I Am Tolstoy, But Not A Tolstoyian :: essays research papers

In 1828, somewhere in the countryside north of Moscow,Leo Tolstoy was born into the Russian nobility. CountTolstoy, although acquainted with the finer things that alivenesshad to offer, new that the Romantic view of the world wasfalse early in his life history. His mother left this world when he wastwo, and his father undoubtedly told horrific stories of the higgledy-piggledy Napoleonic Wars. This, coupled with theconsecutive deaths of not only his father, but his favoriteaunts and grandmother, all before his twenty- send-off birthday,a three year stint in the military during the Crimean war, andthe works of masters such as Rousseau, Voltaire, Hegel,Darwin, Dickens, Gogol, and the New Testamentcontributed to the literary genius which is Tolstoy. As a realist, Tolstoy was committed to truthfullyrepresenting reality in literature. As a founder of asocio-religious movement, aptly named Tolstoyism, his goalwas to enlighten the masses. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is aprime example of the merger of these two ideals. At firstglance this is a simple tale of a "most simple and mostordinary and therefore most terrible" mans life and death(1208). But upon closer scrutiny, we see that this is astylized account of the Counts own life. Much like Ivan, the Count married a younger married woman, not somuch out of love, as out of convenience. After a few old ageof marital bliss, problems arose. Both men move to separatehome and work, with the disastrous results of neglectingtheir wives. Although ideally matched socially, these twocouples argued about everything from work and politics,to the children not eating their food fast, or slow enough.When Ivan dies, his wife wraps up his affairs, as best shecan. Tolstoy, however, made out his will well before hisdeath in 1910, and interestingly enough, leaves his wife ofover 50 years relatively little of his possessions. Another similarity between the Count and the Judge is theirdeaths. Ivans "floating kidney," or &quo tappendicitis,"depending on the doctor, caused him great pain anddiscomfort for the break couple years of his life. Towards theend, he refused to see any doctors, and finally had arevelation. Tolstoy died the death of an eighty-two year old