The Death Of Ivan Ilych
"The Death Of Ivan Ilych"
In Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," sometimes just being a middle-of-the-road person, taking care of one's business and putting one's needs first, can be a sin of the conscience.
For all practical purposes, Ivan's was a story about an old man fearing a lonely death. Throughout much of the book, the main character was resentful; acting as though he were annoyed by those around him. His fear of dying alone ironically took the form of him seemingly trying to 'push people away.' Even doctors and nurses were not spared. At one point, they try gently to speak to Ivan and he coldly retorts "For Christ's sake let me die in peace !" (p. 148).
Society's treatment of Ivan is indeed quite hostile at times, but they are mostly motivated by his own attitude and his own mood swings. Ignorance was also a played a key role in their subsequent attitudes as well. "What tormented Ivan Ilych most was the deception, the lie, which for some reason they all accepted, that he was not dying but was simply ill..." (p. 134). Although there is no moral or ethical excuse for the hostile treatment, it can be more forgiven in The Death of Ivan Ilych than it can in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Leo ends his book with Ivan humbly whispering, ``I understand now'' -- a great closing moment when he sees beyond himself, realizing his own self as a motivator for his treatment and understanding comfortably how he was treated.
Essentially, that account of compassion for another's fatal pain can not be surpassed, in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Linda Brent is viewed in a much colder, less compassionate light. Her horrific treatment was the result of her oppressor's own fears and need for self-preservation. The author depicts her treatment as somewhat common place; or -the way society was... Still, however, in that particular story I can find no justification for society's harsh treatment of Linda Brent- where as they can be a somewhat more forgiven by the end of Leo Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan Ilych."