Parallelism

Consecutive phrases or verses with the same construction, so that the reader compares what changes from one to the next.

In The Death of Ivan Ilyich

The past history of Ivan Ilyich's life was the simplest, the most common, and the most terrible.

"The simplest, the most common and the most terrible" repeats the same form three times. The series of superlatives gives the last one more weight, because the first two sounded like praise.

Chapters I to III: The Wake and Life, the narrator

The joys of service were joys of self-regard; social joys were joys of vanity; but Ivan Ilyich's true joys were the joys of the game of vint.

Chapters I to III: The Wake and Life, the narrator

It was all exactly as in court. Just as he, in court, took on an air before the defendants, exactly so the famous doctor took on an air before him.

Chapters IV to VII: The Illness and the Lie, the narrator

There was light, and now there is darkness. I was here, and now I am going there! Where?

Chapters IV to VII: The Illness and the Lie, Ivan Ilyich

He wept for his helplessness, for his terrible loneliness, for the cruelty of people, for the cruelty of God, for the absence of God.

Chapters VIII to XII: Death, the narrator