Exploring Authentic Happiness: A Study of Ivan Ilych's Journey

This essay delves into Leo Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan Ilych,' examining the protagonist's struggle with authentic happiness. The narrative follows Ivan Ilych, an unexceptional individual focused on social standing, as he confronts the artificiality of his life and the absence of true meaning. Contrasting Ivan with the compassionate Gerasim, the essay highlights how conformity to societal expectations and materialism lead to isolation and unhappiness. The analysis explores the concept of authentic happiness, emphasizing the importance of positive emotions, meaningful engagement, and genuine connections. Ultimately, the essay concludes that discovering inner strength and fostering positive emotions are essential for achieving a fulfilling and authentically happy life. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study tools for students.

Ivan Ilichs Struggle with
Authentic Happiness

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Great works of literature have always bonded with the meaning of a fulfilling life and explore
different themes of what it means to live a moral and meaningful life Leo Tolstoy is one of the
greatest names in literature who produced globally recognized literature works such as war and
peace and Anna karianna. This research focuses on the book the death of Ivan Ilych and conduct
research on the topic of Ivan Ilych’s struggle with authentic happiness. The book focuses on the
story of main character is Ivan Ilych who contemplates if a good life was lived by making a clear
division between artificial life and the life which truly fulfils an individual and makes them fear
death. It is one of the most influential work of 19th century and was published on the date of
1886 in Russian but became a world-famous literature piece because of its exploration of duality
of the self and the meaning of living a fulfilled life. This research paper focuses on the area of
whether the main character of the story struggled with authentic happiness.
Main Body
The basic plot of the death of Ivan Ilych is for individuals to identify there delete nature of self
and two avoid living a physical life in order to confirm towards spirituality so that they are able
to derive more meaning during their life. The main character of the book is Ivan Ilych who is
referred to as an unexceptional individual and is focused on achieving social standing. The story
focuses on conformity of the protagonist towards the rules of individuals with higher social
standing to the brain that the personal values and behaviours are sacrificed in the name of such
conformity. The character usually formalizes human relationships and focuses on removing
personal concerns for official work while personal area is filled with having a fixed attitude
towards the family. In the end the Ivan Ilych realizes that confirming towards the values of
higher social standing class has created an unfulfilling life without true meaning and spirituality.
This struggle with unhappiness is shown in the book by contrasting the character of Ivan
Ilych with Gerasim who is the sickness nurse and Butler assistant in the novel and is caring
towards Ivan Ilych. The primary nature of this character is healthy vigorous and direct which is
complete opposite of Ivan Ilych and the character is able to understand the unpleasantness an
unpredictable areas of life clearly which showcases the contrast between Gerasims and Ivan
Ilych. The qualities which help Gerasim gain joyful experience from life include compassion
empathy and emotional intelligence for others which are not present in other characters of the
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book. This helps Gerasim get joyful experience out of life and connect with people in a way
which breaks down social barriers creating isolated viewpoints so that fulfilling deletions ships
with others can be created. On the other hand comparing this to the main character of Ivan Ilych
of the book helping and well being of others is not as important as it is to Gerasim. Ivan Ilych
conducts himself as it is believed that a man of high social standing should be acting which
involves taking a life which should be acceptable for a proper young legal gentleman to have and
buying a house in the city with furnishings and high brow trappings because it is demanded by
the social standing of the time foreign aid is too great to have a material status symbol.
Gerasim does not process the material wealth and objects which Ivan has he’s able to
still have a dreadful experience with life by building proper spiritual connections with others and
living in a more meaningful manner. On the other hand, Ivan Ilych faces unhappiness with life
because he feels the need to accustom himself towards Propriety and becomes intolerant towards
other aspects of life which can threaten his own comfort in whelping. This view of living life
makes Ivan Ilych unpleasant and unaware of the true meaning of building spiritual as well as
connected relationship with others and working for the wellbeing of others. Conforming towards
the ideals of upper class aristocratic society results in Ivan Ilych becoming more and more
isolated from his personal relationships and the rest of the world. The unhappiness of Ivan Ilych
increases along with his pain and dissatisfaction with life. Authentic happiness is defined as the
process which culminates pleasure engagement and supports creation of meaningful life.
The concept and implication of the happiness is tend to be related and associated with the
psychology of the human that reflects and present about the state of emotional and well as the
mental well-being of a person that a person tend to feel and experiences either in the times of the
a narrow sense. Along with this, the implication of the happiness also tends to present and
reflects about the something when there are good things happen to a person that also in a set of
the specific moment (Gulliford, 2022). Or in a more broadly senses, the happiness is the
basically the reflection of the positive evaluation of a person life that tend to be feel and
experienced by the one's life and it also tend to ensure and lead to the accomplishments of the set
of overall achievements as well as implication and subjective of the well-being of the persons.
Along with this, the true sense and meaning of the Happiness tend to present and depicts about
the sense of well-being, joy, or contentment (Banno, 2022). It has been that in case of the Ivan
Ilichs Struggle who is struggling for the Authentic Happiness it has been seen that the basis
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criteria of being happy is not meet in his life that consist of the fact that when people are
successful, or safe, or lucky, they feel happiness. It has been also seen that the Ivan Ilichs also
tend to have the lack of the "pursuit of happiness" that is tend to be something that is based on,
and different people feel happiness for different reasons (Sun and et. al., 2022).
Further, it has been also seen that there are various factors and reasons because of which
the Ivan Ilichs are facing lack of the authentic set of happiness in his life that consists of the fact
that whole life of the Ivan Ilichs is full of miss happen and he is living in a loveless sense of
marriage that has diminished and reduce the implication and achievement of the senses of the
happiness in his life (Ryan, 2022). Along with this, it has been also seen and implicated that the
Ivan Ilichs is tend to be only focused on his own interest and this a main reason that is reducing
his social interaction and love from others that is creating and leading out a sense of the negative
life without having any sense of the authentic happiness. Beside this, it has been also seen and
observed that the Ivan Ilichs also tend to have the lack of the focuses and solely interest on
himself based on lack of individuality that goes in hand in hand and creates a lack of authentic
happiness (Charmé, 2022). Along with this, the feeling and nature of the being obsessed with the
money is also a key factor that is creating the issue of the lack of authentic happiness in the
individuals and reducing the chances of the Ivan Ilichs of being and gaining the authentic
happiness. Further, being materialism is also a key problem and factor that keeps the Ivan Ilichs
away from the level of true happiness and nit making him able to have and experience the true
happiness in his life (Gulliford, 2022).
Based on the various research that has been undertaken by schoolers it has been reviewed
and analysed that there are various factors that helps and supports the implication and gaining of
the authentic set of the happiness. These factors that can be adopted and implicated by the Ivan
Ilichs to have the feeling of authentic happiness tend to includes and comprise of the developing
and having a sense of the positive emotion along with giving a direction and better engagement
to the life (Banno, 2022). Along with this, focusing and emphasising on development and
discovering on positive strength and avoiding all sense of the habituation of pleasures is also an
effective way to have and supports the authentic happiness within the Ivan Ilichs (Sun and et. al.,
2022). Beside this, Promotion of the savouring along with focusing on the Basking that includes
of receiving praise and congratulations along with Thanksgiving (expressing gratitude for
blessings) as well as Marveling (losing the self in the wonder of the moment) and Luxuriating
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(indulging the senses) also supports and brings out a true and authentic set of the happiness.
Further, focusing on gaining engagement with sports, receiving warmth and other positive
emotion also supports implication of authentic happiness (Ryan, 2022).
CONCLUSION
on the basis of the current research paper a conclusion can be made that there are various
reason that keeps an individual’s away from the authentic sense of happiness. It has bene
summarised that being mainly included along with having in a loveless marriage are the main
reason for not having authentic happiness. Finally, it has been summarized that the focusing on
discovering true strength as well as having positive emotions is an effective way that supports
authentic happiness.
REFERENCES
Books and journal
Gulliford, L., 2022. Happiness and well-being in positive psychology: An evaluation and
examination with a focus on the virtues of gratitude and hope. In Religious and Non-
Religious Perspectives on Happiness and Wellbeing (pp. 17-34). Routledge.
Banno, S.A., 2022. Teaching what Matters: Activating Happiness, Kindness, and Altruism.
Rowman & Littlefield.
Sun, W. and et. al., 2022. Why eudemonia bring more happiness: The multiple mediating roles
of meaning of life and emotions. Current Psychology, pp.1-12.
Ryan, M.J., 2022. The Happiness Makeover: Overcome Stress and Negativity to Become a
Hopeful, Happy Person. Mango Media Inc..
Charmé, S.Z., 2022. Authentically Jewish: Identity, Culture, and the Struggle for Recognition.
Rutgers University Press.
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