What Is Art :: essays research papers

Tolstoy wrote, in What is Art? â€Å" If a man is infected by the author’s condition of soul, if he feels this emotion and this union with others, then the object which has effected this is art: but if there be no such infection, if there be not this union with the same author and others who are moved by the same work-then it is not art?â€Å" â€Å"The Death of Ivan Ilych† is art by this criteria. Tolstoy’s writing keeps my attention throughout â€Å"The Death of Ivan Ilych† and awakens my soul. I have never read any literature of Leo Tolstoy, and I could not walk away from the story, I wondered what happened next. It makes me realize how important life is to be treated. This work of art expresses to me Tolstoy’s views on life and death. The short story gives examples of how a person can live life the wrong way. In reading the â€Å"The Death of Ivan Ilych†, many feelings stir up inside me because I can relate his experience with my grandfather that died of cirrhosis of the liver. Tolstoy reaches the soul because he describes Ivan’s life occurrence through his spiritual revelation. He observed a heartbreaking death of his brother. In reading, â€Å"The Death of Ivan Ilych† Tolstoy portrays Ivan as a thoughtless and selfish man. I see Ivan as a frightened individual; afraid of what life has to offer. â€Å"Ivan experienced happiness only in his childhood† (Tolstoy 1179). He decides to go to the School of Law. He marries because he feels it is right not because he is in love, and his peers approve. I feel for Ivan because everyone knows that a person cannot be happy if one marries for the reasons Ivan did. After all, should not the basis of a marriage be love? Love brings happiness to our lives. Ivan does not have the happiness that love could bring. I get the impression that Ivan does not receive much love throughout his life; which makes it very hard to show love for his wife. He is incapable of loving someone because he does not know how to love. Ivan does try to give these things to his family. However, He tries to impress his colleagues. Ivan decorates his house with antiques, carefully scrutinizing as a means to pretend to have money. Ivan begins to focus on his career because of his unhappiness at home.