As the physicist Albert Einstein said, "A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success combined with constant disorder." With this Einstein meant that to live well it is necessary to preserve and enhance the simple things in life; which is the main theme of the book “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”. This book explores the theme of living happily with criticism of the bourgeoisie and its false values ​​by comparing this social group to falsity, superficiality, artificiality and hypocrisy. Therefore; the main theme of the text is thoughts about living well and happily. This criticism of bourgeois society is done to show readers Leo Tolstoy's main intention, which is to show them how to live a happy and balanced life based on the description of Ivan's; so we can use the example of his miserable life, based on status, wealth and lies, to avoid making the same mistakes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The protagonist, Ivan Ilyich, based his relationships throughout his life on interest; and the biggest example of this is his marriage to Praskovya Fedorovna, and this is one of the main reasons why Ilyich's life was unhappy and is one of the teachings given by Tolstoy to live a happy life. What initially caused their conflict is the fact that their relationship was based on pleasing society, they didn't love each other. The reasons for the failure of the marriage are explicit in the passage: "To say that Ivan Ilyich married because he fell in love with Praskovya Fedorovna and discovered that she sympathized with his vision of life would be as wrong as to say that he married because of his social situation". the club approved the match. The beginning of their life together was pleasant but, since Tolstoy's intention was to demonstrate that relationships based on status and interests do not work, their marriage at some point frayed. The part of the text that illustrates this is: “The preparations for the wedding and the beginning of married life […] were very pleasant until his wife became pregnant […] from the first months of his wife's pregnancy, something new, unpleasant, depressing and inconvenient, and from which there was no escape, manifested itself unexpectedly.” As the marriage fell apart, Ivan tried to escape from suffering and regretted having decided to marry Praskovya to please the bourgeoisie. This fact is evident in the part: “Now he realized that marriage – at least with Praskovya Fedorovna – did not always lead to the pleasures and conveniences of life, but on the contrary often violated both comfort and decency, and that he must, therefore, entrench themselves against such violation. In conclusion, we can say that the author taught us that having authentic, honest and true relationships is one of the conditions for living a life well lived. When he describes Ivan's relationships based on interests, status and wealth, as unpleasant, disastrous and disturbing; we can deduce that the opposite type of relationship leads to great things. Just as Ivan's life teaches life lessons by using his actions and consequences as the opposite of what we should do to be happy, Leo Tolstoy not only showed the way to be happy through the example of a poor life; he used Gerasim to personify truth, happiness, and empathy, and with that, demonstrated a peaceful way of living. The reader can first perceive the prosperity of Gerasim's life through criticism aimed at the bourgeois social circle: just as Tolstoy depicted the bourgeoisie as superficial, false and almost soulless, the proletarian is characterizedby the example of Gerasim as compassionate, sensitive and understanding. The fact that Gerasim was a proletarian, and therefore had all these characteristics, can be understood from the passage: “Ivan Ilyich was particularly fond of him and carried out the task of a sick nurse. Since we know his work, we can deduce that Gerasim's position in society is proletarian. Furthermore, unlike bourgeois characters, Gerasim truly cares about others and interacts with others in an authentic and thoughtful way, he has a connection with people because everyone's well-being is important to him. The reader perceives Gerasim's positivity first in the part: 'It must be very unpleasant for you. You have to forgive me. I am helpless.' “Oh, why, sir,” and Gerasim's eyes shone and he showed his glittering white teeth, “what's a little trouble?” You are a case of illness, sir." In this passage, Gerasim's compassion, warmth and honesty is explicit, as he lets Ivan know that he is indeed dying and that he will help him until the end. Gerasim is also the only which could make Ivan accept death, as he believed that death was not the end. This happens because Gerasim accepted death and all the bad things that happen to human beings as inevitable parts of life Once, when Ivan Ilyich was sending him away, he even said openly: 'We will all die, so why should I spare a little trouble?' To conclude, Gerasim was a character made to be the right example of how to live well and happily because he could encourage Ivan to face death and did so himself. Furthermore, his relationships with others were harmonious, honest, and he did his best better to console Ivan and let him know the truth that others were hiding. We can think of the book “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” as a “guide” to a positive, wonderful and fantastic life, Tolstoy gives us the space to interpret the book as one. great criticism of bourgeois society, since in the first chapter it provides us with Peter Ivanovich's point of view to analyze how the bourgeoisie thinks, it also gives us the participation of Gerasim to show how the proletariat is a working class, sincere, virtuous and honorable. Peter's point of view is the most powerful device that Tolstoy uses to criticize the bourgeoisie as he is portrayed as a lonely selfish man, who had no real relationships and who was superficial and false. The most obvious example of how he represented the bad characteristics of the bourgeoisie is the part: “After telling his wife during dinner about the death of Ivan Ilyich and his assumption that it would be possible to have his brother moved to their constituency, Petr Ivanovich sacrificed took his usual nap, put on his evening dress and went to Ivan Ilyich's house." As mentioned before, Gerasim was the example of the proletarian in the story and, since the book could be considered a social criticism, it had positive characteristics and represented the class in the best possible way, as it contrasted with the emptiness of the bourgeoisie. . He exuded positivity in all his appearances, and this is exemplified in: "The health, strength and vitality in other people were offensive to him, but Gerasim's strength and vitality did not mortify him but calmed him." Finally, Ivan's life based on work, status and money, just as most bourgeois criticized this class, as it shows how much harm a person can do. This is exemplified in the passage: “All the interest of his life was now centered in the official world and that interest absorbed him,” from which we can infer that his focus on work kept him separated from his family and “friends.” All things considered, we can say that the book could have been a great criticism of society and class.