The Meaning of Life

In Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych, Ilych is faced with one of the longest and most feared mysteries of life: death. Not only does the main character have to come to term with death itself and the death of those around him, he must come to terms with something that places a much heavier burden on him; his own death. By beginning the story with Ilych's funeral, the reader out of instinct immediately disconnects with Ilych because it is assumed that he will not be appearing later in the story. However, we are forced to take another glance at the person we thought was dead because of the way Tolstoy dives back into the story of his life. In the same way, Ilych's friends all try to disassociate themselves from the dead as much as possible and throughout his life Ilych looks at death as something that only others face in order to disassociate himself from it in order to ease the fear of death itself. The characters of the story think that the more they choose to avoid thinking about their own mortality the more chance they have of expanding their lives indefinitely. 

It is not so much that Ilych and his friends do not know they are at some point going to die or that they are not expecting it, it is that they do not think it will happen to them any time in the near future. This is why, when experiencing so much pain in his side and mouth and when soon learning that no medical professional has a cure or even an idea of what his disease is to begin with, Ilych starts to have panic attacks. He finally realizes that death is not as far away as he had hoped and as a result, starts to question the meaning of his life. 

Ivan Ilych uses different methods to try and cope with the fact that he is nearing death. By referring to death and his own mortality in general as "It," he uses the same method that people use when referring to subjects they might not want to talk about or think are sensitive by using euphemisms. He thinks that by calling death "It" the reality of his mortality will become less real. Ilych also tries to cope by "replacing it with other proper and healthy thoughts," yet the thought of his own mortality keeps coming back to haunt him because nothing can seem to compare in level of importance. He also experiences periods of jealousy and hatred, especially towards his wife whom he believes is not being as sympathetic to his pains as she should be. Ilych turns against everyone he knows in an attempt to regain control of his life. 

Just as it is human nature to immediately disconnect from a character in a book that has died in order to lessen the emotional impact of simply reading about death, it is also human nature to try and ignore thoughts of ones own and sometimes imminent death in order to lessen the impact of the idea that humans are in fact, mortal. When Ilych thinks of death, he thinks of the death of others, not that of himself. As he tries to accept the fact that he is deathly ill, he still can not help but think, "It cannot be that I ought to die. That would be too terrible." As much as it is instinct to avoid confronting the thought of death, it is necessary to do so in order to live a fulfilled life (587).