The Theme in the Work
The novella gives the protagonist's death on the first page and spends the rest of the book showing how it is received: by colleagues, who read it in the newspaper thinking about promotions; by the family, which treats it as an illness for as long as it can; and by Ivan Ilyich Golovin himself, who recognizes it one night, fights against it for weeks, and in the end does not find it. What the book recounts is not the fact, it is the distance between knowing that all people die and knowing that I will die, and the path of a man from the first knowledge to the second.
In ch. I, the colleagues in the office read the death notice, and the narrator says what they feel, without exception:
самый факт смерти близкого знакомого вызвал во всех, узнавших про нее, как всегда, чувство радости о том, что умер он, а не я, the very fact of a close acquaintance's death awoke in all who learned of it, as always, a feeling of joy that it was he who had died and not I.
In the same chapter, Pyotr Ivanovich feels fear for himself on hearing that the dead man screamed for three days, and the fear passes with the customary thought (that happened to Ivan Ilyich, not to him). Only Gerasim, in the anteroom, speaks of death as something that belongs to everyone.
In ch. V, after the brother-in-law's look and the night with the appendix, Ivan Ilyich blows out the candle and understands:
Не в слепой кишке, не в почке дело, а в жизни и… смерти. Да, жизнь была и вот уходит, уходит, и я не могу удержать ее., It is not the appendix, not the kidney, the matter is life and... death. Yes, life was there, and now it is leaving, leaving, and I cannot hold it back.
In ch. VI, the logic he learned at school gives him the conclusion, and he cannot apply it to himself:
Тот пример силлогизма, которому он учился в логике Кизеветера: Кай — человек, люди смертны, потому Кай смертен, казался ему во всю его жизнь правильным только по отношению к Каю, но никак не к нему, That example of syllogism he studied in Kiesewetter's logic, Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal, had all his life seemed correct only in relation to Caius, and in no way to him.
In ch. VII, Gerasim says what the whole house avoids, and he says it in the plural:
Все умирать будем. Отчего же не потрудиться?, We will all die. Why not take the trouble?
In ch. IX, his whole life appears to him as a slope he went down while imagining he was climbing, and the passage ends in the dry order of dying:
Точно равномерно я шел под гору, воображая, что иду на гору. Так и было. В общественном мнении я шел на гору, и ровно настолько из-под меня уходила жизнь… И вот готово, умирай!, It was as if I had been going down a hill at an even pace, imagining I was climbing it. And so it was. In public opinion I was climbing the hill, and to the same degree life was slipping away from under me... And now it's done, die!
In ch. XII, after three days of screaming in the black sack, he looks for his old fear of death and cannot find it:
Он искал своего прежнего привычного страха смерти и не находил его. Где она? Какая смерть? Страха никакого не было, потому что и смерти не было. Вместо смерти был свет., He looked for his former habitual fear of death and did not find it. Where is it? What death? There was no fear at all, because there was no death either. Instead of death there was light.
The book measures death by the distance between "he" and "I." The colleagues in ch. I are glad that it was he who died and not they; Ivan Ilyich, in ch. VI, accepts that Caius dies and not he; the family in ch. VIII falls silent for fear that the lie will break and it will become clear what it is. Only in ch. XII, when his attention shifts from himself to his son and his wife, does death cease to be what he expected, and the text says there was no fear because there was no death.
Who Embodies It
Ivan Ilyich is death seen from within, from the first strange taste in the mouth in ch. IV to the last breath in ch. XII. Pyotr Ivanovich is death seen from outside, by the living man who crosses himself, consoles the widow, and goes to play Vint the same day (ch. I). Gerasim is the one who accepts it as a common thing, without needing to hide it or dramatize it, and that is why he is the only one with whom the dying man feels at ease (ch. VII).
ему на помощь пришла обычная мысль, что это случилось с Иваном Ильичом, а не с ним и что с ним этого случиться не должно и не может, the customary thought came to his aid: that this had happened to Ivan Ilyich and not to him, and that it should not and could not happen to him.
Where It Appears
- Chapter I: The colleagues read the death notice and feel joy that it was he who died and not I; Pyotr Ivanovich sees the dead man, feels fear for himself, and calms down; Gerasim says that everyone is going to end up there.
- Chapter V: After the brother-in-law's look and the mirror, Ivan Ilyich understands, alone at night, that it is not a matter of kidney or appendix, but of life and death.
- Chapter VI: The syllogism about Caius applies to Caius and not to Ivan Ilyich, and death looks at him from behind the screens that were meant to hide it.
- Chapter VII: In the third month, everyone expects Ivan Ilyich to vacate his place, and Gerasim tells him that everyone will die.
- Chapter IX: Life appears to Ivan Ilyich as a descent he took for a climb, and he weeps over the cruelty and the absence of God.
- Chapter X: With his face to the wall, Ivan Ilyich lives the most complete loneliness and compares life to a stone that falls faster and faster.
- Chapter XII: Ivan Ilyich spends three days screaming in the black sack, falls into the hole, pities his son and wife, and sees the light in place of death.
Where the Readings Diverge
The death in ch. XII can be read in two ways, and the text supports both. As a religious experience, it is prepared for by the confession and communion in ch. XI and fulfilled in the light. As a moral discovery, it depends only on what Ivan Ilyich does in the final minutes: letting go of the justification of a good life and feeling pity for others. The order of the text favors the second reading (the hope of communion dissolves in the same chapter), but the light cannot be explained by it alone.
What also diverges is what ends at the very end: death, as Ivan Ilyich repeats to his soul, or the fear of it. For those present, the agony lasts another two hours; for him, everything happens in an instant. The book recounts the same death from both sides and leaves it to the reader to decide which of the two accounts is the true one.