Which theme does Leo Tolstoy explore in this excerpt from The Death of Ivan Ilyich? "Then what does it mean? Why? It can't be that life is so senseless and horrible. But if it really has been so horrible and senseless, why must I die and die in agony? There is something wrong! "Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done," it suddenly occurred to him. "But how could that be, when I did everything properly?" he replied, and immediately dismissed from his mind this, the sole solution of all the riddles of life and death, as something quite impossible.

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Teresa Kennedy

18 November, 18:52

Which theme does Leo Tolstoy explore in this excerpt from The Death of Ivan Ilyich? "Then what does it mean? Why? It can't be that life is so senseless and horrible. But if it really has been so horrible and senseless, why must I die and die in agony? There is something wrong! "Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done," it suddenly occurred to him. "But how could that be, when I did everything properly?" he replied, and immediately dismissed from his mind this, the sole solution of all the riddles of life and death, as something quite impossible.

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Joanna Ingram · Answer 1

The theme that Leo Tolstoy explores in the excerpt from 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' would be mortality. He questioned about why his life was so sullen and meaningless, and came to a thought that he might not be living it the right way it should be lived.