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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 going up, he was really going downhill and now there is nothing left for him but death (Tolstoy, 1886, 30).
After three days of complete agony, Ivan finally learns to accept his sins and even though it is too late to fully rectify them, the mere acknowledgement that the life his past life was the wrong one was enough to free him. And in this recognition, he is then able to let go of his anger, doubts and fears, especially his anger towards others. He feels pity for his son and wife who are suffering because he is dying and with this, he stops thinking of himself and puts himself in the place of others. Thus, in Ivan's newfound freedom, death becomes the answer to his physical suffering and Ivan finally learns to surrender himself up to a higher power and let death take its course.
And suddenly it grew clear to him that what had been oppressing him and would not leave him was all dropping away at once from...
He was sorry for them, he must act so as not to hurt them: release them and free himself from these sufferings. "How good and simple!" he thought. "And the pain?" he asked himself. "What has become of it? Where are you, pain?"
"It is finished!" said someone near him.
He heard these words and he repeated them in his soul.
"Death is finished," he said to himself. "It is no more!"
References
Harder, W. (1990). Granny & Ivan: Katherine Anne Porter's Mirror for Tolstoy. Renascence, 42(3), 149-156.
Hustis, H. (2000). 'Three Rooms Off': Death and the Reader in Tolstoy's the Death of Ivan Ilych. LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, 11(3), 261.
Kamm, F. (2003). Rescuing Ivan Ilych: How We Live and How We Die. Ethics, 113(2), 202.
Tolstoy, Leo. (1886). E-book of the Death of Ivan Ilyich. Accessed online (October 9, 2009). http://manybooks.net/titles/tolstoylother08death_of_ivan_ilych.html
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