on living a long and slow death
When we talk about Tolstoy we think of his two great novels. A great writer is a great writer, so I really shouldn’t be surprised that Tolstoy’s short stories are just as enticing and thought-provoking as his novels, with characters that breathe and cry and play vint and suffer vividly. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” captures the life of the one Ivan Ilyich. The story emphasizes the ‘death’ because Ivan Ilyich has lived ‘correctly’ according to social expectations, but he has not nearly experienced life in its grandest form. Such is his tragedy. Such is a life time’s long and slow death.
Time and again, Tolstoy echoes thoughts that have crossed my mind many a times. Here, he describes how Ivan Ilyich goes about decorating the new home.
Essentially, though, it was the same with all people who are not exactly rich, but who want to resemble the rich, and for that reason, only resemble each other: damasks, ebony, flowers, carpets, and bronzes, dark and gleaming – all that all people of a certain kind acquire in order to resemble all people of a certain kind.
Just like how the more we try to create a style, thinking that we are stylish and hip, we are, really, just like everyone else, resembling ‘all people of a certain kind’. Are we content with resembling people of this certain kind? Are we content with resembling the same people who carry insecurities about their appearance, their career path, their preferences of things to do in their free time?
Tolstoy’s observation is delicate, but even more stunning is the ease by which he articulates these observations, laying it out for the reader like a perfectly peeled and sliced orange.
But Ivan Ilyich’s real pleasure was in little dinners, to which he invited ladies and gentlemen of important social position and passed the time with them similarly to the way such people usually pass the time, just as his drawing room was similar to all other drawing rooms.
Do we dine like everyone else? Do we dress ourselves like everyone else? Do we pass the time by going to the shopping malls and the commercial movies like everyone else? What is the drama that takes place for a person who senses an alert in his awareness that his choices are beginning to resemble the ‘everybody’?
Time and again, Tolstoy echoes thoughts that have crossed my mind many a times. Here, he describes how Ivan Ilyich goes about decorating the new home.
Essentially, though, it was the same with all people who are not exactly rich, but who want to resemble the rich, and for that reason, only resemble each other: damasks, ebony, flowers, carpets, and bronzes, dark and gleaming – all that all people of a certain kind acquire in order to resemble all people of a certain kind.
Just like how the more we try to create a style, thinking that we are stylish and hip, we are, really, just like everyone else, resembling ‘all people of a certain kind’. Are we content with resembling people of this certain kind? Are we content with resembling the same people who carry insecurities about their appearance, their career path, their preferences of things to do in their free time?
Tolstoy’s observation is delicate, but even more stunning is the ease by which he articulates these observations, laying it out for the reader like a perfectly peeled and sliced orange.
But Ivan Ilyich’s real pleasure was in little dinners, to which he invited ladies and gentlemen of important social position and passed the time with them similarly to the way such people usually pass the time, just as his drawing room was similar to all other drawing rooms.
Do we dine like everyone else? Do we dress ourselves like everyone else? Do we pass the time by going to the shopping malls and the commercial movies like everyone else? What is the drama that takes place for a person who senses an alert in his awareness that his choices are beginning to resemble the ‘everybody’?
posted by Adam C at
4:33 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home