The story The death of ivan ilyich centers around the life and death of a slightly powerful Russian bureaucrat who lived his life as a typical citizen in 19th century Russia.  He played cards, he stayed out with his friends, he had a wife and children, and he worried about his job.  He did all the things that a normal person does, yet despite all that, he failed to live a happy and fulfilling life.  As Tolstoy writes, “Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.”.  His fault was in his inability to make his life extraordinary-- the majority of the story details Ivan's eventual realization of this fact.

 

Ivan Ilyich is for the most part, a good man.  He got married, although out of convenience, and had children..  He lead a normal typical life, and on the outside he appeared happy.  However, just like the man in The lady with the dog, Ivan lived a shell of a life.  He never took the time to appreciate life, instead concentrating on his finances, or only on a new position at work, or avoiding his wife and children.  The one time that Ivan is truly enjoying himself is when he is remodeling a new house for his family.  He took a lot of pleasure in decorating his new “mansion”, even up to the point where he tries to hang curtains for himself.

 

Shortly afterwards moving into his new home, Ivan begins to feel some discomfort in his side.  At the insistence of his wife, he goes to a prominent doctor to get it checked out.  Unfortunately for Ivan, the doctor is more concerned in appearing mighty and important than to help actually tend to his injury.  Ivan immediately recognizes this attitude as the same attitude he wears when he goes to work & looks down on people.

 

Over time, his condition worsens, and never improves.  The distance between him and his wife becomes more unbearable and the doctors are unable (unwilling?) to help him.  The medicines that they prescribe do little more than continue to drain Ivan’s money purse.  For quite a long time, Ivan is essentially “on his own”, abandoned by his wife and his family.  Not getting the sympathy he feels he deserves, he hates them even more.  Of course his family’s attitude towards him is to be expected, considering he himself acted the same way when he was in good health.

 

All the while, the never-ending pain in his side only grows worse.  The disease that is eating him, which some experts today believe is described like pancreatic cancer, gives him no rest and his mind wanders unceasingly.  In some ways Ivan cannot wait for death, but the other side of him cannot go along with that.  In many ways, Ivan begins to realize that his life is just a hallow Easter-egg, pretty on the outside but lacking any real sustenance.

As you might imagine, Ivan doesn’t want to admit to himself that his entire life had truly been a joke.  Once he finaly admit it to himself, he does the right thing for his family.  He puts them out of their misery by dying.