The Death of Ivan Ilyich

From Ivan Ilyich’s birth through the upbringing of his now-adolescent children 17 years into his marriage, a pattern emerges: Ivan Ilyich makes decisions based on what he thinks he’s supposed to do, not based on any heartfelt sense of right or wrong, and he turns to his career as a distraction when his home life is unpleasant. Ivan Ilyich goes through life only checking socially prescribed boxes: He attends a good school, obtains a good profession, and marries a good match—a good life, on paper. He does not look beneath the surface of things, neither exploring his own inner life and passions, nor considering the psychological makeup of his wife and children.

For a man not given to introspection, it makes sense that work becomes a convenient and satisfying distraction from home life he thinks of as full of “antagonism and querulousness”—rather than engage with the extraordinary tragedies his wife suffers (losing three children is horrific!), “he at once retired into his separate fenced-off world of official duties” (261). Even the words he uses to describe his wife’s growing resentment demonstrate how little emotional connection he has to his wife and children and how little he understands their mental state: “Querulousness” connotes petty, nick-picking whining rather than the kind of existential trauma that must have accompanied witnessing the death of so many kids.

Rather than reflect on his work and his reasons for pursuing promotion, Ivan Ilyich seeks any position with a higher salary and a position above those he feels have wronged him. His obsession with salary and title demonstrates that, at least for Ivan Ilyich, status is more important than purpose—he works to bolster his image as a successful man, rather than trying to achieve goals or accomplish meaningful projects. Because he is so focused on outward appearances and the need to project upper-class ease to the world, Ivan Ilyich lives beyond his means when he cannot afford the lifestyle he believes he must have. When money matters resolve themselves, he fixates on surface things again, carefully decorating a new home to appear wealthy, though “in reality it was just what is usually seen in the homes of people of moderate means who want to appear rich” (266). He does not design a pleasant or convenient home for his family; instead, he simply furnishes a house in a manner meant to please society’s preferences.

Ivan Ilyich’s physical fall evokes the more symbolic falling into sin imagery that accompanies Christian doctrine. Outwardly, Ivan Ilyich has seemed to be moving up, at least professionally, but this downward movement hinting to readers a reversal is coming. Though Ivan Ilyich describes his injury as “only a bruise” (266), the fall is the first step in Ivan Ilyich’s demise—both the end of his physical body as he dies, and the end of the self-deluded narcissism with which he’s been living.