The Death Of Ivan Ilych Analysis

Christopher Plevinsky Topic 1 In The Death of Ivan Ilych death reveals the purpose of life by showing the regrets that he had. “Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” (p. 21). It was not until his death that he realized that his life was terrible. On his death bed as he looked back upon the life he lived and wondered how he had gone through it with no purpose. He was also filled with self-doubt about his life when being confronted by death. “But how could that be, when I did everything properly?”(p103). Throughout his life he had believed there was a certain way of doing things and by doing these things he would be rewarded by the people he did them for. But as death was taking home he had found that it was all meaningless. He had a loving family that he loathed other than his son, and his family also loathed him. Though as he went into death he saw a light. “He asked himself ‘What is the right thing?’”(Tolstoy 119). This is when he had his epiphany. He …show more content…
“…when he had seen the face of this world, enjoyed water and sun, warm stones and the sea...” (Camus 120). Sisyphus had died and was in the underworld but then convinced death that he needed to go back to earth to chastise his wife. When he got there everything changed. The grass seemed greener and the sky seemed brighter, he didn’t want to go back. This caused a problem. Because death is not to be trifled with. Many warned him of this so, and he was taken back to the underworld and punished. In this he was punished to push a boulder up the mountain for all of eternity. The punishment brings about a question. Is this a punishment to Sisyphus? Camus likes to think no and I agree. In his death and afterlife, he must see or realize that all is well. Then in death it is revealed that if Sisyphus sees himself as truly happy, the all the Gods, or in my opinion people lose their power over