The Death of Ivan Ilych

The Death of Ivan Ilych

  

by Leo Tolstoy

Current Events & Pop Culture

Available to teachers only as part of the Teaching The Death of Ivan Ilych Teacher Pass


Teaching The Death of Ivan Ilych Teacher Pass includes:

  • Assignments & Activities
  • Reading Quizzes
  • Current Events & Pop Culture articles
  • Discussion & Essay Questions
  • Challenges & Opportunities
  • Related Readings in Literature & History

Sample of Current Events & Pop Culture


Dying with Ivan

Who better to wrestle with the big D-word than Leo Tolstoy? This fascinating article by academic and writer Mary Beard from the New Yorker's 'Page-turner' blogexplores Tolstoy's death, his religious beliefs, and his thoughts on death itself. Beard takes time to analyze The Death of Ivan Ilych too, which makes this extra relevant for your class.


Excerpt

"At the very end of the story, Tolstoy insists that instead of attempting to avoid his own mortality, Ivan Ilych at last managed to look death in the eye, and that direct confrontation destroyed the terrible fear which had until then so tormented him."