Ivan Ilyich made a good living in being a judge. He was well known for doing his job by the book, and doing his job very well. The separation of his professional and personal life was completely of no influence to one another. Ivan’s personal life, which is predominately his relationship with his wife Praskoyva, begins to become his nightmare. His life with his wife is not based on love; we all know what marriage without love transpires to, just as in The Pride and the Prejudice and Love in the Time of Cholera, many days of hate and anger. Prior to Ivan’s move to Petersburg it seemed as though Ivan was making all the right decisions, but they were not his decisions, really.
At an early age Ivan began his journey in law. From that point forward he looked up to his idols and other men in power for his doings and what he believes is correct. When he first became someone of importance, he made decisions that seemed immoral and just wrong, but as he looked to his idols and saw that they were doing the same, he grew to live with those decisions. Because he was capable of not showing his emotions in his professional life, he was good at his job. Everything in his professional career were based primarily on what others thought of him and not based on his own thought and mind. I believe you, Mr. Coon, nailed it on the head when he was just doing what is expected of him, just as we, your students, are expected to go to school, take AP’s and finally go to college. Ivan Ilyich did what was expected, not what he believed. Ivan’s motives are what people think of him, and what other people expect him to do.
Ivan’s Personal life was also based only on what other people believed he should do. He married Praskoyva because his friends and other people said they look good together, and he had a job that made the marriage of them seem to be the next chapter in his life. He was not in love with her, although she loved him, he still married her. As we see in the later part of his life we see the misery he is in. He does not want to be with her anymore. Even though he lives out his life with her, he never does confront his feelings. Maybe because he likes his simple life, he wanted to keep it simple to make it seem as though his life was the picture perfect thing he thought of. A wife, job, kids, and the house he thinks are what he imagined he would like to live to be considered successful. His life was once again based on his expected outcome to be.
Ivan Ilyich did not live a life of his own. He was trapped with a disease, not the one that killed him, but the one that stayed with up until his deathbed. His disease consisted of a life of expectation and not a life of his own. Finally at the end of his life, he realized what his life was made of. The sadness of I feel for someone who has spent their entire life trying to please everyone, but never really living. (555)
1 comment:
Manley--I like the way you put it, a life of expectation, not a life of his own. From what I know of you and your situation right now, I think you've been giving some real thought to these questions in your own life as you decide between going on your mission, spending a year at boarding school, or starting college. You're figuring out what makes the most sense for you, what would be best, not necessarily doing the obvious and expected thing.
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