¶ … Death of Ivan Ilych
Before we interpret some of the main religious ideas behind Tolstoy's story, we will first examine some of the main characters who surround Ivan Ilych, during his life and during his long tortuous death struggles.
The reader first meets Peter Ivanovich in the very opening of the story. We soon learn that he works with Ivan Ilych in the "Law Courts" and that as youths they had studied law together. Tolstoy immediately puts a dark cloud over this assumed intimacy and affection, by clearly stating that the death of Peter Ivanovich's close friend does not engender pity or sadness, but rather, speculation on the "changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves." It is at the side of the character Peter Ivanovich that we, the readers, first enter the death room of Ivan Ilych, and first see his home, his family, and his laid out body in the coffin. We share his uncomfortableness during the scene: not quite knowing the proper way to behave, the right actions to take, and the right things to say. However our feelings for him are quickly changed when we see his real interest is in arranging his card game for the evening. Even in front of his friend's dead body, he can only think of getting away from the scene and sitting down to some gambling. We soon realize that his lifestyle is precisely the same as Ivan Ilych's was before his fateful fall. In a way he represents the life that the man in the coffin has given up, or transcended.
Gerasim is the faithful "butler's assistant" who is constantly at Ivan Ilych's side during his long slow descent into death. We know that Tolstoy idolized the Russian peasant, and Gerasim is obviously symbolic of all that the author found...
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