Death of Ivan Ilych\" \"The

¶ … Death of Ivan Ilych" "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"

Struggle comes to us in many ways. While the word struggle is often associated with negative connotation, we should not forget to realize that struggle is the force which brings forth many good things. Without struggle, we would be inspired to reach new goals and we would not be challenged to overcome adversity. However, the results of struggle do not guarantee that the journey will be painless or even the slightest bit easy, as we see with Ivan Ilych or Auguste Dupin, men who must undergo struggle to achieve a certain level of success. In "The Death of Ivan Ilych," Ivan reaches a level of success in that he realizes, finally, the real purpose of his life. In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," we see another kind of suffering though the development of Dupin as he attempts to work through a mystery.

In "The Death of Ivan Ilych," suffering becomes a central issue to the development of the story because Ivan's character development is linked directly to that suffering. Ivan's struggle is also intensely personal. His mental suffering is "worse than the physical sufferings," (Tolstoy 1412) even though the physical sufferings were his "chief torture" (1412). Ivan's illness reveals the empty lifestyle he maintained over the years, with an incredible focus on materialism. Without becoming ill, there would be no reason for recollection. The illness causes him pain but it forces him to be still and think. He is uncomfortable realizing he might have lived a "wrong life. In fact, he constantly asks himself if his life has been wrong. Additionally, he realizes that what had appeared perfectly impossible before, namely that he had not spent his life as he should have done, after all, might be true. (1412). To intensify matters, Ivan realizes that he is on his own. For his wife and family, it is business as usual. They did not want to be bothered by his illness while Ivan begins to examine his life. Ivan is plagued by these thoughts and he cannot escape the notion that he was living was not the "real thing" (1412). He defends himself with feeble excuses but eventually comes to realize "there was nothing to defend" (1413). Thoughts of his family make things worse for Ivan because he sees in them "all that for which he lived" (1413). What he believed to be true and real in his life was a "terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death" (1413). The suffering prompts Ivan to ask, "What is the right thing?" (1414). As he comes to discover the answer, his suffering increases tenfold. The important thing about Ivan's suffering is that it brings him to a better place. It may be too late but he does come to understand what is right and good.

In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," we find another type of struggle, which aims at working toward solving a mystery. This story is noted for being one of the first of its kind and the narrator reaches his conclusion through analysis. How Dupin comes to his conclusions is his struggle because he is working with disarray. The atrocity of the murders and the chaos of the of Mademoiselle L'Espanaye's apartment set the scene for a rather messy situation. The furnishings in the apartment were "broken and thrown about in all directions" (Poe 63) and the bed was tossed in the middle of the floor. Someone had stuffed the daughter in the chimney, "head downward" (63) in such a way her body had been "thrust up and disengaged" (63). The mother's throat was cut "so entirely cut that, upon an attempt to raise her, the head fell off" (63). This is a struggle. While Ivan has a mental mess to contend with, Dupin must contend with a physical one. He must unravel the web Poe weaves for him and he does so successfully with intension.