Leo Tolstoy's The Death Of Ivan Ilych
1) Choose one of the stories we have read to discuss “point of view” and how it influences possible interpretations.
In Leo Tolstoy’s short story, “The Death of Ivan Ilych,” the point of view of the story is third person, omniscient. Because the story is third person, omniscient, the narrative isn’t restricted to one character’s point of view. If Tolstoy wanted to, he could’ve told each section through the eyes of someone else. But, the narrator told the story primarily in Ivan’s perspective. Since the story is told through Ivan’s perspective, we only see the other characters from a specific perspective.
In the first section, Tolstoy focused on Ivan’s friends and family and their lack of care over his death. Since the first section is being told through Peter Ivanovich’s point of view, we only see and meet Ivan’s wife, Praskovya, though his perspective. Since it wasn’t told from her perspective, we can only base our opinions on her actions. Instead of grieving over her husband’s death, all she could think about was the money she’s going to get from the government now that she’s a widow. This tells us she never loved Ivan at all. She was only using him for financial support.
But, we have to keep in mind the point of view the narrative is being told in. Since the story was never told from Praskovya’s perspective, we can’t solely judge her …show more content…
Right off the bat, our narrator wasn’t given a name. Though, we can safely assume she’s a woman because she’s married to her husband, John. During the time period, this was written, women were considered inferior beings compared to men. Because women didn’t have a voice at this time, our narrator is forced to accept her husband’s instructions and cease all creative means. Since her husband, John is a well-respected doctor, she has to accept the decisions he made regarding her life even though she knew the treatment wasn’t doing
In Leo Tolstoy’s short story, “The Death of Ivan Ilych,” the point of view of the story is third person, omniscient. Because the story is third person, omniscient, the narrative isn’t restricted to one character’s point of view. If Tolstoy wanted to, he could’ve told each section through the eyes of someone else. But, the narrator told the story primarily in Ivan’s perspective. Since the story is told through Ivan’s perspective, we only see the other characters from a specific perspective.
In the first section, Tolstoy focused on Ivan’s friends and family and their lack of care over his death. Since the first section is being told through Peter Ivanovich’s point of view, we only see and meet Ivan’s wife, Praskovya, though his perspective. Since it wasn’t told from her perspective, we can only base our opinions on her actions. Instead of grieving over her husband’s death, all she could think about was the money she’s going to get from the government now that she’s a widow. This tells us she never loved Ivan at all. She was only using him for financial support.
But, we have to keep in mind the point of view the narrative is being told in. Since the story was never told from Praskovya’s perspective, we can’t solely judge her …show more content…
Right off the bat, our narrator wasn’t given a name. Though, we can safely assume she’s a woman because she’s married to her husband, John. During the time period, this was written, women were considered inferior beings compared to men. Because women didn’t have a voice at this time, our narrator is forced to accept her husband’s instructions and cease all creative means. Since her husband, John is a well-respected doctor, she has to accept the decisions he made regarding her life even though she knew the treatment wasn’t doing