The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, describing the life and death of the titular character. A high-court judge in 19th century Russia, Ivan Ilyich Golovin spent his life living in a self-serving manner, seeking material comfort and social status. When he develops a terminal illness and is forced to confront his own mortality, he reevaluates his life and his ideas of how people should life.
The novella was adapted to film on two separate occasions, both with a Setting Update. The first adaptation was Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru, released in 1952 and set in contemporary Japan. The second was 2022's Living, which mostly takes after the Kurosawa film (to the point where the opening credits bill it as a remake rather than a new adaptation) and consequently is also set in the early '50s (1953 in this case), but takes place in London rather than Tokyo.
This book provides examples of (Unmarked spoilers ahead):
- Awful Wedded Life: Ivan and Praskovya have been unhappy together for the majority of their marriage. The only times they got along were in the first year of their marriage, and then much later when Ivan got a promotion and moved the family into a fine apartment.
- Black Sheep: Ivan's younger brother is this to the Golovin family because he flunked out of law school and had to work in a railway department.
His father and brothers, and still more their wives, not merely disliked meeting him, but avoided remembering his existence unless compelled to do so.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: It's mentioned that, in law school, Ivan did things that at the time filled him with immense regret and self-loathing. But seeing men that he admired doing those same actions, and considering them right, made it easy for him to forget these acts. The narrator never specifies what those acts were.
- Children Are Innocent: In contrast to the cynical and superficial adults in this novella, Ivan's son Vasia and his young servant Gerasim wear their hearts on their sleeves and show genuine love for others. It also notes that, as a child, Ivan was like this as well.
- God Is Good: A few examples of this occur.
- While he has no hope in the doctors who visit him, he (briefly) feels hope in a religious icon rumored to have caused a miraculous healing.
- Ivan only reluctantly agrees to his wife's request that he receive communion from a Priest. But giving confession to the priest, and taking communion, caused Ivan to feel a brief moment of hope.
- In the end, just before he dies, he apologizes to his wife and son and asks them to forgive him. Ivan knows they couldn't understand them, but is finds comfort anyway in "knowing that He whose understanding mattered would understand".
- Go into the Light: This is how Ivan perceives his death, but only after he makes amends with his family.
He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. "Where is it? What death?" There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light.
- It's All About Me: How Ivan lived most of his life. Ultimately, on his deathbed, he's forced to confront the fact that this was the wrong way to live.
- Kicked Upstairs: The narrator states that, whenever an incompetent government official ends up with too much seniority to be fired, he is moved to a sinecure and paid to do nothing. The money is real, so the recipients rarely complain. Ivan's father and elder brother both end up in this situation.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: At one point, an acquaintance told Ivan about an icon that had caused a miraculous cure. Ivan was very interested, and for a moment almost believed. But he ultimately decides against investigating it further, so we never learn if it actually worked or not.
- Mortality Phobia: The fear of death, which Ivan visualizes as a black pit that he's being pushed towards, causes him intense fear and agony throughout his illness.
- Nice Guy: Gerasim, the butler's assistant, is a very pleasant fellow who tends to Ivan without any complaints.
- Unwanted Spouse: Ivan cannot stand Praskovya, and in life purposely avoided her as much as he could get away with. Deconstructed, as he realizes in the end that he was also this to her and that if he tried then the marriage could have been a happy one.
- Sex Tourism: As a young man, before getting married, Ivan would regularly go to "a certain outlying street of doubtful reputation", with the implication being that he was sleeping with prostitutes. However, this did nothing to harm his reputation because he was discreet and his high society peers were engaged in the same behavior.
- We All Die Someday: Gerasim's motto. "We shall all of us die, so why should I grudge a little trouble?"
