The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Master and Man (20 page)

1.

“The Death of Ivan Ilyich” and “Master and Man” are both stories about dying well or badly. How does Tolstoy think death should be faced? What makes dying difficult?

2.

Read Tolstoy’s other stories about death, like “The Snowstorm,” “Three Deaths,” “Memoirs of a Madman,” “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” and “What Men Live By.” Do his attitudes to death change as he comes closer to his own death?

3.

E. M. Forster believed that birth and death present the novelist with insuperable difficulties. “We only know of them by report. Our final experience, like our first, is conjectural. Certain people pretend to tell us what birth and death are like . . . but it is all from the outside.” Is Tolstoy’s presentation of the experience of death “all from the outside”? Is it convincing?

4.

Other writers have tried to describe dying from the inside: Giuseppe di Lampedusa, for instance, in Chapter 7 of
The Leopard;
William Golding in
Pincher Martin
and the last chapter of
Darkness Visible;
Ian McEwan in Part 2 of
Atonement.
There are many poems by Emily Dickinson, like “I heard a fly buzz when I died” or “Because I could not stop for death,” that describe the subjective experience of death. How well do these authors compare with Tolstoy? What are they trying to tell us about death? Can you think of any other writers who attempt the difficult task of describing death from inside?

5.

John Keats said, “We hate poetry that has a palpable design on us, and if we do not agree, seems to put its hand in its breeches pocket.” Tolstoy’s stories could be called examples of affective literature—they want to persuade us into a particular attitude to both life and death. Do we hate him for his palpable design on us, or do we accede? If we do accede, why? How has he persuaded us?

6.

Tolstoy believed that there was a radical difference between attitudes to death in the well-to-do bourgeoisie and the impoverished peasantry. What were they? Do you think his views would still hold good for the different social classes of today?

7.

Tolstoy has a strong satirical bent. What are the objects of his satire, and why? We tend not to think of him as a humorous writer—is his satire ever funny?

8.

Tolstoy was an entirely idiosyncratic, independent freethinker. Many respected institutions were derided by him—the Church, the Law, the medical profession, even the theater. Where do you find mockery of such bodies in these stories? Why did Tolstoy attack them?

9.

Tolstoy’s style is renowned for its direct, simple truthfulness. Is this reputation justified? Is there an art in his artlessness?

10.

There is no writer, perhaps, who has understood people as well as Tolstoy. He seems to be intimate with everybody and everything—not only people but animals and even objects. Can you find striking examples of his insight in these stories? Can you compare him to any other writers with comparable psychological insight and universal sympathy—George Eliot, for instance, or James Joyce?