Research plan: The
transformation of ideas towards death in The Death of Ivan Ilyish
My research aims to reflect on story’s
place in our lives, in particular the story The Death of Ivan Ilyish and
its transformation of ideas towards death. Tolstoy uses the protagonist’s
disease to help him to reflect upon his life and transform his ideas of death. I
will examine people’s distinctive interpretations about death itself before and
after the process of death.
Modern writers have always presented the
existence of death in their novels, fictions and other genres. Jennifer Gariepy,
says in her essay that mortality has attracted universal interests. She writes
that “critics observe in the works of Franz Kafka and D. H. Lawrence an almost
obsessive concern with human mortality, which produces states of alienation,
anxiety, and a potential retreat into the self in order to escape the
omnipresent forces of death and decay.” It is a common phenomenon that human
beings try to forget the inevitable and stifling existence of death, especially
the young who believe they are far from death. But because of the attention
that is drawn on death, people tend to gain a better understanding of it. For
example, Jennifer also proposes that Italo Svevo in his Confessions of Zeno
considers “the contemplation of human mortality leads to an understanding of
personal identity and provides for an immanent meaning in life.”
Most of those works and researches focus
on examining people’s changing perception about their life or self in the
process of death. However, my research will pay attention to the protagonist’s
evolutionary attitude to death itself. Much of my coursework focuses on textual
analysis. First of all, I will analyze the reasons why the protagonist becomes
sick and dies finally so as to dig out his ignorance of his own health. Second,
I will explore the different attitudes towards death of the protagonist and try
to explain the reasons. Third, I will transfer to the protagonist’s relatives
and colleagues as well as describe their thoughts about the protagonist’s death
and death itself. Therefore, this
research could potentially develop people’s awareness of death in order to
change their lifestyle in a positive way.
"Introduction"
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Ed. Jennifer Gariepy. Vol. 78. Gale
Cengage 1999 eNotes.com 26 Apr, 2015
<http://www.enotes.com/topics/death-literature#critical-essays-death-literature-introduction>.
