Reading Notes Week 11: Tolstoy, Part A

Leo Tolstoy:
- 1828 - 1910
- Gambler, womanizer, high ranking aristocrat, vegetarian, anarchist, and pacifist.
- Excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church.
- Known for his wisdom on marriage but had a rocky marriage himself.
- Lost his mom at 2 and his dad at 9.
- Two most famous novels: War and Peace / Anna Karenina. Both were realist stories about 19th century Russian life.
- The Death of Ivan Ilyich was very different from his other work, possibly because of his religious conversion.
- The story may be somewhat autobiographical, because of the guilt he felt over not reacting very strongly when his own brother died.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich:
- Ivan Ilyich: An official in the Court of Justice. He ends up with some mysterious terminal illness and begins to ponder the nature of death and suffering. Right before he dies, he loses his fear of death, and the author suggests this erases death itself. When Ivan dies he sees a light, feels joy, possibly symbolizing that death doesn't exist because there is an afterlife, which means people are technically immortal since they live on after death in heaven.
- Praskovya Fedorovna: Ivan's cruel wife who doesn't care about Ivan's suffering.
- Gerasim: One of Ivan's sevants who is one of the few people to care about Ivan's suffering. He does not fear death which makes Ivan introspect on his own fear of death.
Vasya: Ivan's son, one of the few people who cares that Ivan is dying. Ivan says he looks pathetic all the time, because he's overcome by pity.

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