¶ … Ivan Ilych

Tolstoy refers to Ivan's Ilych's life as the "most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible" in second chapter. Why?

Ivan Ilych has had, on the surface, a very successful life. He is a magistrate with a powerful position. But he has no fundamental convictions -- all his life, he has only said what is needed to advance his career and to please others, not to please himself. This, Tolstoy implies in his third-person authorial aside, is all too common. Also, Ilych's career has not translated into a successful family and personal life, in Tolstoy's view, two of the core aspects of being human. Instead, Ilych is only concerned about the type of impression his family will make on society. His values are empty, and he is single-mindedly focused on the material aspects of existence, which are in reality the simplest and the most transient parts of human life. Even Ilych's colleagues are more interested in how his death will profit them, in terms of their possibilities for promotions. They do not care about human aspects of his death -- he has made no real impression upon their hearts, for all of his wealth and power.

Compare Ivan Ilych with Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." Is there any similarity? What is Ivan's road?

The speaker of Frost's poem takes the road less trodden, which has made all of the difference, he says. The poet strikes out a different, less charted path in the woods, implying he is a nonconformist. In contrast, Ivan Ilych takes a conventional path, the path too often taken. Taking this trodden path makes a great deal of difference in Ilych's life, but to the detriment of his quality of life.

Compare Ivan Ilych with "The Unknown Citizen." Is there any similarity?

Auden's unknown citizen is less powerful in his society than Ivan. However, he leads a similarly drab and spiritually bankrupt existence, ruffling no feathers, working in a boring unionized job, buying all of the typical consumer goods that are supposed to give modern man 'pleasure,' and like Ivan never once questioning the values of his society. He looks to society to tell him his values, to define his family, even how many children to have, and does not look within his soul.