Week 11 Reading Notes A: Selfish Advancement - Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy 735-778

I found Leo Tolstoy to be a strange balance of good and bad. The conflict of his personality was interesting to me. He was a pacifist, anarchist, advocate for the Russian peasantry, and vegetarian. “He was world famous for his wisdom on the subject of marriage, but suffered through a remarkably stormy marriage himself. “ (735).

One quote that I really enjoyed from the reading of his life was “Tolstoy was always fully conscious of the disparity between his ideals and his life. “Blame me,“ he wrote, “and not the path I tread. “ This painful so if division reflects his intense lifelong struggle to find the best way to live in the world – how to respond to the pressures of guilt and pleasure, authority and money, sex and war. “ (735).

Leo Tolstoy was A member of the highest class of Russian society. He had access to the tsar’s court and his family were owners to hundreds of serfs. Which were “peasants that were property of the aristocratic landowners, much like slaves.” (735).

Tolstoy had a very interesting relationship with sexuality and love. When he’s 14 years old he started spending time in brothels. The reading reports that he would fall into moods of “remorse and self revulsion.”(736)

“Tolstoy was a great reader, and from adolescence he passionately admired French romantic Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Who argued against the artificiality of social manners and institutions in favor of the simplicity of life in and through nature.” (736). We can see this influence in his writing of The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

Peter Ivanovich’s (main character) acquaintance or friend, has died. And he missed navigate the social expectations and practices of those in attendance of the funeral. He was unsure how to proceed with the expectations of the event. “All he knew was at such times it is always safe to cross oneself.“ (742).

These social intricacies and hoops that the character has to jump through continue.

“Afterwards, when it seemed to him that this movement of his arm crossing himself had gone on too long, he stopped begin to look at the corpse.”

Peter begin to feel uncomfortable around the corpse as he looked at it. He notes very interesting details such as the corpses face look thinner and more handsome even more dignified. He compares the dead with the living. He notes that the face of the dead man looked to be warning the living. Into years were Peter gets uncomfortable.

“ this morning seem to Peter Ivanovich out of place, or at least not applicable to him. He felt a certain discomfort and so hurriedly christ himself once more and turned and went out of the door - too hurriedly and too regardless of propriety, as he himself was aware.”(742).

These final lines that Peter must walk continue throughout the tail. The contrast peter we have Schwartz. Who is cool, calm, and collected when he seen by peter leaving and his hurry. He even winks Peter which seems to be an inappropriate thing to do at a funeral.(743)

The tale seems to focus around the lack of empathy for the deceased and for the family. It is a devoted of much emotion by focusing so much on the aspects of propriety necessary. Retail is also focused in on the selfish aspects of the human condition. Such as they are happy that their friend is dead and they are not. And if not happy at least relieved. Upon the death of their acquaintance they thought much of their own advancement in their careers as they were all within the same field of employment. The selfishness is quite sad.(741)