The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy | Chapter 5

In Chapter 5 of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, just before New Year's, Ivan Ilyich's brother-in-law comes to visit, and he's shocked by how gaunt and ill Ivan looks. Ivan tries to distract himself by sitting down and reading some law papers, but he can't concentrate. He tiptoes out to where his wife and brother-in-law are talking, and overhears his wife tell her brother that he's exaggerating the terrible change in Ivan's appearance. Her brother insists Ivan looks like a dead man. Ivan decides to go immediately to see his friend Peter Ivanovich, and the two then go to a doctor. The doctor tells Ivan Ilyich that his trouble is only with his vermiform, meaning worm-like appendix, a small thing that's easily fixed. Ivan Ilyich feels confident that all will be well, but after dinner, he tries to work but can't concentrate. He lies down to go to sleep, imagining his appendix being absorbed by his body. It strikes Ivan Ilyich that the situation is not one of diseased appendix or kidney. It's a matter of life and death. He realizes he's been deceiving himself. He may die at any time. He hears the gaiety in the drawing room and ponders the indifference of the healthy to those facing their mortality. They have no pity for him. Ivan understands that they, too, will die one day. He doesn't want to die. After a while, he realizes he must calm himself down. He reviews the progress of his illness from the beginning of being knocked his In his rage, Ivan knocks over an end table, then tells his wife he knocked the table over by accident. Preskovius says they should have another specialist come and diagnose Ivan's condition. He refuses. As his wife kisses his forehead, Ivan feels hatred for her. Ironically, it's when his brother-in-law looks shocked at how ill Ivan appears that Ivan seems finally to realize the gravity of his illness. From this point in the novella, Ivan's inner life becomes more important and is revealed more often through his own words and thoughts. At the end of the chapter, and occasionally in subsequent chapters, Preskovius refers to Ivan using a French name, another example of falsity and pretentiousness that underlies the westernization and affection she assumes is the proper way for a woman of her class to act in this situation.