leo tolstoy, the fear of death

From 1875–1878 Tolstoy experienced a period of increasing depression and psychological crisis that was to alter both his philosophy and his art.

In A Confession, an autobiographical account of his life and moral struggle written after the crisis, Tolstoy writes that the principal cause of his depression was his inability to find an acceptable meaning in human life. The inevitability of death overwhelmed him, and all formulations of life's meaning appeared to him shallow and valueless.

Neither the great philosophers of the past nor his contemporaries could provide him with satisfying answers. Desperate, he turned to the Russian people. Tolstoy found that the uneducated peasants possessed a definite conception of the meaning of a life, a comfort and security derived from "irrational knowledge," from faith in a creator God.

This faith rescued them from despair and suffering and infused their life with meaning. Confronted with the choice of irrational faith or meaningless despair, Tolstoy chose faith.

At first attempting to renew contact with the church of his childhood, Tolstoy eventually resolved to develop his own system of belief. And devoting the four years after his crisis (1878–1882) to that purpose,

Tolstoy published a series of four works elaborating upon and explaining his unique religious philosophy, works that Tolstoy regarded as his most important achievement as a writer.

It is not insignificant that The Death of Ivan Ilych, written in 1886, was the first major fictional work published by Tolstoy after his crisis and conversion. Tolstoy's religious philosophy serves as a background to the understanding of the novel.

Brotherly love, mutual support, and Christian charity, values that became essential to Tolstoy in the second half of his life, emerge as the dominant moral principles in The Death of Ivan Ilych.

And just as Tolstoy's discovery of the true meaning of life led him to fulfillment and an acceptance of death, so too, Ivan Ilych's awakening exposes him to the light of a meaningful life and assuages his fear of dying.

Thus, The Death of Ivan Ilych can be seen as a reflection and an elaboration of Tolstoy's post- conversion philosophical concerns. The novel is a fictional answer to the questions that plagued Tolstoy during the mid 1870s.

From the time of his conversion to his death, Tolstoy remained actively engaged in publicizing his religious beliefs. He wrote various pieces on social, political, and economic topics ranging from vegetarianism to capital punishment. In hopeless opposition to the government, nearly all of his writings were censored or banned.

Tolstoy died in 1910 after nearly a decade of continuing ill health.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ivanilych/context.html

fear of death, fear of the unknown

" ... Men, believing in myths, will always fear something terrible, everlasting punishment as certain or probable

... Men base all these fears not on mature opinions, but on irrational fancies, so that they are more disturbed by fear of the unknown than by facing facts. Peace of mind lies in being delivered from all these fears. "

-Epicurus (Greeley)

http://www.aztriad.com/fear.html