Similarities Between Leo Tolstoy and His Character Ivan Ilyich

Literature is the communication of thoughts, writer’s ideas, and feelings through a written word of message between individual, readers, and audience. World’s one of the greatest novelists, Leo Tolstoy was known by his first remarkable novel “War and Peace” and second big hit novel “Anna Karenina”. Tolstoy was a moral thinker and social reformer and held severe moralistic views of the real world.

In 1886, “Death of Ivan Ilych” was one of his most successful later work after his crisis and conversion. In this novel, the main character, Ivan Ilyich struggles to come to realize later about his upcoming death and regrets about his life. Ivan is blaming himself for trying to please others and accusing his wife for not truly understanding his insecurity about death. Ilyich is a fictional character, but his personal story of life is incredibly realistic and sadly death comes through an unfortunate accident.

At a funeral, behind the people’s grieving face and black clothes they feel reliefs like it is not their death, funeral and what can be benefited by Ivan’s death for them. Fellow Russian novelist Viktor Petrovich Burenin stated, “An example of a deeply pure reality and a tremendous truth can be found in greatest writers of the word” (Enkhsaikhan).

The story is about death, truth, love, and the meaning of life purpose. The death of Ivan Ilych is not just his death, it is the death of every reader’s pain. Ivan Ilyich spends his life trying to be fit in with the others and dedicated his life for the good of other people. At the end of his life, the character realizes he lived in fake happiness, nothing more. The death is not the worst thing can happen anyone but how a person leads his or her story and how they lived in the past is a bitter truth. Harsh truth hurts Ivan more than his illness and suffering. Leo Tolstoy does a good job showing it in his novel. Also, reflects how people can be fake, petty and selfish.

At first glance, there is are regret in Ivan life. Ivan has everything, great colleagues who can benefit his high social ranking positions, a job at the Court of Justice as a member with high salary, model family like others other classics and glorious house to invite people. Compared to his childhood, he had a difficult adulthood. Ivan has married his wife without thinking about love and care. His marriage decision was based on the fact and how his fiancée matches his requirements. Ivan Ilyich had at first no definite intention of marrying, but when the girls fell in love with him he said to himself; “Really, why shouldn’t I marry” (749).

Ivan’s wife Praskovya Fedorovna comes from a good family and perfect match for his social standard circle. Eventually, Ivan loses interest in his wife and starts annoyed by her demands, so instead of helping for his pregnant wife, Ivan focused on his official duties more to avoid her. Praskovya’s behavior begins to change due to this Ivan’s negligence of married life. The conflict between a couple builds a huge wall between them and for the years passing by the wall becomes wider and thicker. Luckily, Ivan learns his close friend has landed on the great authority position and relocates Ivan in higher paying office work in the city. This work upgrade, good news improves his family relationship a little bit closer. He departs from his family alone to look for a new house and furnish the house for family arrival. One day, Ivan makes a false step on a ladder and banging his side against the window frame.

The injury bruise is not serious at the time, so he continues to decorate the house. “In reality it was just what is usually seen in the houses of people of moderate means who want to appear rich, and therefore succeed only in resembling others like themselves: there were damasks, dark woods, plants, rugs, and dull and polished bronzes – all the things people of a certain class have in order to resemble other people of that class” (753). Level this certain class, Ivan decorates everything by himself to make others like him, accept him as one of them and make them hang out in his house. The happiness does not last long, Ivan starts to experience some discomfort in his injured side and unusual taste in his mouth. Any professional doctors that he visits saying different diagnoses and there is no clue what causes it. In a couple of months, his illness makes him depressed and fearful. The depression leads him to blame everyone and hating his family for not understanding nor wishing to accept his pain, examining his life mortality by judging him not being himself and realizes. In the end, he realizes that his office work, family and social relations were all unreal. He feels sorry for his son and wife because he accepts his death.

Unlike Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy has an interesting background. He overcomes social class dictates through his understanding and his attempts to live in poverty are humorous. For example, “he started making his own clothes and cobbling his own sandals.” (Fuller 322). He is from a rich family like Ivan, but he lost his parents due to sickness when he was a child. Leo chooses the path to live poor and be humble. Leo went to law school, but the teachers described him as “both unable and unwilling to learn” (Leo Tolstoy). He wants people to accept him as the way he is and not to please people. He does everything that he thinks right so Leo left his study in the middle of his study to prosper. Leo Tolstoy stated, “I put men to death in ware, I fought duels to slay others. I lost at cards, wasted the substance wrung from the sweat of peasants, punished the latter cruelly, rioted with loose women, and deceived men, Lying, robbery, adultery of all kinds, drunkenness, violence, and murder, all were committed by me, not one crime omitted, and yet I was not the less considered by my equals to be a comparatively moral man.

Such was my life for ten years.” (Leo Tolstoy Biography). Ivan and Tolstoy had the same beginning of time their decision of life made them completely opposite against one another. Which one people recall their greatness, acting like other people, who died in illness or by being himself, and made him one of the kinds, Leo Tolstoy or Ivan Ilyich. Tolstoy marries Sophia Andreyevna, who is sixteen years younger than him, beautiful, and intelligent person. The marriage of Leo and Sophia Tolstoy forms an effective and happy team.

According to her son Ilya, she recopied Tolstoy’s remarkable novel of War and Peace seven times, which means she copied the entire manuscript with more than 3,000 pages seven times (Harmon). Tolstoy had her read his diaries and tries to be open and honest with her. Married life made Tolstoy stable, so he can stay at home and write his novels. Tolstoy’s final years were not happy as his marriage, he had up and downs, he was struggling in his beliefs, followers and even his own family. In 1910, he took a religious trip with his youngest daughter, Alexandra and his doctor. Unfortunately, the trip was his last one.

The similarity between Ivan and Leo was they put their work as their first priority. Secondly, Leo and Ivan, both went to Law School, but one completed his academic study, one did not. When Leo’s first big hit, War and Peace became the center of public and in his life, he said to his friend, “I love Sofia less than my novel, still, you know, she is my wife.” (Harmon). In advantage, Sofia Tolstoy was closest dearest person in his life. She was his transcriber, editor, and critic and she was one of the few people who can read Tolstoy’s handwriting and knew his writing style and purpose.

On the other hand, Praskovya was in love with Ivan but Ivan was the first one who shuts himself in his marriage and restrained him from commitment when the problem occurred. At first Ivan Ilyich hoped to escape from the unpleasantness of this state of affairs by the same easy and decorous relation to life that had served him heretofore: he tried to ignore his wife’s disagreeable moods, continued to live in his usual easy and pleasant way, invited friends to his house for a game of cards, and also tried going out to his club or spending his evening with friends. (749). To avoid his wife, he focused on his official duties to be independent of his wife. Ivan’s separation of his work and family relationship gave Praskovya had no idea about his job world. Leo let Sofia help his job, he included her in his personal life completely.

People think death is a merciless, harsh, and cruel thing that happens in life, but death is the realizing moment of truths and afterthoughts. Death of Ivan is the death of all readers death. Ivan was trying to be fit in his dream social circle status in his whole life. To the whole process of fitting in was not the greatest memory of his life, but only his childhood memory was. Tolstoy had a different conception of life, to understand right and wrong, religions, political aspects, and independence. Tolstoy gained his fame by expressing his writing realistically and revealing the harsh truth of real life. Ivan Ilyich’s rich yet cheap life is an example of a lot of people so Leo Tolstoy made him as one of the remarkable main characters. Leo Tolstoy showed the true story of the life of human being.