Eng 3040

ENG 3040

CTW 1

Humans, as a species, are obsessed with death. The fear of it, the curiosity for it, it all seeps into our nature. Despite culture, creed, country, or language, this fixation seems to be reflected in all forms of literature. This morbid fascination, despite the paralyzing fear, is the central theme of the two literary works I shall be comparing in this essay, Leo Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' and William Wordsworth's 'The World is Too Much With Us.'

At first glance, Wordsworth's poem does not readily allude to this obsession towards death. While the story of Ivan Ilyich mentions death of the mortal variety, Wordsworth took a more subtle approach. He envisioned a sort of death of the mind, where humans, too wrapped up in material possessions, slowly die mentally as a result. Both writers agree that this coveting and hoarding of material wealth ultimately serves no purpose. In the beginning of the story, when Ivan's death is announced, all his colleagues can think of is how it would benefit or inconvenience them. As Wordsworth puts it "So on receiving the news of Ivan Ilyich's death the first thought of each of the gentlemen in that private room was of the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves or their acquaintances." Despite how likable a person Ivan is and how he tries to fill his life up with trinkets, he never quite manages to make his presence marked enough for anyone to care for his passing. Wordsworth presents this same idea, albeit in a more generalized sense. He states that this coveting has moved us further from nature, and that should humans cease to exist, there would be nothing left as a reminder that they were ever there. In the poem he points this out with "we lay waste our powers;- Little we see in Nature that is ours."

This love for all things artificial has apparently struck a discord amongst humans and the flow of nature. The closer we are to our man-made worlds, or as the authors would have...