Please remember that you are permitted to create your own blog topics on subjects related to what we have been studying – if these topics don’t suit!

Tolstoy: The Death of Ivan Illych

Tolstoy brings us to one of the high points of 19th Century Literature. He explores with such uncompromising depth, issues of profound human concern. What we have explored in Mary Wollstonecraft, Charles Dickens, Matthew Arnold and others here comes into focus with a white heat. Life and death and the ultimate meaning of all our lives on earth are here brought powerfully into focus. How can we read about Ivan’s death and not be stirred into an examination of the way we are living our own lives? It is this kind of direct confrontation that Tolstoy produced for himself in his writing and inevitably for all his readers. This is Literature and Life with  a capital.

Blog topics for week 10.

CRITICAL

What can you find out about Tolstoy’s belief in the value of the working class?

CREATIVE

You are Ivan’s wife Praskovya Fedorovna. Tell a friend what you really think about your husband.

CRITICAL

Can you find out what the social context was from which Tolstoy wrote “The Death of Ivan Illych”

CREATIVE

You are Gerasim. What do you really think about helping your master? Write a short paragraph.

CRITICAL

Write a short paragraph describing how Tolstoy satirizes the world of the law courts.

CRITICAL/CREATIVE Create your own topic drawing on any of today’s readings and on your personal experience.