Reading Notes W11: Tolstoy, Part A

Leo Tolstoy, “The Death of Ivan Ilyinch” (735-778)

Leo Tolstoy:

·         1828-1910

·         A gambler, womanizer, and aristocrat of the highest rank

·         Called Count Leo Tolstoy

·         He was a vegetarian, pacifist, anarchist, and a passionate advocate for Russian peasantry.

·         Widely known as a moral and religious sage and world-famous for his wisdom on marriage (had rocky marriage himself though).

·         “This painful self-division reflects his intense, lifelong struggle to find the best way to live in the world-how to respond to the pressures of guilt and pleasure, authority and money, sex and war” (735). This can be seen in his stories and can somewhat come out in his themes.

Problems in his life:

·         Talks about problems of life he experiences somewhat in his stories.

·         Ex: “Thus began a chronicle of sex and shame, played out in countless affairs with women, almost all of them members of the peasant class” (736).

·         Ex: “There he witnessed appalling devastation, incompetence, and confusion” (736). Here he talks about war.

·         Ex: “Tolstoy’s brother Dmitry had died of tuberculosis in the arms of a prostitute. Revolted by his brother’s emaciated body and the smell of illness, Tolstoy felt remarkably little concern for Dmitry and selfishly rushed back to St. Petersburg to enjoy his growing literary fame” (739). This can be possibly seen through “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” as a possible biographical source.

Time:

·         “Russian society was divided into three major groups: the aristocracy, which was small in number but exerted all of the nation’s political power; town merchants, who had fixed duties and privileges; and serfs, who made up the vast majority of the population but had no power at all” (738).

Themes:

·         Mortality: “The dead man lay, as dead men always lie, in a specifically heavy way, his rigid limbs sunk in the soft cushions of the coffin, with the head forever bowed on the pillow” (742).

·         Society and Class: “His father had been made an official who after serving in various ministries and departments in Petersburg had made the sort of career which brings men to positions form which by reason of their long service they cannot be dismissed, though they are obviously unfit to hold any responsible position, and for whom therefore posts are specially created…” (746). possibly considered a town merchant or maybe borderline aristocrat? This definitely ties into what was going on at this time: society-wise.