61 pages • 2 hours read
Leo TolstoyThe Death of Ivan Ilyich
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1886A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
In the chambers of a Russian courthouse, law professionals discuss current events. They discover an obituary for their colleague Ivan Ilyich Golovin in a newspaper, who died on February 4, 1882. Upon hearing of his death, his colleagues are immediately concerned with “the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves or their acquaintances” (247). In addition to opening career avenues for former colleagues, Ivan Ilyich’s death brings obligations for the lawyers, who now “have to fulfill the very tiresome demands of propriety by attending the funeral service and paying a visit of condolence to the widow” (248). Among these professional acquaintances is Peter Ivanovich, who delays a card game to attend the funeral service at Ivan Ilyich’s home.
At the service, Peter Ivanovich wonders how to behave properly, quickly settling on bowing and crossing himself. Throughout the service, he is primarily concerned with whether he’ll make it to the evening’s card game. Schwartz, a fellow work colleague, is also eager to get to the card game, and Praskovya Fedorovna Golovina, Ivan Ilyich’s widow, is interested only in Peter Ivanovich’s knowledge of how she might increase her widow’s pension. Praskovya Fedorovna interrupts her inquiries about her husband’s pension to discuss the price of a gravesite with her butler, and the conversation with Peter Ivanovich comes to an unsatisfying end. After fumbling awkwardly through the social expectations of a funeral visitor, Peter Ivanovich leaves with hopes of still making it in time to join the card game.
Chapter 1 Analysis
The first chapter introduces Ivan Ilyich, the protagonist, through the obituary that chronicles his death. This structural technique means that the body of the novella’s plot will take place in a flashback. Tolstoy will eventually circle back to the moment of Ivan Ilyich’s death, building the cycle of life and death into the plot. The cyclical nature of his passing echoes as we see his death create opportunities for others to fill his place and make upward progress in their own professional lives.
Most characters in the novella treat Ivan Ilyich’s death as a social inconvenience tolerated for the sake of potential economic gain. People do not give much attention to Ivan Ilyich’s death beyond how it affects their own situations. It is clear even before we meet the man, that Ivan Ilyich established no meaningful personal connections with his colleagues or his family, and that he had no friends close enough to want to attend his funeral. No one mourns the loss of this man—and the rest of the novella will explain why.
Tolstoy is famed for his detailed, realistic depiction of human thought and interaction. A key element of his works is his focus on the psychology of his characters; here, he pushes readers to recognize their own selfishness reflected in these characters.
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