considered
decorous in his circle, yet always managed to connect what was
considerednecessaryfor"decorum"withwhatwas pleasantforhim-
self.Living thiskind of life,Ivan Ilyichnaturallylackedall senseof
humility.He liked the feelingof possessingthe powerof crushingat
hiswill people dependenton him,and yet,at thesametime,it pleased
him to thinkofhimselfas a generousand kindman. He deceivedone
feelingwithanother:he wantedas a commeil fautand decorousman
to displayhis love and kindnesstowardhumanbeings,but at thesame
timehe was not preparedto renouncetheheadyfeelingof possessing
authority.Thus his kindness,all the enjoymentsof his businessand
privatelife,his love forhis wifeand children,all thesewerefalsity-
thefeelingthatoriginatedin his falseattitudetowardhimself.All the
people aroundhim also lived thesamekindoflifeand wereinvolved
in thissamepretense.Like Ivan Ilyich,theyacceptedfalsityas reality:
"... I and all my friends felt that our case was quite differentfrom
thatof Caius." In Tolstoy'swords,"Ivan Ilyich'slifehad been most
simple and most ordinary,and thereforemost terrible."Tolstoy's
wordsmayseem paradoxical,but it was Ivan Ilyichand his associates
who consideredtheirlives to be simple and ordinary,and the very

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 Tolstoy'sDeath ofIvan Ilyich 79

fact that theirtwistedand distortedlives should seem ordinaryto

themselves was in itselfterrible.
Ivan Ilyich'sphysicalsufferings comparedwith
were insignificant
his spiritualpain, which enabled him graduallyto understandthe
completefalsityof his simple,ordinary,and thereforeterriblelife.
While he lay dyinghe saw truthslowlysupplantingfalsity,yet all
livingpeople stillkepton lying.Even in the presenceof death they
still lived in accordancewithdecorum,the masterhe had servedall
his life.His wifesimulatedsympathy and care forhim because these
belongedto thatdecorum;but now Ivan Ilyichwas sickoffalsity, and
"whilehis wifewas kissinghim he hatedher fromthe bottomof his
soul and withdifficulty refrainedfrompushingheraway.""Those lies
-lies enactedoverhimon theeve ofhisdeathand destinedtodegrade
thisawful,solemnact to the level of theirvisits,theircurtains,their
sturgeonfordinner-were a terribleagonyforIvan Ilyich,"because
now he understoodthatall theirinterestsand enjoyments, whichhe
had sharedwhile healthy,were nothingbut illusionscreatedby his
selfishness. With thisdiscovery,life appeared unreal, in contrastto
whichstooddeath,the only reality,about which therecould be no
mistake: "... the approach of that ever-dreaded and hateful death
whichwas theonlyreality,and alwaysthesamefalsity."
Ivan Ilyichgainedcomfortonlythroughhis contactwithGerasim.
Gerasim,a freshpeasant lad, knew nothingof the pretensesof the
"civilized"life Ivan Ilyichhad lived beforehis malady;on the con-
trary, hislifehad been morereal becausehe sensedhis minutepartin
the universe,that he was a human being just as any otherhuman
being. Because of his real humilityhe alone was able to graspIvan
Ilyich'sposition:"We shall all of us die," said he, "so whyshould I
grudgea littletrouble?"Death was to himnotonlyinevitablebut also
natural;he did not fearhis dyingmaster,and so Ivan Ilyich feltat
ease only with him. Gerasim'sassistanceto him was not an act of
hypocrisy; it was not burdensomework at all, but a serviceto life.
Tolstoythoughtthe instinctiveunderstanding of lifeand death that
enabled Gerasimto do rightnaturally,to tell the truth,and to feela
deep sympathyfor his fellow creatureswas a result of Gerasim's
identification withnature.His closenessto natureenabledhim to live
a lifewhich,beingforeordained by God, stoodin strikingopposition
to Ivan Ilyich'slifecorruptedbycultureand civilization.Cultureand
civilizationwerethepoisonsthatfilledIvan Ilyich'ssoul and bodyall
his lifeand becameevidentonlythroughhis maladyand thetorments
caused by the prospectof death. "Ivan Ilyichwas leftalone withthe
consciousness thathis lifewas poisonedand was poisoningthelivesof

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80 The AmericanSlavic and East European Review

others,and thatthispoisondid notweakenbut penetratedmoreand

moredeeplyintohiswholebeing."
For Tolstoy, death had a great metaphysicalsignificance.Like
Rainer Maria Rilke, the Russian novelistshows that death brings
forththeconsciousand subconsciousaspectsofhumanintellect.Death
showsman the essenceof his soul and teacheshim to understandit;
deathcompelsman to reviewhis lifeand to graspitsmeaning.Death
and the suffering precedingdeath are a meansforknowingour own
being, and throughthis we gain a consciousnessof real existence.
Tolstoy,however,goes further, sincehe interprets the knowledgeof
earthlyexistenceas onlythefirst stageofthedeath-experience, orwhat
Jacquelinede Proyartde Bailescourthas called "an awakeningof the
conscience."20The secondstage is a processof purification, through
whichman shakesofffalsitytogetherwithhis earthlyexistence.This
is the stagereflectedon the sternfacesof the dyingPrince Andrey
Bolkonskyand Levin'sbrother,theirfacesreflecting theirwithdrawal
from everythingearthly.21 Ivan Ilyich underwentthis process of
purificationwhenhe had a feelingofbeing thrustintoa darksackby
an invisible,irresistibleforce.Death itselfcompelledhim to discard
his convictionthathe "lived a good life." At thatmomentwhen he
"suddenlybecame aware of thereal direction,"the processof purifi-
cation was accomplished.We mightliken Ivan Ilyich'sdeath to an
antibodywhichis intendedto kill thegermsofa diseaseand toremove
themfromthe diseased body,the disease representing Ivan Ilyich's
corruption. The basis of his corruptionis his inability understand
to
thatsince Caius is a man and thereforemortal,Ivan Ilyich is also
mortal.Justas Caius is man in general,Ivan Ilyichis bound to be the
same.As man in general,Caius is a partoftheuniverse;as a man,Ivan
Ilyichis bound to be thesame. However,all his lifehe had lived as if
he were not a part of anything,and his only purpose had been to
protecthisownwell-being.
Accordingto Tolstoythisprocessofpurification throughdeathdoes
notapplyto theRussianpeasantsbecausethereis nothingto purifyin

20Jacquelinede Proyart de Bailescourt, "La representationde la mort dans l'oeuvre

litt6rairede Tolstoi," in For Roman Jakobson: Essays on the Occasion of His Sixtieth
Birthday (The Hague: Mouton, 1956), p. 406.
2 Prince Andrey Bolkonsky,who at one time struggledagainst death because of his
love forlife,soon reached a state of peaceful and joyful serenity,remote fromthe reality
of earthly existence. This state of remoteness,which, Tolstoy surmised,was an under-
standingof the meaning of life,in connectionwith all other mysteriesof the universe,we
find again in Levin's observations at the bed of his dying brother. Levin saw the
expression of sternnesson his brother's face and understood that the dying man had
perceived somethingstill concealed from Levin himself,and he envied his brother this
knowledge.

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 Tolstoy'sDeath ofIvan Ilyich 81

the pure. Death, which is like a kernel that man carries with him all
his life, purifies the consciousness only of the selfish, "civilized"
people. Only these people have individuality, and the question of
Christian love exists thus only for them because only they live in-
dividually. The Russian peasants, on the other hand, who are a mass
and live closely together, are immersed in life as opposed to the
"civilized" individual. The Russian peasants have no such concepts
as "Christian love" or "Christian humility," but they have these
qualities in the depths of theirhearts.Gerasim understood instinctive-
ly thathe was nothing but a Caius, and thereforealso understood that
the truemeaning of a man's life is to render service to the whole world,
of which he is but a minute part.
We can assume then that thispart of Tolstoy's metaphysicalconcept
agrees with the philosophy of Plato, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky,and
many others: that ultimate truth,as faras human beings can grasp it,
is the harmonious relations of all beings and things-the ultimate
all-embracing reality of the universe. On earth we call this relation
love. This concept of love can be condensed to the idea that a living
person appears real only in his relation to another living being. In
accordance with this, Ivan Ilyich's fear of death, as far as it concerns
the feeling of loneliness of a dying human being, is quite intelligible.
We experience the reality of our existence only in our relation with
others.Goethe, in his theorythat polarities are the basis of all natural
phenomena and of all relations between men, developed practically
the same idea. In order to become fullyconscious of his own reality,
man seeks all his life,if only subconsciously,to establish a relationship
with his fellow creatures that is quite free of egotism and selfishness.
Since human love never reaches this purity,man must, as soon as he
recognizes that he is a part of the harmonious unity of the whole,
experience feelingsof guilt toward the whole world. Tolstoy held that
man attainsthisknowledge of his real selfonly at the moment of dying
and that the feeling of emancipated love comes only afterthe realiza-
tion of his inherentselfishness."Forgive me," were the last words Ivan
Ilyich wanted to say to his wife a few minutes before his death. The
more selfisha man has been in life, the more conscience-strickenwill
he be at the moment of dying,or as Jacqueline de Proyartde Bailes-
court put is: "... plus la vie conscience s'est egaree le reve, plus est
penible le retour a la realite."22 If we examine Ivan Ilyich's fear of
death from this viewpoint, we see that nothing but his guilty con-
science caused his agony as death approached. He died conscious of his
22
Jacqueline de Proyartde Bailescourt,"La representation,"p. 406.

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82 The AmericanSlavic and East European Review

guilt towardeverybody and everything,readyto do penance forhis

"simple and most ordinary,and thereforemostterrible"life.
It was love thatIvan Ilyichexperiencedafterthe realizationof his
guiltand thepurification ofhis soul,and it was thislove thatenabled
Ivan Ilyichto facedeathwithoutfear.His pityforhis familywas part
of his new relationto people-free of egotismand selfishness. "Love
is thesole medicineagainstdeath,"23Unamunomaintained,insisting,
like Tolstoy or Thomas Mann,24on the interrelationbetweenlove
and death. Elsewherein Tolstoy'sworkswe findthisfeelingof love
experiencedby dyingpeople. However,the sequenceof the stagesof
death is somewhatvague,or perhapsis representedas just one step,
includingall three in one. At the time of writingThree Deaths,
Tolstoy,it seems,lackedthespiritualmaturity whichpermeatesThe
Death ofIvan Ilyich, writtensome thirtyyearslater.
Love is ultimatereality-thisis Tolstoy'sconclusion.As opposedto
the primitiveman, the "civilized"individualbecomesa part of the
harmoniouswhole onlythroughdeath,or, duringlife,throughlove.
Withoutlove,Ivan Ilyich'slifewas emptyand meaningless.With the
discoveryof love,Ivan Ilyichfeltthathis deathwas reducedto insig-
nificance.He was allowed to becomea partof theunityof thewhole,
an experiencehe describedwiththewords:"Death is all over.It is no
more."
It is,however,strikingto note thatdespiteIvan Ilyich'sperception
of the mystery of death and his ultimatecalm acceptanceof it, the
whole storyreflectsan icy coldness.Even kind and understanding
Gerasimactsout of a senseof moraldutyratherthanfromreal love.
Furthermore, Tolstoyis concernedhereonlywithIvan Ilyich;no one
else matters.Ivan Ilyich'spainful experienceis over; his dead face
does not expressany pityforthosewho survivehim,but a reproach
and a warning.It seems that he has slipped back into his former
remoteness fromtheworldofmortals,oftheCaiuses,thosefrightened
and confusedpeople who came to bid farewellto his coffin. There is
no need forus, however,to dwellon Ivan Ilyich'sfacialexpressionin
deathas perceivedbyhisrelativesand colleagues,fortheconstructive
principleof The Death ofIvan Ilyichrequiresconcentration on the
dying man ratherthan on thosewho surround him. The highpointof
thestoryis undoubtedlyIvan Ilyich'sdiscoveryoftheultimatereality
which is love.
It is during the firststage of his death-experience
that Tolstoy's
"civilized"hero is compelledto reviewhis whole life and graspits

28Miguel de Unamuno, Tragic Sense of Life (Dover Publications, 1954), p. 132.

4Thomas Mann, Three
Essays,p. 107.

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 I Ulb LUy b ./aCLULituI I ULUt,
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meaning. Then follows a second stage-the process of purification.

The hero withdraws from everythingearthly and abandons the fal-
sities of his life. In Tolstoy's interpretation,however, it is the third
stage which is of utmost importance, since it is then that the hero
becomes aware of his guilt toward the whole world and attains the
knowledge of his own reality, that is, his meaning within the whole
scheme of creation. This conclusion is in its essence deeply tragic,for
man, according to Tolstoy, is given this precious knowledge only
during the process of dying. Thus he cannot make use of this knowl-
edge in the conduct of his life, cannot benefit from his new under-
standingof his place within the harmonious whole.
These two aspects of Tolstoy's search for truth-ethical and, in
the writer'sown terminology,"metaphysical"-underlie not only his
religious and philosophical treatisesbut also many of his didactic and
artisticworks. It is mainly through his fictionthat the reader is held
tenaciously by the seriousness of the writer's effortsto reveal the
fundamental principle of all-forgivingand all-embracing love. Al-
though it is left to the reader's subjective comprehension to extract
these ideas from Tolstoy's works, to make his own discoveries in the
vast field of the novelist's speculations, there is no doubt that his
message to mankind reveals in a gripping artisticformthe core of the
Christian teaching with all its implications-that a man must love his
neighbor.

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