61 pages • 2 hours read
Leo TolstoyThe Death of Ivan Ilyich
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1886A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
Another fortnight passes. Ivan Ilyich spends all day on the sofa suffering “ever the same unceasing agonies” of loneliness, pain, and the knowledge that death is coming (296). He continues to question whether he has lived his life correctly and why he must suffer. He feels a “terrible loneliness” (296) and reflects on childhood memories. Nevertheless, he resists the idea that perhaps he has not lived right, reminding himself of “all the legality, correctitude, and propriety of his life” (298). He concludes that he has lived right, and there is no explanation for the agony accompanying death.
Chapter 11 Summary
Two more weeks go by and Ivan Ilyich’s family welcomes news of his daughter’s formal engagement. Ivan Ilyich, however, experiences “a change for the worse” and remains on the sofa “groaning and staring fixedly straight in front of him” (298). He treats his wife with animosity, demanding that she let him “die in peace” (298). He is still in pain, but his chief misery is now his own moral suffering. Inwardly, he asks himself, “What if my whole life has been wrong?” (299) and comes to understand an “awful truth” that everything he has valued is false (299). This realization intensifies his suffering, and another dose of opium sends him into unconsciousness.
When he awakes, Ivan Ilyich agrees to Praskovya Fedorovna’s suggestion that a priest visit for his final sacrament. This brings another brief moment of relief from his doubts and questions as hope springs up once more. Feelings of hatred revive his suffering, though, bringing him back to his quickly deteriorating condition.
Chapter 12 Summary
Ivan Ilyich suffers through three more days. He knows that he is “lost, that there was no return, that the end had come, the very end” (301). Time does “not exist for him” during these three days, and he moans in agony (301). He again fears the black sack from his previous dream. He comes back to the question, “What is the right thing?” (301)
Vasya visits his dying father’s bedside. Ivan Ilyich swings his arms wildly in pain, accidentally landing a hand upon his son’s head. Vasya takes his father’s hand and kisses it. In this moment, Ivan Ilyich catches “sight of the light” (301). He opens his eyes and feels sorry for his son. Praskovya Fedorovna comes into the room and Ivan Ilyich feels not open resentment but pity for her as well. He tries to speak but can only mutter and wave his hand. He no longer fears death, and instead experiences joy. As his throat rattles less frequently and his body twitches, Ivan Ilyich repeats the words in his soul, “Death is finished,” before taking his final breath, stretching out, and dying (302).
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
The circularity of the plot continues as Ivan Ilyich is dying. Just as in the first chapter, his colleagues mostly approached his death as something happening to them—extra work landing on their desks or an opportunity for advancement—so here, Lisa’s formal betrothal emphasizes that Ivan Ilyich’s family is not suspending their lives while his ends. Never having been emotionally invested in him while he was alive, Lisa, Vasya, and Praskovya Fedorovna have no reason to see his death as anything but a hiccup in their plans.
Despite the title of the novella, Ivan Ilyich’s death itself is not the climax of the story, which hangs instead on whether Ivan Ilyich will eventually understand the errors of his priorities. After weeks of agonizing about whether he’s lived correctly and never really being able to face his own faults, shortcomings, and selfish attitude, Ivan Ilyich suddenly has a moment of complete clarity. Again, the psychological and physical go hand in hand, as they have for much of the novella. As his hand brushes against his son’s head, for the first time in his life, Ivan Ilyich stops thinking about his own needs, wants, and demands, and instead experiences empathy. The caress is a concrete sign of emotional connection, as is the double meaning of the fact that Ivan Ilyich opens his eyes before feeling pity for his boy. The eye-opening continues when the dying man’s ego retreats enough for him to put himself into his wife’s shoes. Rather than angrily attacking her, Ivan Ilyich is subsumed with pity for her longsuffering tolerance of him. Of course, this is how he should have been living all along; this moment of sudden joyful connection isn’t enough to make up for a lifetime of familial neglect, but it does show both Ivan Ilyich and the reader that “though his life had not been what it should have been, this could still be rectified” (301). There might not be time for him to do this, but there is time for us.
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