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Billy Fairbank
Russian 441
Course Paper #1
The Death of Ivan Ilych/The Queen of Spades
Tolstoy begins his literary career by declaring that he will “write deliberately not like [his] romantic predecessors. ... Two works, Pushkin’s The Queen of Spades and Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych, create an interesting literary study when compared. ...
Tolstoy wants readers to put themselves in the place of Ivan because he acts and thinks similarly to the way they do. ... ” These are some of the first words Tolstoy uses to describe Ivan, specific descriptive words to emphasize Ivan’s commonplace existence. ... ” (Ïåðåïèñêà 93) Ivan is designed as a man whom the reader has seen before. ... Tolstoy seems to go out of his way to make Ivan entirely average. ... The reader can feel Ivan’s life and his denial of untimely death. ... The differences between Herman and Ivan are obvious in this point. It is clear that Tolstoy wishes the reader to understand Ivan through his common experience, while Pushkin emphasizes the character flaw of an exaggerated Herman to perk the attention of the reader and invite him to examine his own life.
The supporting characters in The Death of Ivan Ilych are also designed to be realistic and to give the reader a clearer picture of what goes on in mankind’s heart. ... Common human experiences, and situations, fit well into the lives of the characters; the housewife who wants more of husband and life, the husband relieved to head to work after trouble at home, the working man looking for a way ahead, the friend moved to action but only out of obligation, a man facing his own death or the death of someone close, are all familiar. ... Inferences about the everyday lives of people around Ivan Ilych can be drawn as he tells us what they think.
Approximate Word count = 1507
Approximate Pages = 6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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