Tolstoy's Use of Light and Dark Imagery in The Death of Ivan Il'ic

Abstract

In a recent study of the aesthetics of Tolstoy, Rimvydas Silbajoris asserts that an examination of the use of detail in Tolstoy is central to an understanding of his art, writing. secret of his power as a writer often resides in his ability to use an artistic language in which each single semiotic sign reveals itself upon observation as a microcosm of the whole (Silbajoris, 109). As Edward Wasiolek has pointed out, the significance of detail increases in the later, shorter works.1 This paper will formally analyze Tolstoy's use of light and dark imagery in one of his later stories, The Death of Ivan Il'iN. It will be shown that more or less conventional images of light and dark serve a narrative function in the text, entering systematically into an extended, figurative motif which comes to reflect the text considered as a whole.