PROJECT FOR

APPRECIATION OF FICTION
FEC-16

SUBMITTED BY-AMIT KUMAR JHA

ROLL NO- 2K19/CO/053
PAIN AS A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

This article aims to contribute to a better conceptualization of pain and

suffering in our daily life. In the novel “ DEATH OF IVAN ILYCH” writer had
shown the pain of ivan ilych in his life. Writer had used the word “pain”
many times in this novela. The cause of Ilyich's pain is unlikely to have
changed during his consultation, but its significance for him certainly
has. The story is said to have been based on a 45-year-old lawyer who
died from cancer,but what is wrong with Ilyich remains to the end a
matter of conjecture: ‘The doctors couldn't say – at least they could, but
each of them said something different’

Life is full of suffering. Suffering is proposed to be defined as an

unpleasant or even anguishing experience, severely affecting a person at
a psychophysical and existential level. Pain and suffering are considered
unpleasant. Life has its ups and down. Life always makes you to face
difficulties even after just you solved the problems. Every human being
will suffer from the moment they go through that traumatic life event
called birth. Our bodies and our minds are fragile. If we’re lucky enough
to live a long life, we accumulate mental and physical scars and bruises.
An understanding of pain and suffering life experiences is proposed,
meaning that they are considered aspects of a person’s life, and the self
is the ever-changing sum of these (and other) experiences. Human
beings can fix different types of suffering in different ways, but the fact of
suffering still stands. We are doomed to suffer in whichever way and to
whichever extent it may come.

Defining suffering substantively turns it into a normative concept, which

results in epistemological mistakes and moral injustices.A definition of
pain cannot be based only on the neurological understanding of it, but
has to incorporate other relevant factors such as cognitive awareness,
interpretation, behavioral dispositions, as well as cultural and educational
factors beyond the medical sphere. Hence, a formal, non-essential and
non-naturalistic conceptualization of both terms is proposed. Suffering is
an unpleasant or even anguishing experience which can severely affect a
person on a psychophysical and even existential level. Like suffering,
pain is also unpleasant. Both are experiences which affect the whole
person (not merely their “body” or “mind”), and a crucial aspect of them
is the personal attitude and choices which are in turn influenced by
cultural and social patterns. Not only the natural sciences, but also the
social sciences and humanities play a crucial role in understanding all the
dimensions of these phenomena. Additionally, the view of a person as a
psychophysical instead of a dualistic being demands a total paradigm
shift in medicine and new research approaches which are able to
challenge the boundaries of various disciplines.
BRIEF AND DETAILED ANALYSIS OF
THE CHARACTERS

IVAN ILYICH

Ivan Ilyich is a 45-year-old prosecutor, and the novella’s protagonist.

He is from a respected family and starts studying law at a young
age.While learning, he feels that the lavish lifestyle he’s embarking
upon is reprehensible and ugly, but he sees that his superiors have no
qualms with the matters that bother him, so he stops worrying about
whether or not he’s leading a good life. Instead, he focuses on
advancing his career, becoming the assistant to the governor and,
later, an examining magistrate. Before long, he marries a beautiful
young woman named praskovya, and their marriage is good until they
start having children, which is when they begin to fight. To mitigate his
bitter feelings, Ivan distracts himself by ignoring his troubles and
concentrating on his career, eventually rising to a powerful position
despite several setbacks. Meanwhile, several of their children die, but
this doesn’t stop Ivan and Praskovya from continuing to grow their
family, though Ivan remains detached from his loved ones. While
decorating a new apartment one day, he bangs his side and develops
a bruise, but he writes it off as nothing. Still, his side continues to hurt,
and he starts experiencing a strange taste in his mouth, so he visits a
doctor. Feeling challenged by the doctor’s authority, he seeks second
and third opinions, but nothing anyone says decreases his pain. In
fact, his symptoms become quite severe, and he soon stops leaving
bed as his illness worsens. During this time, Praskovya and his
daughter,lisa, continue to lead extravagantly social lives, which Ivan
deeply resents. In the final weeks of Ivan’s life, his only relief comes
when he interacts with his young servant,Gerisim, whom he sees as
innocent and pure in comparison to Praskovya and Liza. He also
appreciates the beauty of his young son,vasya. On the day of Ivan’s
death, he can’t stop screaming until he looks at Vasya and realizes
that his prolonged suffering is hurting the young boy and everyone
else, at which point Ivan asks for forgiveness, sees death turn into
“light,” and dies.
PRASKOVYA FEDOROVNA

Praskovya Fedorovna is ivan ilych’s wife.She was sweet, pretty, and

perfectly respectable woman.She is characterized as self-absorbed
and uninterested in her husband's struggles. After Ivan becomes an
examining magistrate, Praskovya begins dating Ivan. She is a good
dancer, and though Ivan doesn’t consider marrying her at first, he
gradually decides that it would be a good idea because she’s
attractive and wealthy, meaning that her family would give him a
handsome dowry. Before long, though, the couple begins to bicker on
a regular basis, causing Ivan to withdraw from family life.Praskovya
Fyodorovna blamed her husband for all the misfortunes
that occurred in this new place of living. Later, when he falls sick,
Praskovya mainly focuses on the ways in which his illness influences
her own life, making him feel as if he’s nothing but a burden.While
feigning sympathy and concern for Ivan during his illness, her real
attitude is one of hostility and impatience for his death. To that end,
she continues to lead the life of a socialite and go to cultural events
while Ivan remains in agony at home. However, Ivan is perhaps overly
sensitive in his criticism of Praskovya, who does want for the most part
to help him.

PETER IVANOVICH

Peter Ivanovich is one of the closest friend and a fellow magistrate in the
ministry. Ivan ilych know him since they were both young students. He is the
first to recognize Ivan's impending death. Peter experiences no significant
remorse on the occasion of Ivan's death.Peter, like the other members of the
society he represents, sees human relationships as instrumental to the
achievement of his ends. Despite being close friend, Peter can’t help but think
that he might be able to benefit from Ivan’s death, realizing that there will be
an open position and that he can help his brother-in-law transfer because of
this vacancy something that will please his wife. And yet, Peter Ivanovich does
feel unsettled by Ivan’s death, though this is mainly because it forces him to
acknowledge his own mortality. Nonetheless, he reminds himself that Ivan was
the one to die, not him. Furthermore, he refuses to let Ivan’s funeral throw him
into sadness, instead deciding to leave as soon as possible in order to play a
game of whist with one of his and Ivan’s colleagues,Schwartz.

GERASIM

He is a young man from a peasant family, Gerasim is one of Ivan’s

servants. Unlike the other characters in the novel, Gerasim interacts
with people in an authentic and reflective way. Gerasim is more than
willing to empathize with Ivan because he isn’t afraid to try to
understand what it must be like to die.Gerasim sees his duties as aid
to a dying man. In turn, he becomes Ivan’s favorite caretaker, often
staying up all night and letting Ivan rest his legs on his shoulders,
elevating them in such a way that alleviates the dying man’s pain. A
gentle and kind man, Gerasim is quite wise,
reminding Peter Ivanovich at Ivan’s funeral that death will come for
everyone someday. Gerasim is a truly spiritual character.

Vladimir Ivanich

Vladimir Ivanich is ivan’s youngest son. He is Sensitive and quiet who

is perhaps the only person in his family who truly cares about Ivan’s
failing health. Unlike Praskovya and lisa , Vasya hasn’t been corrupted
yet by fixating on social status or reputation. Similarly, he also hasn’t
lost his innocence by entering the professional world. For this reason,
Ivan admires him for his authentic, untainted goodness. While Vasya is
crying and flailing his arms on the last day of Ivan’s life, Ivan’s hand
touches Vasya’s head, and Vasya kisses his father’s fingers, flooding
Ivan with sorrow and regret as he suddenly sees that his suffering is
harming his family members.

LISA

Lisa is ivan’s and Praskovya’s daughter. Lisa is very much like her
mother. she is Selfish and easily annoyed.Her father's suffering
inconveniences her more than anything else. A young woman, she
takes after her parents in that she highly values her reputation and
works hard to maintain her social status. To that end, she starts seeing
a young man named Petrovich ,who is the son of an examining
magistrate. This delights her parents, who encourage this relationship
because they want Petrovich to ask for Lisa’s hand in marriage.
However, when Ivan becomes sick, he resents how much Liza cares
about life as a socialite, and he begins to dislike Petrishchev, who does
eventually propose to Liza. Noticing her father’s bitterness, Liza
confides in her mother by saying that, though she feels sorry for Ivan,
she wishes he weren’t such a burden on their lives.

Fedor Petrovich

The only son of an examining magistrate. He is a young man who is lisa’s

fiance. Praskovya and ivan are very happy when he takes an interest in their
daughter. But by the time he proposes to her, Ivan has already become sick
and resentful of nearly everyone in his life, so he’s incapable of enjoying the
fact that and Lisa will soon get married.
Schwartz

Schwartz is a friend and colleague of Ivan ilych A playful, devious man,

Schwartz is uninfluenced by the sadness of Ivan’s funeral. In fact,
when Pyotr Ivanovich arrives at the ceremony, Schwartz winks at him,
signaling that he should leave as soon as possible so he can join the
game of whist hat Schwartz is organizing elsewhere.