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Tolstoy’s Christian Symbolism
Although I felt Tolstoy’s novel The Death of Ivan Ilych was very lengthy and sometimes drawn out, I found that the story was intriguing. While I was reading the novella, I couldn’t help but pulling out some of the symbolism throughout the plot. Coming from a Christian oriented family, I was taught while at a young age of some of the symbols in the Bible, and I was aware of a couple of symbols that Tolstoy used that were linked to the Bible. For instance, the number three is a significant number in the Bible. Throughout the new testament the number three is repeated in different times in Jesus’ life.
Although it is disputed by some, baby Jesus was visited by three wise men. Granted, this point alone is not enough to convince the significance of the number three, but look at how many times it reappears. In Luke 4:1, we see that Satan tempted Jesus three times and all three times Jesus refused. Having studied the book of Matthew in the new testament, I know that Jesus predicted his death to the disciples three times (Matthew 17:21, Matthew 18:22, and Matthew 20:17). When Jesus was predicting his death to his disciples during the Last Supper (Mark 14:30), he let it be known that he would be denied by Simon Peter three times by the crow of the rooster. In Luke 23:22, Pilate questions the crowd three times on the fate of Jesus and the crowd replied three times to crucify him. At the time of Jesus’ death, it has been documented that he was at the age of thirty-three. When he was placed to die on Calvary, three men lost their life that day, Jesus and the two criminals. Some still say that these stories involving the number three are all coincidences but when you look at the most important concept in the Christian belief, you begin to see that it happens again. After Jesus perished and was placed in the tomb for burial, the third day he arose from the dead. The number three appears several times more but these should suffice to prove my point.
Hidden in the plot of The Death of Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy refers to the number three numerous times as well. As the story unfolds, three men are present in the office building of the Law Courts discussing the Krasovski case and the death of Ivan Ilych (1237). Opening up in the second chapter, we are revealed to the life of Ivan Ilych and we are told that he was the middle child of three children (1243). Then the death of Ivan starts to become more apparent as we see that the pain starts running his life. We are told that Ivan Ilych was out of work for three weeks before he died. In the second sentence of the opening paragraph in chapter seven (1263), we are reminded of the number three, as Tolstoy uses it to write, “but in the third month of Ivan Ilych’s illness,” Tolstoy applies the number again in the second complete paragraph in chapter nine (1271), as he reveals the time of the morning to us, “Til about three in the morning he was in a state of stupefied misery.” Lastly, the first sentence in chapter twelve (1276), he again asserts the number three in his writing as he tells us, “From that moment the screaming began that continues for three days.”
Besides the point that the number three was used quite often in Tolstoy’s novel, I couldn’t overlook another fact that related to Jesus’ life. The New Testament tells us that as Jesus was led away to be crucified, he was speared in the side by one of the Roman soldiers. I found it remarkable that Ivan Ilych’s tormenting pain was also in his side. As Jesus was dying, one of the women at the cross was a woman by the name of Mary Magdaline. Earlier in his life, Jesus had to cast out seven demons from Mary; she would be one of the least likely to be present at his death, but she was there. In The Death of Ivan Ilych, Gerasim, the butler’s young assistant, also would be one of the least likely to be around for Ivan Ilych’s death, but he was there and he was sympathetic throughout Ivan’s last days.
Leo Tolstoy, I sense, wrote this novel to reflect his Christian beliefs and to write a story that would portray Jesus’ life through Tolstoy’s own eyes. Although there are some settings that did not apply to the life of Jesus, Tolstoy didn’t want the relationship between the two works of art to have too much similarity. His story has symbols, though, that can tie the life and death of Ivan Ilych to the life and death of Jesus Christ in a remarkable way.
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