Ivan Ilyich's funeral, like all funerals, is not his. Although it is held in his honor and he provides the symbolic corpse for the occasion, each person experiences his funeral in the same self-centered way in which he experiences his death. Pyotr Ivanovich, one of Ivan Ilyich's closest colleagues and friends, is no exception. Ivan Ilyich's funeral is an unwanted trip across the river, and everything about the occasion makes him uncomfortable. When Pyotr arrives at the apartments, he is in no hurry to enter and see neither the corpse nor the grieving family of Ilyich. Feigning chivalry but really simply fearing to enter, “he let the women go ahead of him and followed them slowly up the stairs” (41). When Pyotr sees Schwartz, another of Ilyich's colleagues, he wordlessly assumes that Schwartz is nearby to arrange a vin game for the evening. This assumption is defined as “obvious” (14). Although The Death of Ivan Ilyich features a third-person omniscient narrator, the narrative often zooms in to provide a more detailed and personal point of view of one of the characters. The narrator is also unreliable in the sense that what he states is not fact; it's a fact as one character, Pyotr in this case, sees it. Pyotr, unless he reads Schwartz's mind, has no way of knowing that his intention, by remaining idle in one place, is to organize a card game. In this narrative, we are given an insight into the head of a character and are shown by his assumption that it is probably Pyotr's intention to organize a game. Pyotr is already planning his activities for after the funeral, pleasant and fun activities that will distract him from the unpleasantness of the affair. All of Pyotr's thoughts and actions reflect the larger human tendency that Tolstoy wants to convey, to be self-centered and uncomfortable at funerals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As the women go up the stairs, going to see "the widow" (41), it is Pyotr's turn to go up as well. Ivan's wife is referred to only by the marital status in which he left her, and similarly he is simply “the dead man” (41). These references to the deceased and his wife only further depersonalize the act of dying. When you die you lose your individual identity and are reduced to another dead man and your wife to another widow. This makes how others interact with your death less personal; they are attending a funeral, like everyone else. Only Schwartz seems to be able to act openly towards the funeral as such a banal rite deserves. After Pyotr's ascent up the stairs, "Schwartz, with seriously compressed and firm lips and a playful look, moved his eyebrows to show Pyotr Ivanovich to the right, into the dead man's room" (41). Most of Schwartz's facial muscles show the due and expected respect to the dead man, but his eyes reveal his secret. She is enjoying this whole farce and wants to involve Pyotr in her privileged experience. At least, that's how Pyotr perceives it. It is almost impossible for someone to move their eyebrow muscles laterally in the suggestive manner described in the passage, so this act by Schwartz may be just another time in which his actions mirror Pyotr's internal impressions of the funeral. Pyotr might imagine Schwartz as his accomplice at the funeral, who doesn't take him seriously and just wants to play vint, as a way to justify feelings that he assumes are wrong but in reality all people feel at a funeral. Once Pyotr enters the room, there is no one to give him playful suggestions on how to behave.He "entered, as always happens, with some doubts about what he should do there" (41). The narrator here makes a more direct statement about how people always feel when they attend a funeral; it is a forced occasion with a supposedly prescribed way of acting, but no one knows exactly how they should act. Comically, as many people do, Pyotr returns to religious activity in the face of his uncertainty about how to proceed. He crosses himself, because he only knew that "crossing oneself on such occasions never hurt" (41). Religious observance is perhaps the only type of activity that always feels at home during a funeral. Pyotr's crossing of himself does not seem to come from any genuine place of deep spiritual feeling, such as believing it serves his dead friend. As he too begins to bow halfway, unsure whether it is the right thing to do but feeling obligated, Pyotr begins to look at the people around him "to the extent that the movement of his hand and head allowed him to do so" (41 ). Pyotr, feeling out of place, turns to the others again to find out how to behave at the funeral. He cannot do this openly, because that would mean ceasing his crossing and bowing activity, and simply looking at others around does not give the impression of a respectful morning. Pyotr also observes young men crossing themselves, and although they probably feel as lost as he is, the sight is a comforting affirmation that he has chosen the correct behavior. Pyotr is only shaken from his observation of the behavior of others when he sees Gerasim sprinkling something on the floor and “immediately detects a faint odor of a rotting corpse” (41). This is the first time Pyotr is reminded of why he is in the room; there is a dead body, this is a funeral. Gerasim spraying a substance, presumably some kind of detergent, does not actually cause Pyotr to smell the corpse, he is simply reminded of the situation he is in and begins to imagine the disgusting decaying body awaiting his visit . Pyotr, after thinking about the corpse and Gerasim during Ivan's lifetime, “continued to cross himself and bow slightly in the intermediate direction between the coffin, the reader and the icons... when even this movement of crossing himself cross seemed to have continued along, stopped and began to examine the dead man” (42). This image of Pyotr doing what he thinks is correct, making the sign of the cross in the general direction of the objects that Ilyich's family believed were correct to place at a funeral, shows the hilariously arbitrary customs of a funeral. The image serves to reinforce the idea that at a funeral people simply behave as they believe is the correct way. The funeral, at least as Ilyich's guests experience it, is not a personalized mourning process that serves neither the mourners nor the mourned person. Pyot had just remembered a scene from Ivan Ilyich's life involving Gerasim, a memory that referred to Ilyich by name. However, Pyotr only sees him as "the dead man" when he approaches the body. This change in Ivan's identity, which occurs in the mind of one of his closest friends, further reinforces the depersonalization of one's life in death. Ivanovich, observing the physical appearance of the corpse, offers a vision that is no different from any other funeral. . Ilyich is again stripped of his personal name; “the dead man lay, as the dead always lie, with a peculiar heaviness, like a dead man… showing, as the dead always do, his yellow, waxy forehead with his hair brushed forward over his sunken temples” (42) . It is expected that Pyotr, seeing for the first time thecorpse of his dead friend, you feel an extraordinary emotion. To Pyotr, however, Ivan's corpse is simply another dead man. He does not think of Ilyich in the context of his individual identity, and his name is never mentioned again in the rest of the selected passage. While it is apparent that Pyotr's experience of Ivan's funeral is mostly self-centered, this does not necessarily make Pyotr a bad person or a bad friend. By repeating “always” when describing the dead and the funeral, the narrator conveys that this way of experiencing death and the funeral is intrinsic, and not a product of the fact that Pyotr cares particularly little for his Ivan. Furthermore, mourning the dead may be futile, as they are not necessarily worse off than they were in life. While Pyotr observes that Ilyich seems thinner than on their last visit, “as with all dead people, his face was more beautiful, and above all more significant, than it was in the living man. There was on his face the expression that what needed to be done had been done, and done well” (42). Ivan actually seems better to Pyotr than he did in life, and gives Pyotr the impression of being at peace with what he has done and accomplished in life. Those who have read The Death of Ivan Ilyich in its entirety know that Ivan led a largely unhappy life and only in dying did he find peace and happiness. Death, therefore, can serve as a final respite from the series of miseries of life and as a salvation from the worries of life. For Ivan, these concerns came in the form of dreams of advancement and trying to avoid his family members. Looking at Ilyich, Pyotr can see that his condition is better, and the generalization of "as with all dead people" reinforces the fact that this is a circumstance of death and not a special case reserved for Ivan. This provides another reason why the concept of a funeral is ridiculous; not only do people feel uncomfortable and focused solely on themselves during a funeral, but there is actually no reason to cry because people are, as Ivan clearly is, absolved of their burdensome lives in death. Even after seeing the corpse, Pyotr is unable to confront the negative feelings associated with the death. After observing Ivan's calm and comforting appearance, he feels that “there was also in that expression a reproach or a reminder to the living. To Pyotr Ivanovich that memory seemed out of place, or at least it didn't matter to him. Something seemed unpleasant to him, and therefore Pyotr Ivanovich crossed himself… turned and went out the door” (42). Pyotr's first observations had focused on the appearance of the dead man. However, once he sensed a "reminder to the living", a way in which the dead somehow connected or communicated with those who were still alive, he hated it. This conveys the idea that the living are unable to conceive of death, and when the dead man, with whom Pyotr feels little personal connection, provides some sort of advice to the living, he immediately feels quite uncomfortable. The reminder may have been that this fate, to be a semi-anonymous corpse at a funeral, is the fate that awaits us all. In any case, the messages of the dead “do not worry” Pyotr because he does not want to listen to them and does not want to focus on this death at all, because it is unpleasant. The thought is enough to get him out, but not without observing the correct procedure by making the sign of the cross on the way out. Pyotr meets Schwartz as he leaves the room, and this is no accident. Schwartz is found "playing with his top hat behind his back" (42). Always focused on the games and seemingly unfazed by death, as well as mirroring Pyotr's inner desires, Schwartz serves as a symbol of life in the story. Although it is somehow.