Psychological and literary anatomy of the process of dying

Abstract

The paper deals with the phenomenon of death and man 's attitude toward death and dying based on the view of death of the writer Tolstoy. Tolstoy 's novella ' The Death of Ivan Ilyich ' tells about the twisted attitude of modern man toward death. The proclamation of death at the very beginning of the novella has a role to make the reader alert. The awareness of an impending death causes Ivan to question his own life, which has consisted of banalities and fulfilling his work-related and family responsibilities, and in which instead of a face he has a social mask of an official with whom he has identified himself. Ivan Ilyich has confirmed numerous theses that a complete personality is transformed at the face of death.