comparing and contrasting two to three elements in `Death of Ivan Ilych` and `The Metamorphosis

Ivan Ilych was the one who witnessed Ivan 's last dying breath

Between 1875 to 1878 , Tolstoy experienced a period of extreme depression . In this period he wrote the novel Confession , which is a mirror of his struggles . He attributes his psychological mental state to his realization that things have lost their meaning to him . He had questioned his existence as a creation and his purpose for living Tolstoy attempted to understand his struggle by turning to long dead philosophers and when he did not find answer from their philosophies , he

turned to his contemporaries . But even with their answers , he was disappointed . He found both old and contemporary philosophies shallow valueless and at times irrational . All these thoughts were poured out in his novel Confession (Heller 2004

Leo Tolstoy then turned to religion . Although he considered religion the specialty of the uneducated masses , he was drawn to the certainty of life 's meaning that religion provides . In the period of 1878 to 1882 Tolstoy experienced gradual , yet profound conversion to Christianity . In this period he published highly philosophical and spiritual works that reflected his newfound belief (Heller 2004

The Death of Ivan Ilych is Tolstoy 's first major fictional work that he published after his crisis and then his eventual conversion (Heller 2004 . One might say that the short story is a summary of his journey to self-discovery . This is very evident in the character of Ivan Ilych who lives a life of relative mediocrity , experienced a physical debilitation and underwent an existential crisis where he was forced to examine the entirety of his life . Just like Tolstoy , Ilych questioned his purpose for living , and like Tolstoy he discovered the answer to his question when he encountered redemption

Franz Kafka has always been alienated . He was of German and...