Symbols

The Fall and the Curtain The fall of Ivan Ilyich Golovin from the little stepladder, in chapter III, when he climbs up to show the upholsterer how he wanted the drapery of the curtains in the new house, and the curtain to which he himself attributes, in chapter VI, the loss of his... The Decorated Room The house that Ivan Ilyich sets up alone in the new city, in chapter III, and above all the drawing room: wallpaper, old furniture bought cheaply that gives everything a noble air, bronzes, Japanese plates on the walls, the pink chintz on which he consulted a... Vint The card game of Ivan Ilyich Golovin's circle: whist (вист) of youth in the provinces, in chapter II, and vint (винт) of maturity, from chapter I to chapter IV, played by four, with partners who do not shout, and to which the narrator gives the status of the... Gerasim's Legs on His Shoulders The position in which Ivan Ilyich Golovin, ill, feels least pain: lying on the sofa, with his legs raised, first on a chair and a cushion, then on the shoulders of the servant Gerasim, who holds them for whole nights. It is the physical image of the book's... The Black Bag The black bag, narrow and deep, into which Ivan Ilyich Golovin feels himself pushed, with pain, in the stupor of the opium in chapter IX, and in which he struggles during the three days of screaming in chapter XII, until he falls through it and finds, at the... The Light The light (свет) that runs through the life of Ivan Ilyich Golovin at four points: the well-placed society toward which he flies like a moth, in chapter II, because in Russian the same word means both light and fashionable society; the light missing from his...