Phaedo And The Death Of Ivan Ilych By Leo Tolstoy

Death is shared among all living things, but whether it is bad varies depending on beliefs and values. Socrates explains in the Phaedo that death is not bad and he looks forward to death as a philosopher. His main reason as to why he looks forward to death is his belief that the soul is immortal. In Phaedo Socrates says that he and other philosophers spend their whole life preparing for death and strengthening their souls. While on the other hand, The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy tells a story of someone who gets hit with an unexpected and painful death and realizes that he regrets his whole life. But both Phaedo and The Death of Ivan Ilych end with the conclusion that death is not bad as both Socrates and Ivan Ilych die in peace. So …show more content…
For example, my grandmother is 87, she has had multiple surgeries in the past two years and her kidneys are slowly failing. Every once in awhile, she calls 911 and rushes to the hospital. And every time, they send her home with nothing wrong with her, her kidneys are exactly the same. But every time she is in the hospital, she has a huge meltdown explains her overwhelming fear of death. She admits that she called because she was afraid, but can’t explain her symptoms. As death gets closer and closer, her fear gets …show more content…
Just as my grandmother’s fear only came to her mind intensely as she actually felt death coming, Ivan Ilych feels the same. But near his final moments the character of Ivan “sought his old habitual fear of death and could not find it. Where was it? What death? There was no more fear because there was no more death. Instead of death there was light” (91). Once, Ivan reached his final moments of life, he then finally overcame the fear that haunted him in his experience of dying, and the fear disappeared to light. Once death hit Ivan, his fear vanished, and death was easy. Ivan Ilych has lived his whole life with a fear of death that he did not recognize. But he feared it, just like everyone else. It is not apparent until you actually believe that you are going to die. Although, he suffered before his death, he was prepared for his final moments on earth.
Paying attention to time, is a fear of death alone, because time comes to end when you die and if you afraid of running out of time then you are afraid of death. The end of time is death for humans. Ivan’s death represents more than his realization that his he lived his life wrong, If he were given 10 more years of life, would his death have been any different? Would he have felt less