Lecture Notes, Tolstoy

 

Brief Bio:

 

 

Questions to Consider:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion Quotes:

 

“So on receiving the news of Ivan Ilyich’s death the first thought of each of the gentlemen in that private room was of the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves or their acquaintances” (1422).

 

“All he knew was that at such times it is always safe to cross oneself” (1423).

 

“He felt Schwartz was above all these happenings and could not surrender to any depressing influences” (1424).

 

“’Come with me. I want to speak to you before it begins,’ said the widow” (1425).

 

“[A]nd she again began talking and brought out what was evidently her chief concern with him—namely, to question him as to how she could obtain a grant of money from the government on the occasion of her husband’s death” (1426).

 

“’It’s God’s will. We shall all come to it some day,’ said Gerasim, displaying his teeth—the even, white teeth of a healthy peasant” (1427).

 

“He had been a member of the Court of Justice, and died at the age of forty-five” (1427).

 

“The new and reformed judicial institutions were introduced, and new men were needed” (1429).

 

“The work was new and Ivan Ilyich was one of the first men to apply the new Code of 1864” (1430).

 

“Really, why shouldn’t I marry” (1430).

 

“Very soon, within a year of his wedding, Ivan Ilyich had realized that marriage, though it may add some comforts to life, is in fact a very intricate and difficult affair towards which in order to perform one’s duty, that is, to lead a decorous life approved of by society, one must adopt a definite attitude just as towards one’s official duties” (1431).

 

“All of his ill humour towards his former enemies and the whole department vanished, and Ivan Ilyich was completely happy” (1434).

 

“Sometimes he even had moments of absent-mindedness during the Course Sessions” (1435).

 

“Once when mounting a step-ladder to show the upholsterer, who did not understand, how he wanted the hangings draped, he made a false step and slipped, but being a strong and agile man he clung on and only knocked his side against the knob of the window frame” (1435).

 

“They were all in good health. It could not be called ill health if Ivan Ilyich sometimes said that he had a queer taste in his mouth and felt some discomfort in his left side” (1437).

 

“The doctor put on just the same air towards him as he himself put on towards an accused person” (1438).

 

“He reached home and began to tell his wife about it. She listened, but in the middle of his account his daughter came in with her hat on, ready to go out with her mother” (1439).

 

“The pain did not grow less, but Ivan Ilyich made efforts to force himself to think he was better” (1439).

 

“It sometimes seemed to him that people were watching him inquisitively as a man whose place might soon be vacant” (1441).

 

“Ivan Ilyich saw that he was dying, and he was in continual despair” (1444).

 

“How is one to understand it?” (1445).

 

“It really is so! I lost my live over that curtain” (1446).

 

“At first the sight of him, in his clean Russian peasant costume, engage on that disgusting task embarrassed Ivan Ilyich” (1447).

 

“’Oh, why, sir,’ and Gerasim’s eyes beamed and he showed his glistening white teeth, ‘what’s a little trouble? It’s a case of illness with you, sir” (1447).

 

“Health, strength, and vitality in other people were offensive to him, but Gerasim’s strength and vitality did not mortify but soothes him” (1448).

 

“Only Gerasim recognized and pitied him” (1448).

 

“Gerasim alone did not lie” (1448).

 

“’He wants to tidy up the room, and I’m in the way. I am uncleanliness and disorder,’ he thought” (1449).

 

“She had reminded him in the morning that they were going to the theatre” (1452).

 

“Again minute followed minute and hour followed hour. Everything remained the same and there was no cessation. And the inevitable end of it all became more and more terrible” (1453).

 

“He wept on account of his helplessness, his terrible loneliness, the cruelty of man, the cruelty of God, and the absence of God” (1454).

 

“’To live? How?’ asked his inner voice” (1454).

 

“And whenever the thought occurred to him, as it often did, that it all resulted from his not having lived as he ought to have done, he at once recalled the correctness of his whole life, and dismissed so strange an idea” (1455).

 

“Life, a series of increasing sufferings, flies further and further towards its end—the most terrible suffering” (1456).

 

“He sought his formed accustomed fear of death and did not find it” (1459).

 

“In place of death there was light” (1459).

 

“’Death is finished,” he said to himself. ‘It is no more!’” (1460).

 

“He drew in a breath, stopped in the midst of a sigh, stretched out, and died” (1460).

 

 

Sample Short Essay Answer Questions: Explain why you agree, agree in part, or disagree with the following statements. Make sure you explain your answer, using textual evidence. You may use your textbook to locate quotes; do not use any outside sources.