Leo Tolstoy tells the story of an ordinary man faced with his own impending
death. Ivan Ilych’s core problem is his struggle to come to terms with how he has chosen to live his life. Ilych has always done the ‘right thing’ or at least what he believed to be correct. It is then when he is nearing death that he starts to doubt his actions. He struggles to justify his whole life and his
mental anguish is much worse than his
physical pain. Ilych thinks a great deal about the relationships he has with his wife and children. Throughout his illness Ilych’s wife and daughter will not admit to him or even to themselves that he is
dying. They do not understand that Ilych’s major cause of
suffering is a mental rather than a physical one. In the story the
doctor acknowledges that Ilych is suffering mentally. However the doctor’s solution to the problem is to give him more opium so that he is not conscious enough to think about anything at all.
At the end Ilych finally comes to terms with the fact that he has made a lot of mistakes in his life that cannot be changed. Once he admits this to himself he then
realizes that it is not too late to do right by his family. He stops thinking about himself and realizes the effect his dying was having on his wife and son. Then he asks for their forgiveness and displays his sympathy for how his death will affect them. Also by acting in their best interest he frees himself from the mental anguish he has suffered over the previous weeks. The result is that Ilych feels like his life is more resolved and therefore he is more prepared to meet his own death.
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