The Boy is the Key

Vasya Ivanovich Golovin, Ivan Ilych's son, is a seemingly unimportant character. However, if you look closely at his appearances in The Death of Ivan Ilych, Vasya adds an essential aspect to Tolstoy's novel. While Ivan's schoolboy son has one of the smallest roles and does not speak in Tolstoy's story, his presence is memorable and significant because he is portentous and almost greater than human.

The story's central focus is on the mental, emotional, and spiritual battle that plagues Ivan Ilych's inner being. Ilych struggles to discover the cause of his illness. Finally, he determines that he is sick because he has not led the life that he was supposed to lead, and instead it was full of falsities and meaningless societal expectations that he embraced. Yet, Ivan has trouble accepting this explanation to be the root of his sickness. He rejects the idea, thinking, "How could that be, when I did everything properly?" (304). A couple of weeks later, the possiblity that Ilych failed at life occurred to him again when he sits with Gerasim one evening. Ilych tries to defend his life's actions, but he realized that "there was nothing to defend" (325). Then, the screaming begins. As he screams, Ilych thinks of two things: 1) the fear of his inevitable death, and 2) the horror that he feels for living a life that has been deceitful. Ivan finally stops screaming when he recognizes that he can rectify the situation and seeks to discover the right way to live.

When Ivan stops screaming, he remains in a trance. However, Vasya touches Ivan’s hand, and the touch draws Ivan out of his stupor. In both this scene and the scene before the family leaves for the play, Vasya does not speak but emanates an overwhelming sensation that Ilych feels. The father relates his son to Gerasim, the only other person in the novel who represents honesty and liberation from societal conformity and falsities. Vasya and Gerasim are the only characters who feel real human pity for Ivan. The other family members are full of self-pity, and Ivan's "intimate acquaintances" are self-centered, feel awkward at Ilych's funeral, and seek to obtain his official position. These low-lifes, these self-serving characters starkly contrast the two figures of light and true humanity as well as Ivan Ilych, who is caught precariously and painfully in the middle. Ilych experiences the tension and the pull between society and his conscience. Ultimately, Ilych fully earns our pity and compassion when he firmly decides to follow his conscience.

Vasya is a crucial character in this story for a number of reasons. Firstly, as I said before, Vasya creates a clear contrast between societal deceit and human love. The narrator's tone unambiguously condemns the falsity by, for example, portraying Ilych's wife and daughter with haughty personalities and by demeaning them in the story's subtext and word choice. Secondly, Vasya's appearance at Ilych's funeral and his demeanor hint that there is a negative quality to Peter Ivanovich's presence at the funeral. When Vasya saw Peter, he "scowled morosely" (48). And finally, Vasya "awakes" his father from the screaming trance in the final moments of the story. The boy's touching gestures—the kissing and crying—further display the human love that the boy represents. In addition, Vasya's actions convince Ilych and the reader that love is the "right way" to live life.

Tolstoy's title "The Death of Ivan Ilych" suggests that it is a grim and tragic story. And it is, but we learn that there is a much deeper and very profound message embedded in the plot that is intertwined with the characters. Ultimately, the story contains a mildly happy, and Vasya reminds us that death is pleasant and meaningful if we live with genuine, human love in our hearts. (631)