"It's as if I were going downhill while I imagined I was going up. And that's exactly what it was. I was going up in public opinion, but to the same extent life was moving away from me. And now it's all over and there is only death." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay - The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy (144-145)In American society in particular, it is often difficult to fully register the moral point made by Bergman and Tolstoy about the true meaninglessness of public reputation; but Ivan's commentary on his life awakens that nagging realization in the recesses of one's conscience, that while we bask only in the glory of "public opinion" we risk a moral regression of equal magnitude - the most terrible reality of a meaningful and thoughtful life." vanishing." The death of Ivan Ilych and wild strawberries shed light on the danger of mechanical life. Isak Borg and Ivan Ilych experience the ironic tragedy of social success. Ivan's life tells the story of the typical bourgeois social climber; focused on doing everything that is "expected" of him, his lack of attention to personal virtue ultimately makes him "le phenix de la famille" (Tolstoy, 102) – the phoenix of failure. Comparably, Bergman's professor Isak witnesses the ugly paradox of his academic nobility. As he travels by car to receive his honorary degree – a seeming culmination of his lifelong social climbing – we see Isak all the while stuck in the past as he becomes spiritually enlightened to the underlying falsehood and deception of his life to date . The banality of the life Isak and Ivan lead is portrayed as unforgivable; they cannot be regarded without horror and disgust, thanks to Tolstoy and Bergman's powerful account of a dishonored life. The spiritual discoveries that occur in Ivan and Isak's older lives are imbued with a great sense of immediacy and the pain of missed opportunities. The issue at hand in these works can be identified, to some extent, with Pascal's wager: one must make a choice in order for one's life to have any semblance of meaning. I'm reminded of a particular scene in Wild Strawberries, where an old man takes the "fifth" instead of offering insights into a debate about the existence of God. He remains silent, but his silence has an incredible impact. The two opposing characters freely discuss the magnanimous issue, while the old man's silence reveals his lifelong failure to address the all-important issue. In this scene, the old man, apart from Isak, exemplifies le phenix de la famille, and his failure to participate in the discussion, remaining silent, has a completely sad effect on the viewer. Furthermore, the damage falls into various corners of Isak and Ivan's existences. While the delay of their "resurrection" from a spiritually empty lifestyle is certainly shameful, Tolstoy and Bergman show that even their character's death may not be enough to end the consequences of his life's sin of moral contempt. As the characters face not only death but also the disturbing question, “What if I had done everything wrong?”, we see their shaky spiritual balance seep into their children's generation. Evald, no doubt resentful of a pervasive sense of meaninglessness resulting from his upbringing, has stated that he "hates" his father Isak, despite Isak's belief that their relationship is strong. Specifically, it is Evald's father's refusal to submit to human sympathy or any kind of familial feeling that remains with Evald. Isak's son then comes to believe:.