The novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, shows the influence of Realism on its author. Leo
Tolstoy. The illusion of reality, the main theme of the novella, is an aspect of Realism
that Tolstoy effectively used in this novella. Other attitudes of Realism that were used
by Tolstoy were the plainness of the characters, a plot that consisted of incidents of
everyday life, along with everyday language, and the ability to make the reader feel as
if he were looking in on events happening in real life. These are all aspects of Realism
that show through in Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
Tolstoy's intent when writing this novella was to portray the illusion of reality. Many
of the minor characters, especially the physicians, depicted the theme. As Ivan Ilyich
was becoming sick, many of the doctors came to check on him. Ivan had a problem with
these doctors because they dodged the fact that Ivan was going to die. Ivan saw right
through these "celebrated physicians," knowing that they were clouding their diagnosis.
Ivan's friends, too, became Tolstoy's target for illusion of reality. When they went to
Ivan's funeral, they thought that they "should" or "have to" go and comfort the widow.
Their real reasoning behind everything was to see who would take Ivan's position at work.
Another example of illusion of reality is when Ivan is lying down in excruciating pain
and his wife, daughter, and son-in-law enter. Ivan sits and watches as they ignore the
pain he is enduring to argue about something as petty as opera glasses. This seemed true
to life because people cannot address a situation as big as death, so they talk around
it. Ivan is dumbfounded by their apathy in the presence of his impending death. They
then said, if they were going, it was time they left. At this point, Ivan wishes to be
with Gerasim. Gerasim is the contrast to the other minor characters, he is still
untouched by the materialistic society. Because of this, he cares for poor Ilyich and
tries to understand his pain. Not only did the characters portray the illusion of
reality in this novella, they also showed another aspect of Realism.
One of the guidelines of Realism is that the characters be ordinary and average. This
is another example of how Realism influenced Tolstoy's novella. Tolstoy created his
characters to be those like an everyday person. The Ilyich family was middle class where
the father was a government worker of sorts, showing that their family was not at all
extraordinary. The reader even notices that Ivan is a regular worker who got a break for
a higher paying position. Ivan even jokes about the "celebrated physician" being there,
showing that they probably were not in the same socio-economic class as he was. The
things that happened to the Ilyich family are no different and in no way more interesting
than the things that go an in anybody's family. In addition, many people everyday deal
with disease and death, because it is inevitable. Tolstoy just puts their life into a
realist's point of view, nothing more. The realist's point of view affected the plot of
the story, too.
The plot of The Death of Ivan Ilyich was nothing more elegant than the language. The
plot was an everyday situation where there was little or no climax. At the beginning,
there were people at a funeral who then decide to go and play cards. There was no
extraordinary event throughout the novella. The only event nearing amazing was the pain
that Ivan went through while dying.
The language, like the plot, was not eloquent. The family spoke with the words of a
middle class family. The only time any ornate language was used was when Tolstoy made
the physician use jargon to portray him as an illusion of reality. Because the language
was ordinary, it was easy for the reader to feel as if he were actually there with the
characters.
When one reads this novella, it is hard not to feel as if they were sitting in on the
story. An example that would have the reader feel this was when Ivan was screaming for
three days. You felt sorry for him because of his pain. Another time the reader felt
that they were actually in the story was when Ivan asked to talk to Gerasim because you
knew it made him feel better. Sometimes even reading what Ivan's wife did to him made
the reader feel as if she were a bad person. This is easily done because Ivan did not
really marry her for love, just because that what a person like him "should" do, be
married.
Because of the influence of Realism on Tolstoy, his novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich
showed the aspects of Realism. Tolstoy wrote about an everyday individual in an everyday
situation who lived in a society where the illusion of reality has taken over. Although
every aspect of the novella cannot be analyzed this way, it is obvious that the
philosophy of Realism had an influence on Leo Tolstoy and his novella The Death of Ivan
Ilyich.
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