Leo Tolstoy’s death of Ivan Ilyich deals with the not accepting his death until it right before his death, and Miguel de Cervantes book Don Quixote where the death on Don Quixote he was more accepting when his time came. Even though they both are dealing with death at the end they are not the same one goes out peacefully and the other goes out not wanting to because he did not think that he lived his life to the fullest. So looking at the mental psyche, how ready they were to die, and how they reacted right before their death of the main characters of Death of Ivan Ilych and Don Quixote.
Sometimes people die and come back to life for example when someone goes into cardiac arrest the heart stops beating and the blood stops getting to the places that need regular blood flow like the brain, lungs, and other vital organ and eventually die. However, some people can come back if the heart start functioning before the organs start to shut down. These people tell about what they experience like out of body experiences, seeing their past, or seeing their family members. The reasoning for this is that the brain is one of first organs to die only lasting up to three minutes without blood circulation. Different parts of the brain do different things and blood is pumped upwards toward the brain so the brain dies from the top down. That is one of the reasons that you see your memories at near-death experiences because the part of the brain that has long-term memory is toward the lower part of the brain. So when people have near death experiences they have out of body experiences, seeing their life in a flash before their eyes, or see all of their friends and family because of that part of the brain is still active and activating showing them what they want to think. Out of body experiences is the brain making fake memory even though it look real it is not even remotely real.
So in Tolstoy’s death of Ivan Ilyich the main character Ivan Ilyich get an unexplainable disease that get progressively worse as the book goes on. He keeps asking his doctor what he has and they would not tell him what it is or how long he has to live. Later on, in the book, he is in a lot of pain and because of the pain; he makes a lot noises and he feels bad for his family that have to deal with him and the noise that he is making through the book. He also is trying everything to try to get better from trying stuff someone mentioned to try to stop his pain from getting worse. While this is happening he and he is lot of pain he thinks of all the things that he did thinking that he did not live his life to the fullest. From his childhood to how he meet his wife then to how he got his job to how he raised his children. Right before he dies, his son come into his room, grabs his hand, and kisses it and he Ivan realized that his life was not as bad as he thought it was and saw the light multiple times, as he died. He probably was dead way before like the first time he saw the light because that is what you would see in a near death experience. Even though it says he is talking to himself before he dies he could the brain plays trick can and will play tricks on people so the things in the book that he says and thinks could not actually be happening. What really is happening is that his brain making him think that is what happened just like the brain making people think they have out of body experiences. His brain is making him live his death but he is saying things that he probably did not say and think.
Miguel de Cervantes book Don Quixote the way Don Quixote dies is not as loud and painful as Ivan Ilyich’s death in the death of Ivan Ilyich. Don Quixote before his death wrote his will and fainted, and then he asked his niece to get everybody that he had wronged and a priest so he can give his confessions of all the things that he had done wrong and the wrong doings that he had done to others and the things that people had done to him. Then in three days, he was still alive but was quiet and peaceful but after the three days, he finally died in a peaceful manner. Now when people are on their deathbed they want to try to rectify their wrong doings but unlike Ivan Ilyich he did not think of how he could have changed his life it seem that Don Quixote was happy with the way he lived his life. He just wanted to confess the things he did wrong and make sure certain people get his valuables by writing a will which and the person that is supposed to get his stuff is his niece. So his mental psyche is way more stable and more thoughtful for the future of his family.
Another difference in the two death is that the one was prepared to die because he was getting older and was ready for when it came and the other was not ready because he thought he would have been fine after injuring himself. At the end of Don Quixote he was old and had lived a full life. But on the other hand Ivan Ilyich was not ready to die when he found out that he was going to die. He was in the middle of his prime had a wife and two kids a daughter and a son. He just had a promotion in his job and just moved into a new house. When he injured himself, he thought it was just a small bump. However, it was way more than just a simple bump it was his undoing not going to check it out he did not think that that simple little bump as going to cause him that much pain that he experienced at the end of the book.
The way that the two of these books are different in the way of the way that the main characters at the end of their life in the books. One instead of waiting for his life to end Don Quixote writes his will and gets his confessions and goes to apologize to the people that he knows he had wronged for his life. Then there is Ivan Ilyich where he goes around trying to find a way to make his pain less or to try to find a cure bringing in doctors to try to help him get better. Even though he knew that, there was no helping him instead of writing his will and making sure his family was ready for when he was gone. Second difference before their death each of their deaths were different. Don Quixote death was a was slow but peaceful and clam he had three days were he just fainted every now and then the book even goes to say that “he died in a tranquil and Christian manner.” What it mean when it says that Don Quixote died in a Christian manner. To die in a Christian manner is to die still being a host to the guests like he was to the doctor was there at the time of his death and other things to that the bible says to be a good host and the things to do in the . Well One the other, Ivan Ilyich death was not as peaceful or tranquil the book goes as far as to say, “it was impossible to hear it without horror even through closed doors.” His howling was so loud that you could hear it through the doors and walls so everybody could hear it. However, his death was not worthless because he had a revelation as he was dying. He figured out that what he was looking for. At his end, he yelled what joy thinking about his death and how it could have been rectified. He also thought that he was tormenting his family with his howling making them feel sorry for him that he was dying and that his family would be better off without him. Unlike Don Quixote, he did not leave a will for his family so the things could have been a little tough for his family after his death like the funeral not being able to pay for or the rest of his family coming to take the money that supposed to go to his immediate family because there is no will.
Therefore, the differences in these two deaths from Don Quixote and the Death of Ivan Ilyich are vast but there is one thing, which is the same they both have family members at their bedside hoping that they would bounce back to health. For Ivan it was his son and his wife at his deathbed and for Don Quixote it was his niece the doctor and the house keeper. Which sometimes that does not happen a lot of the time now day because people are busy. Another thing that is the same between the two deaths is that it took three days for the both of them to die even though the way the two die are very different. Don Quixote reads “the three days he lived after he wrote his will he fainted often until death.” Then in The Death of Ivan Ilyich also has him dying in three days. “this was at the end of the third day, an hour of his death.” The book also said that his death was very painful and something in his body gurgled inside of it before his untimely demise. So in both book they have that they do in fact die using a three day system of time.
The death of these two fictional characters are different and in other areas is the same. Everybody’s deaths are going to be different just like these two. Some people will die a very painful death like Ivan Ilyich or be on the other end and die very peacefully and tranquil similar to Don Quixote. Also they could be very prepared and have a will set up for their family and they would not have to worry about the future like Don Quixote or they cannot expect it to come as quickly and unexpectedly as it came to Ivan Ilyich because he thought nothing was wrong with him until he had a lot of pain. So in short this is some of the differences and similarities from Ivan Ilyich’s death from Leo Tolstoy’s the Death of Ivan Ilyich and the death of Don Quixote from Miguel de Cervantes book Don Quixote.
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