Life Regrets

A detailed Summary of Life Regrets


In "The Death of Ivan Ilych," Tolstoy depicts a man who, though lives a successful life, dies regretting the past. Ivan Ilych, a good-natured, social man, lives with the mind set that he must always impress the masses, rather than do what would result in lasting happiness. From childhood to marriage, he did everything that he thought was "comme il faut" - proper and necessary. While Ivan was showing an upholsterer how he wanted some drapes hung, he fell and hit his side. The fall from the ladder was an event that plunged him in to a terminal illness and left him on his deathbed. This fall also ignited a process of self-recognition and, eventually, a rebirth on a metaphysical level. At his death, Ivan Ilych finally realizes that his concern with propriety, coupled with his obsession over decorum, ruins his family life, professional life, and social life.


was so infatuated with propriety that "he married because his social circle approved of the match... and was considered the right thing by the most highly placed of his associates" (481). Praskova Fedorovna Mikhel's most attractive feature was that she was within the lines of propriety. At first the marriage, just as Ivan had expected, didn't hurt his pleasure-seeking life. Then the relationship quickly began to fade. Ivan soon fell into a depression and his wife treated his illness as a burden. Praskova, also obsessing over social status, was falsely concerned with Ivan's condition merely because it was the attitude she was to take in such a situation. Ivan's family, dominated by appropriateness, never had the chance to develop the relationships it needed.

Because he felt it was needed to sustain his social status, Ivan found it advantageous to befriended only

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 589
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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