The Light At The End of The Tunnel

Ivan Ilych’s illness and eventual slow, painful death begins when he falls while hanging draperies in his new house. He behaves very ostentatiously when relating the incident to his family by saying that such a fall would have killed an average man but he survived because he is “a bit of an athlete”. The narrator describes the grandeur of Ivan Ilyich’s home in great detail and then concludes that the house had “all the things people of a certain class have in order to resemble people of that class.” In all of Ivan Ilyich’s endeavors throughout his life until his final months, he tries only to do what society requires of him and advance his social position. It is quite ironic that the source of his eventual death results from his most visibly grandiose attempt at living in a manner that he thinks best suits him.

His illness intensifies his life so that the things that had once been symbols of his success become overbearing burdens. The already quarrelsome relationship he had with his wife became more poisonous as his illness progressed. Before he became ill, attempting to minimize his time with her was sufficient for retaining his sanity. Once pain in his side and bizarre tastes in his mouth began to plague him, his muffled dislike for her progressed into unabated hatred. He initially found his work invigorating and exciting because of the sense of dignity and authority that it brought him. However, long sessions in court soon became tiring and embarrassing when his thoughts became clouded and his exacting judgment dulled by agony.

His physical pain draws attention to itself because Ivan Ilyich realizes that it is meaningless and prevents him from resuming his normal thought patterns. In an effort to comfort himself and relieve potential brooding on his physical suffering, he thinks about his childhood. Nostalgia forces him to retrace the steps of his life and leads him to ponder the meaning of his existence. He is perplexed at how his life began so simply and pleasantly and is about to end in anguished suffering. When others around him such as his wife and the doctor inquire about his health, he becomes aggravated with them because he feels that they do not understand what he is enduring. He longs for someone to understand him so that he can be pitied. He begins to find the pity he is seeking in his servant, Gerasim, because he does not begrudge doing the most unpleasant tasks to keep him comfortable.

Gerasim realizes that Ivan Ilyich is dying and is trying to make the end of his life more tolerable. Since he has no selfish motives in helping him, Ivan Ilyich plunges into deeper anguish at the realization of his own selfishness. Relief comes to him at the moment of his death because he realizes that those around him do not need to understand the mental gymnastics of the end of his life or the extent of his physical suffering because “He whose understanding mattered would understand”. His realization that approval and understanding from others is ultimately meaningless allows him to accept his mortality and thus end his suffering.