Siddhartha and The Death of Ivan Ilych : Existence through Nonexistence
According to Martin Heidegger, a renowned German philosopher, there are two soul sicknesses of mankind: one is unaware of his existence, and one falls into ‘theyself’ living mostly according to what ‘they’ tell him to do, thus leading an inauthentic life. A life in which one runs away from the confrontation with nonexistence, and becomes egoistic, treating all other life as a means rather than an end. Therefore, only a confrontation with death allows one to exist authentically. An existence in which one sees the unity of all life thus overcoming alienation and egoism, making the most of the limited time in one’s life. In Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich , both authors portray protagonists who lead lives filled with inauthenticity, living in a state of ‘theyself’, until confronted with death. Through Siddhartha’s desired suicide and Ivan Ilyich’s untimely fatal illness, both Hesse and Tolstoy suggest that one’s confrontation with death makes him realize the inauthenticities of his life, and thus enables one to live authentically.
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