Thanatophobia in The Death of Ivan Ilyich

As evident in the title, Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich is all about one man coming to terms with his own destruction. Webster's Medical Online Dictionary defines the term Thanatophobia very simply, stating it is merely "A fear of death." However, this seemingly straightforward answer proves to be a very complicated matter, as Ivan Ilyich Golovin learns. Though his thanatophobia grows ever larger as the story continues, Ivan Ilyich finally realizes just how beneficial death really is.

From Ivan Ilyich's perspective, death first enters the story when he accidentally bumps his side trying to put up curtains for his new house - proper curtains in a proper house that attempt to prove how proper Ivan Ilyich and his family are, when in reality they are like every other upper-middle-class family in Russia, or so it seems. Perhaps, then, his "bump on the side" is a punishment, from above, for living life so foolishly, so foppishly, so purposelessly. And yet, at the time of the incident, Ivan Ilyich believes his life is finally coming together, and that all is right with the world. In a disarmingly short amount of time, his "correct" life falls to pieces as he becomes completely bedridden, and, worse, as he becomes completely sure of his looming death.

At first, Ivan has the same reaction we all would have in his position: he is terribly frightened of death. He is unsure of the process, unsure of how much time he really has left, unsure of his disease, but most of all he is unsure about the nature of death. The process is to him so foreign and unknown that he cannot at first comprehend it. Ivan's chief joy in life is to have things go according to his will; he becomes upset when things do not happen as he so intended, such as his failure to get promoted. Death, certainly, was not in his plans at all.

Entwined with all this confusion brought on by death is the slow realization that Ivan Ilyich Golovin is not really anything more than ordinary. His reference to "Kiezewetter's Logic" embodies both these hard truths: not only the grim inference of death, but also the equally-grim notion that he, Ivan Ilyich, is no more than an abstract like Caius. From these depressing thoughts, Ivan Ilyich develops an increasingly hysterical thanatophobia - he personifies Death as It, he convinces himself no one cares for him, and he even describes Life as nothing more than "a series of increasing sufferings [that] flies further and further towards its end - the most terrible suffering." He reaches the pit of despair following his communion, at which point he realizes the end is really here - and none of his questions concerning death have been answered.

But in the bottom of this "hole", which he falls through for a good two days, is a ray of light, a glimmer of hope of a life redeemed. Ivan Ilyich Golovin finally realizes what many of his "friends" probably never will - that his life was not "what is should have been." This knowledge finally breaks through the smog cloud of self-pity and self-glorification that has poisoned Ivan - and, indeed, all those in his social class - throughout his entire life. He realizes that death is the best thing that can happen, because it frees him from the pain of life and frees his family from the pain of his suffering. Light replaces death, and Ivan dies liberated from life and triumphant over death. Thus, his thanatophobia dies only as he himself draws his last gasp - but it is no matter, because Ivan Ilyich Golovin conquered life, death, and his fears. He truly dies a happy man. Perhaps, then, that bump on the curtain was not such a bad thing after all: a blessing rather than a chastisement. (643)