Both Tolstoy and Plato address their fascination with death on their writings. In The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy sees death as an inevitable horror. It seems incredible to Tolstoy, “that all men had been condemned to suffer this awful horror” (Tolstoy, 2004, p. 76). Tolstoy fears he cannot avoid death and will die. Whereas Plato sees death as a moral fact in Socrates’ dialogues. Plato’s view of death relates to dying instead of breaking the laws and living in dishonor. Tolstoy questions what the point of living is if we must die. While Plato suggests that he prefers dying than living because there is a great afterlife for those who live how they should. There is enough evidence to say Tolstoy and Plato’s mortality affect their practice
