Death is a lonely thing

In his introduction to “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” Ronald Blythe discusses the “sheer desolating aloneness of dying,” and in this story this aloneness is glaringly obvious and a prominent aspect of the story. Throughout his painful course of death, Ivan receives very little support for his illness and mostly has to deal with his sadness and realization of death in solitude. Even his own wife, Praskovya, wishes he were dead so she would not have to deal with him anymore, but only has reservations about these thoughts when she realizes that she would no longer enjoy his salary if he was dead (because dead people don’t get paid money).

The true aloneness of Ivan’s death is apparent right from the start in the story’s first chapter. All of Ivan’s acquaintances, including to some degree his best friend Peter Ivanovich, are more interested in the financial and professional consequences of Ivan’s death rather than concern and thought for the deceased. Ivan’s wife Praskovya is concerned about receiving her government pension for her husband’s death and how to get as much money as she can while showing little respect or care about her late husband. Many of Ivan’s professional acquaintances are thinking about the implications of his death with regard to his position as a judge, while also feeling glad that they are alive while Ivan is dead. These post-mortem actions of Ivan’s “friends” reveal the lack of loyalty of his friends and how they, in effect, abandoned him after he died, making the loneliness of his death that much more pronounced. Even Peter betrays him, thinking about making his card game on-time and wanting to speed through the funeral processions so he can play his cards. This selfish act by Peter helps highlight the aloneness that Ivan had to suffer through in his death.

One specific event in his life that is very representative of the desolating aloneness that Ivan feels is the night of playing bridge with his friends late in chapter four. As Ivan is trying to enjoy the game and find some pleasure in his life, the pain in his side and the bad taste in his mouth begin to dominate him and Ivan ends up ruining a great hand that he had. His partner, rather than feeling sympathy towards Ivan’s condition, responds with anger and distress at Ivan’s failure. This leads Ivan down a road of depressing thoughts, as he thinks about how no one cares about him and Ivan is just poisoning other people’s lives. Ivan feels incredibly alone at this point in time, not believing there to be anyone who understands or even pities him.

Overall, the unfortunate journey to death for Ivan Ilyich is plagued with sorrow, sadness, and aloneness (457).