living into what matters most
Originally published in 1886, Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece work dives into an experience with a man who only tragically learns meaning in life through immense suffering. Written not long after his conversion to Christianity, The Death of Ivan Ilych is a short novel that entirely follows the agonizing suffering of one who is dying—the title, in this case, reveals almost the full the story. Tolstoy’s main character is a relatively successful man who has carved for himself a respectable place in society providing himself and his family with comfort and ease; however, Ivan Ilych soon discovers after a bizarre accident the closeness of his mortality and the futility of his frivolous pursuits. He sought to have everything in his life present well to those to whom he was not close for the sake of maintaining appearances; his approach to his work consisted of merely appeasing those above him and toying with any beneath him. But, it was not until he learned the experience of suffering that he realized just how absurd his life’s pursuits had been. Through his pain, he was forced to come face to face with the reality that he had created a life that was relationally distant and emotionally cold with his family and that his friends were just barely so. Ivan Ilych quickly became a burden to everyone he loved as well as a disgust to those that mattered to him leaving this sad character to suffer and die alone in unrelenting agony.
While this may not sound like a must read simply from the incredibly depressing nature of the synopsis, Tolstoy masterfully reveals the absurdity of secular ambitions leaving his readers to reflect on what it means to live life well. What truly matters is not corporate success and financial gain, a position of power and the benefits of one’s title, or the appearance of perfection and the assumption of good societal standing. Ivan Ilych, in his remaining minutes, after lengths of weary depression and crippling rage, finally finds meaning in his life by turning to his family. Existentialist psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl, wrote that commonplace teachings on the will of man widely miss the heart of the matter; we are not, as he argued, driven by a will to power (as promoted by Alfred Alder and Frederich Nietzsche) or a will to pleasure (as demanded by Sigmund Freud). Viktor Frankl, rather, deeply believed that we are driven by a will to meaning; and, he specifically defined that meaning as being a mission to fulfill and someone to love. The tragic figure in Tolstoy’s novel did not live his life with any sense of transcendent meaning or with a pursuit of those whom he loved; the tragedy, then, is revealed only by his experience of death. Mitch Albom, in his novel Tuesdays with Morrie, focused the entirety of his work around the idea that in order to live you must learn how to die; Ivan Ilych did not learn what truly mattered in his life until his life was at an unfortunate end.
While many of us may easily agree with the concept of the work without having to read the literature, the skill of Tolstoy’s writing invites his readers to view themselves through the pain of his tragic character, to personally reflect on the meaning of life while considering the closeness of death. It should also be no surprise that The Death of Ivan Ilych leaves no room for entertaining the folly of irreligious values.
Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilych. Las Vegas, NV: IAP, 2009.
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