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Rousseau and Tolstoy
A Comparison of Rousseau's Confessions and Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions opens more brazenly than the other Confessions of antiquity (those belonging to Augustine); the latter were zealously religious in nature and humbling in tone; the former were proud in tone and primarily secular. If Rousseau's Confessions can be called a celebration of a life burnished in the fires of the Romantic/Enlightenment era, Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych may be called a meditation on death -- or more accurately still it may be called a depiction of the spiritual conversion of the "natural" man, as embodied by Rousseau a century earlier. This paper will compare and contrast the two works and show how the Russian's serves as a kind of humbling argument against the self-serving ideals of the Frenchman.
The two characters present a similar outlook on life: both Rousseau in his Confessions and Ivan Ilych (at least initially) are extraordinarily boastful and filled with esteem for themselves. Yet while the fictional Russian...
(Of course, Rousseau is not given the opportunity to chronicle any such experience as the "deathbed conversion," an event that clearly distinguishes Tolstoy's novel from Rousseau's memoir.) Therefore, any comparison of the two men must at a certain point cease.
Up to that point, however, the men think in accordance with one another. Rousseau gives numerous examples of this thought, but none more eloquent than this: "I have begun on a work which is without precedent, whose accomplishment will have no imitator. I propose to set before my fellow-mortals a man in all the truth of nature; and this man shall be myself" (Rousseau, 1782, p. 1). Rousseau proceeds to imagine his launch into the afterlife, Confessions in hand, all of his "virtues" and "failings" recorded therein, as though God Himself could not have done a better…
Reference List
Rousseau, J. (1782). Confessions. Retrieved from http://philosophy.eserver.org/rousseau-confessions.txt
Tolstoy, L. (2001). The Death of Ivan Ilych. Classical Library. Retrieved from http://www.classicallibrary.org/tolstoy/ivan/2.htm
…there was light-heartedness, friendship, and hope…they were the memories of a love for a woman. Then all became confused and there was still less of what was good; later on again there was still less that was good, and the further he went the less there was. His marriage, a mere accident, then the disenchantment that followed it... (Tolstoy, 1886, 29-30). He realizes that all the while he thought he was
Death of Ivan Ilych:" the spiritual vs. The material In "The Death of Ivan Ilych," the Russian author Leo Tolstoy presents a man of the professional class who is so obsessed with 'getting ahead' he refuses to accept his own death until confronted with the inevitable. The title is ironic: Ivan defined himself throughout his life by everything but his mortality, but in the end that is all with which
Death of Ivan Ilych Before we interpret some of the main religious ideas behind Tolstoy's story, we will first examine some of the main characters who surround Ivan Ilych, during his life and during his long tortuous death struggles. The reader first meets Peter Ivanovich in the very opening of the story. We soon learn that he works with Ivan Ilych in the "Law Courts" and that as youths they had
Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. Specifically it will contain an analysis of alienation and the city in the short novella. Most people think Tolstoy is analyzing life and death in this story, but there are references to other aspects of society, as well. Tolstoy's use of symbolism in the story indicates how alienated Ivan really is from the world, and how alienated bourgeois society is from each
He likes the power he is afforded with each new position and loves knowing he can crush others. 7. Does the narrator sympathize with Ivan's attachment to his possessions? The tone of the passage (paragraph 104) is deeply empathetic. This entire portion of the story displays Tolstoy's sympathy and empathy for Ivan. Ivan is a reflection of every man who has placed all his interest in this world only to realize
Both characters found ways to avoid living through isolation. They alienated themselves from practically everyone and this resulted in severe pain. The message here is to think about the things that consume us and then consider how important those things will be at the end of our lives or when our lives become difficult. The Death of Ivan Ilych" and "Ward No. 6" are compelling stories that force us to