In life we ​​often think about death and what our life has become. We never suspect that we will get sick and die, and very rarely agonize over whether our life is as it should be until it is too late, as demonstrated in Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych." All his life Tolstoy was religious and enjoyed life, but then, when he reached the height of his fame and was fourteen years old, he began to question everything he had once believed. Some people think that "The Death of Ivan Ilych" contains a lot of symbolism between the story and Tolstoy's life. In "The Death of Ivan Ilych" there is a lot of symbolism of life and death compared to the life of Tolstoy. Ivan Ilych was a successful man. He decided to achieve his goals and earn money. He married the women he loved and had two beautiful children, living a good life with money and achievement. He didn't have the normal worries like most working class people, he just did what he set out to do and succeeded. It is noted that "Ivan Ilyich's life had been the simplest, the most ordinary and therefore the most terrible." (Arp, 512) Until one day he fell ill. For months he lay in bed in excruciating pain, and doctors remained at odds over their knowledge of what he had. Towards the end of his life he began to question whether his life was really what it should have been and whether or not he had achieved everything he should have. He questioned death as if to ask: "What is it? Can it be death?......Why this suffering?" (Arp, 553). The reader is now left with the question of whether he died of physical or mental pain. also anguish? It could be said that when he faced imminent death he went through five psychological phases. First he went through denial and ignored the fact that he might die. He ignored his pain until it became too bad to treat. Secondly he went through anger. He became angry at his condition and took it out on his family, his friends and his servants. Then he went through a short period of bargaining, when he took communion for his wife he thought to himself: "To live! I want to live!" (Arp, 556) All he wanted was to live his life as he knew he should. The fourth stage was depression. This is the period he went through before he realized he was going to die. He thought it would be better if he died when he realized, "Yes, I'm making them miserable," he thought. “They are sorry… middle of paper… put on uniform and went to the courts.” (Arp, 530-531) However, no one would know if Ivan or the "Unknown Citizen" were injured or left because "If anything had gone wrong, they surely should have known." (Arp, 672) Not everyone is as attentive to a person's needs as they should be. In the "Death of Ivan Ilych" the symbolism of death is very important. It shows that we should always look to the future and what we could become rather than to the present and what we want at that moment. We will become what we wanted to be and live the fullest life possible. It's just up to us to decide. Ivan Ilyich began to decide this when it was too late. In everyday life we ​​take for granted that our values ​​are solid and that the projects and activities we undertake are worth pursuing. We never take a “step back” to realize that maybe we are doing something good or that maybe we are not. We mostly worry about how we will look in the end. This is something we should stop doing. We should follow Ivan Ilych's example and make sure we live our lives to the fullest instead of realizing it when it's too late. We should be like Tolstoy and realize that life is worth living.