You can tell he's starting to spiral a bit more on this page when he asks people to stop "lying" about his condition. I could see these "lies" in both perspectives. Maybe the doctors really thought that he would recover and was being dramatic and thus made his family not take his condition that seriously. Or maybe it was better to lie to him than tell him he was outright dying. I'm not sure if I would want the truth if I were in his position...

He's attempting to distract himself both physically with the rearranging of the room and mentally by starting arguments. I find this both funny and very realistic!

I think this is the best "death scene" I've ever read. The gradual distance we see in the narration starting from this last page is done so well it's like a camera zooming out.

" ' Take him away...sorry...for you, too..." He also wanted to say 'Forgive," but said 'Forgo,' and, no longer able to correct himself, waved his hand, knowing that the one who had to would understand." I really like this quote! It makes me wonder if those those that surrounded him both physically in the moment and in his life would understand the extent of his suffering.

XII

XI

X

This second inner voice, the "voice of his soul", resonates with power! I pictured it as some kind of thunderous god talking to him from the sky.

IX I was wondering how to picture Gerasim's posture when he holds up Ivan's legs! This must be so tiring

I like how the irony in Praskovya's statements are recognized by Ivan. He's in such a state of hyperawareness that his overthinking actually makes sense.

VI

Beautiful, just beautiful. Compassion and love free him.

"a terrible, vast deception, concealing *both life and death*"--this is very striking. By avoiding death he has avoided life. They are inseparable.

His attempt at deception even alone is so poignant; the smile smiled as if there were someone to see and be deceived by it.

Also how wonderfully fluid Tolstoy's motion from the abstract to the abstract rooted in the specific; these recollections of Ivan's childhood ground the abstract notion of death as much as his suffering does.

What an insight! "As if I was going steadily downhill, while imagining I was going up."

This is so deeply moving.

How dismissive the doctor is! "Ah, you sick people are always like that." This insensitivity to a dreadful thing we all share in common is monstrous, and unfortunately I think it's very prevalent in our society today in professional settings in all sorts of cases. Tolstoy moves between past and present tense so fluidly! Of course I understand why young writers are taught not to mix tenses, as it's easy to do so carelessly; but what rigid rules we've made, and I think we lose quite a bit by adhering to them slavishly.

Discussion Prompt: Gerasim is the only one who acknowledges what is happening to Ivan Ilyich, and treats him with "pity". While in our society "pity" tends to have a negative connotation, how in this case does Gerasim's pity humanize Ivan Ilyich and restore his dignity in the face of recognizing his own mortality? Or does it?