The Shared Inquiry discussion technique employs two kinds of questions to spur thoughtful analysis. Interpretive questions address problems having to do with the text itself. Often they concern the relation of characters, the reader, or the author vis à vis that text. Evaluative questions treat larger philosophical themes. In either case, a good question is one for which there is no one right answer!
Interpretive Questions
After viewing Iván Ilých's body, why does Schwartz say to Peter Ivánovich, "Iván Ilých has made a mess of things, not like you and me"? (p. 241)
As Peter Ivánovich views the body, it appears to him that Iván's face wears a "reproach and a warning to the living." What is the reproach and the warning? (p. 243)
After the incident of the creaky pouffe (p. 244), why does Praskóvya Fedorovna take out a clean cambric handkerchief and start to weep?
P. 248: Why does Chapter 2 begin "Iván Ilých's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible."?
P. 250: Why does Tolstoy throw in the detail about Iván Ilých having done things at school he knew was wrong, but forgiving himself because they were also done "by people of good position."?
On p. 253 Tolstoy writes: "To say that Iván Ilých married because he fell in love with Praskóvya Fedorovna and found that she sympathized with his views of life would be as incorrect as to say that he married because his social circle approved of the match." What is he saying about Iván's reason for marrying.?
P. 254: He writes, "from the first months of his wife's pregnancy, something new, unpleasant, depressing, and unseemly, and from which there was no way of escape, unexpectedly showed itself." What was that "something"?
Why do you think Iván's son was a "subject of dissension." (p. 257)
Why does he care so much about the home furnishings of his new abode?
As he advances in his career it seems he is able to separate his private and public lives. Why, however, does Tolstoy say that he could "in the manner of a virtuoso ... even allow himself to let the human and official relations mingle." (p. 263?)
Why in the early stages of his disease does he start to find fault with things (a chipped plate, his daughter's hair not to his liking, etc.): p. 266
Why does his daughter find the details of his medical diagnosis "tedious." (p.268)
Why (p. 274) does Iván go to the doctor with Peter Ivánovich?
Why, when his wife suggests he see the famous specialist Leschetítsky (p. 277) does he demur and feel hatred towards her?
P. 279: What is the meaning of the"It" that would stand and look at him. Can it mean anything other that death?
What is the significance of the picture album, described on p. 280, which seems to disturb the perfect beauty of the room he had decorated?
When he asks Gerásim if he's busy, and Gerásim replies "not at all, sir," what does Tolstoy mean when he says that he was "one who had learnt from the townsfolk how to speak to gentlefolk?" (p.283).
Is it realistic for a dying person to want to be "petted and cried over" (p. 285)?
Why does his wife think he's "not doing something for himself that he ought to do and was himself to blame "? Why at this point in his illness does he "hate her with his whole soul" (p. 289)?
Why (p. 299) does he wonder , "What if my whole life really has been wrong"?
Why (p. 300), after his confession, does he start to think about correcting his vermiform appendix and tell his wife he feels better? Why at that point does his screaming begin?
P. 302: "He felt that his agony was due to his being thrust into that black hole and still more to his not being able to get right into it. He was hindered from getting into it by his conviction that his life had been a good one. That very justification of his life held him fast and prevented his moving forward, and it caused him most torment of all." Can you unpack this?
Evaluative Questions
Was the life that Iván Ilých led a good or a bad one? If bad, how could it have been lived more rigteously? What were obstacles to its being lived righteously?
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross describes the process of death as consisting of five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Does Tolstoy portray some or all of these stages accurately?
>Did Iván Ilých die at peace? If so, why?
>Tolstoy in several places describes Ilých's life in terms of backward and forward or up and down. What did he mean?
Monday, February 16, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Names in Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych"
Since "The Death of Iván Ilých" is a novella not a drama, it doesn't come with a printed list of characters. That seems a shame. The text contains a number of "triple-decker names" and characters who are sometimes identified by nicknames. Therefore, in the hope of promoting a better understanding of Tolstoy's work, I offer below a list of characters, grouped in terms of their relationship to the tragic Iván. Feel free to print it out. By the way, the name Iván Ilých is comparable to the English "John Doe. [Note: diacritical marks in Russian transliterations denote a stress; so, for example, "Iván" is pronounced "ee-VAHN."]. Pictured above is Count Tolstoy.
Characters in "The Death of Iván Ilých"
Family
Iván Ilých Golovín (sometimes called "Jean" by wife, known as "Vanya" in childhood)
Lisa, daughter
Vladímir ("Vasya") Ivánich, son
Feodor Petrovich, "Petríshchev," Lisa's fiancé, an "examining magistrate" (as had been Iván)
Ilya Epímovich Golovín, father, a Privy Councilor
Iván's two brothers ("Mitya" and "Volódya", cf. ch. 6?)
one sister ("Kátenka", again cf. ch. 6, married to Baron Greff)
Legal Colleagues (and Other Fellow Government Functionaries)
Iván Egórovich Shébek
Fedor Vasílievich
Peter Ivánovich
Ivan Semenovich
Alexéev
Vínnokhov
Shtábel
Schwartz
Mikháil Mikháylovich
Happe
F. I. Ilyín
Peter Petróvich
Zachár Ivánovich
Domestic Help
Sokolóv, butlerGerásim, butler's assistant
Peter the footman
Dmítri
Doctors
Leshchetítsky
Mikhail Danílovich
"Outliers"
Emile Zola, as author of Iván's pleasure reading
Sarah Bernhardt (in town for a show!!)
See you on the 23rd.
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