Deception in the Life and Death of Ivan Ilych

In his short story “The Death of Ivan Ilych,” Leo Tolstoy provides social commentary on life in Czarist Russia. The story takes places in a world in which death is feared above all else, emotional barriers are erected, pleasantries are extolled, and all are “afraid that the conventional deception [will] suddenly become obvious and the truth become plain to all” (274). Tolstoy gives the reader an understanding of the world of falsity and propriety that serves as the setting, and perhaps the cause, of Ivan Ilych’s demise.

We are first given a glimpse into the deceptiveness of the world in which Ilych lives by his friends’ reactions to his death. Tolstoy employs an ironic tone when addressing these responses, referring to the men as Ilych’s “so-called friends” (18). Rather than grieving for the loss of their friend, the men think of “the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves or their acquaintances” (5). They also feel a sense of relief, grateful that it was Ilych and not they who has died, and remain emotionally distanced from the situation. The ironic narrator strikes again when describing the “very tiresome demands of propriety” that Ilych’s friends must fulfill, including attending the funeral (a task that, if they really were his friends, would not be considered tiresome). Throughout the first scene, Ilych’s acquaintances even plan a game of cards to take place following the funeral. What good friends!

Ivan’s wife Praskovya Fëdorovna is perhaps the most false of the characters in Ilych’s circle. Their relationship is based solely on social propriety as they married because “it was considered the right thing by the most highly placed on his associates” (70). Throughout their marriage together, Ilych and Fëdorovna fight constantly and lead highly separate lives. During his illness, Ilych notices that “everything she did for him was entirely for her own sake,” and he feels “so surrounded and involved in a mesh of falsity that it [is] hard to unravel anything” (256). Even when Ilych is extremely ill, Fëdorovna asks about Ilych’s health “only for the sake of asking and not in order to learn about it,” that is, only for the sake of propriety (263).

The air of falsity that surrounds the life of Ivan Ilych is what ultimately leads to his downfall. As such, Tolstoy is intentionally vague when it comes to the illness that plagued Ilych. Multiple doctors diagnose his ailment differently and his symptoms are unrecognizable. Furthermore, the aspect of his sickness that distresses him the most is that “everything in the world was going on as usual” (128). Rather than treating him any differently, Ilych’s family and friends continue to live their lives as they normally would, adhering only to the rules of propriety. We are later told that “what tormented Ivan Ilych most was the deception, the lie, which for some reason they all accepted, that he was not dying by simply ill” (217). The falseness in his life pushes Ilych closer and closer to death when he finally breaks under the burden of so much deceitfulness. As Tolstoy tells us towards the end of Ilych’s life, “this falsity around him and within him did more than anything else to poison his last days” (218). Only through his sickness is Ilych able to see the masks that those surrounding him wear. (555)