Read about The Death of Ivan Ilych
Class Discussion Questions:
- How do the acquaintances of Ilych respond to the news of his death?
- Who is the narrator of this story? What attitude, if any, does he display toward the characters and action of the story? Does he pass judgment?
- How does Tolstoy reinforce the motif of "propriety" through the tone of the narrator? How can we tell that "propriety" is an important theme of the story?
- Why does this narrative begin after Ilych has already died? Why, in other words, does the narrative not start where Chapter II begins?
- What does Ilych want out of life, and how does he conduct himself in order to maintain this expectation?
- How is Ilych injured? Is this event allegorical?
- What kind of relationship are we encouraged to have with Ilych as we read?
- On what levels does Ilych see his own illness? Does it have symbolic value for him, or is his fatal condition just an unfortunate fact? And if Ivan sees his illness symbolically, does that mean that Tolstoy is inviting us to transform facts into symbols? Do we have an emotional need to do that?
- What direction does Ilych turn as his condition worsens?
- As the narration captures Ivan's desperation, are we made to feel desperate as well? Do you look for a means of escape while reading?
- When does Ilych begin to use his imagination? For what purpose? Does this change in thinking ultimately help Ilych? How so?
- What is It ?
- How does the narration style change as Ilych descends further and further into his suffering? Identify some unexpected strangeness in the approach to storytelling.
- What causes Ilych the most torment as "his last days"?
- The black sack, the falling stone, the railway carriage--what do these images have in common in the story? What do they indicate, being used in the narrative, about Ilych's mind?
- What is the one possibility, which might explain everything, that Ilych cannot at first bring himself to consider seriously? Where is Ilych's epiphany?
- "This consciousness intensified his physical suffering tenfold." Consciousness of what?
- Is this a story with a moral? Or does it have more value as an ethical exercise in distinguishing between what is true and what is false? That is, do we learn a lesson to apply to our lives or do we learn how to interpret more effectively? Or both?
