The “Death of Ivan Ilych” tells the tragic story of Ivan Ilych, a middle class judge attempting to rise above his status in Russian society. Nevertheless, Ivan’s economic and social rise corresponds to his spiritual downfall. In setting material objects and wealth as his objects of adoration, Ivan Ilych forgets about what is most important: human contact. Then, all of a sudden he is diagnosed with a horrific and terminal disease that slowly consumes him until he is no more than a living corpse. As he is about to die, Ivan realizes that his ultimate sin is his indifference to human touch. Now that he knows why he is being punished, his only redemption comes from leaving his son and all of us readers, a deathbed legacy, which is to forgo Ivan Ilych’s lifestyle and ultimate mistake.
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