Leo Tolstoy’s Use Of Rhetoric In The Death Of Ivan Ilyich

The opposite poles of this binary seem to be madness and sanity; the one is defined by its absence. The binary that is found in Fyodor Dstoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote poses problems. The protagonists are not easily classified as either sane or insane, even though they represent the extreme of madness. They show that a binary approach cannot adequately explain the complexity of human nature. However, they take their argument a step further, arguing that madness does not result in irrational behaviour, but is rather a description. You are not mad because you’re irrational; society considers someone mad because of their irrational behaviors. To better understand a behavior, we must look at the causes behind it.

Cervantes wants the reader’s conclusion to be that Don Quixote has no doubt gone mad. The third-party narrator’s omniscience and objectivity makes it easy for the reader to be convinced. The narrator states that Don Quixote “completely wrecked” his reason and fell “into the weirdest fancy ever held by a lunatic in the world” (Cervantes 34). Quixote corresponds to one extreme, and the narrator to the other. The reader is also aligned with narrator and finds that he is on the same extreme as the narrator. Sancho Panza convinces the readers that Don Quixote possesses a total delusion. He expresses to the reader his disbelief, and even outrage at Don Quixote’s fantasy that has such disastrous consequences in reality. Sancho responds sceptically to Don Quixote’s claim that he would avenge Rocinante “for the outrage they have caused him” (Cervantes 111). Sancho repeatedly expresses disbelief. Sancho responds to a typical experience that ends in a personal injury by saying, “It seems to me the creatures who enjoyed themselves at my cost were not phantoms and enchanted like your worship suggests, but real men just like us.” (Cervantes 133) The narrator distinguishes clearly between Don Quixote’s imagined world and the real one. Cervantes (135) says that Don Quixote can imagine things which are not visible or existing. Cervantes is now exploring the possibilities of the overlapping madness/sanity that Quixote can experience.

Don Quixote is able to discuss politics with the priest in the barber “with such intelligence?that the two examiners had no doubt whatsoever that he was quite recovered and in complete possession of his wits” (Cervantes 472). Quixote was able to talk about politics with the priest at the barbershop, “with so much intelligence?that both examiners knew he’d recovered completely and had his wits in full force” (Cervantes 482). As he grows older, he becomes more aware of the limits in his imagination. Quixote realizes that a church he mistakenly believes to be Dulcinea’s castle is actually the parish church in the area when he mistakes it for the palace. Sancho and other characters, who are meant to be rational, can also display madness. Sancho’s squireship is a questionable decision, as the reader questions how rational Sancho really can be despite his recognition of Quixote’s folly. Cervantes, 66), explains that he does this because he thinks that “an adventure could occur which would make him governor of some island in a blink of an eye” (Cervantes). This contradiction is noted by the canon, who later marvels at Sancho’s foolishness for so desperately wanting to court his master as promised (Cervantes 443). These characters share a strange combination of sanity and madness. The priest, for example, comments that the two madnesses are “cast in the same mould” and that the master’s madness is worth nothing without the squire’s foolishness (Cervantes 482 ). Cervantes’s attempt to dismantle the binary created by him begins with his demonstration that madness, sanity and both can exist together.

Don Quixote, in his madness, is portrayed as a man of order and logic. His madness is described as “well reasoned nonsense” by Cervantes (443). His madness is only limited to chivalry. He can rationally comment on any other topic. Quixote’s canon says that when he is returned to his house for rehabilitation he “displayed excellent sense in his speech and answers”, and “only [loses] the stirrups?” (Cervantes 445). Quixote behaves and thinks rationally once he is inside the fictional world of chivalry he created. He follows the canons of literature he has read about chivalry. Don Quixote sleeps often, but he thinks of Lady Dulcinea. This is in line with what Cervantes has written about knights that spend long sleepless nights in woods and deserts thinking about their women. His actions are all in keeping with the expectations of a knighterrant. Quixote is clearly still able to reason.

Don Quixote’s behavior is less and not more understandable if you attribute it to “madness”. Quixote does not behave delusionally because he’s mad. Cervantes asks his reader to rethink their reasoning.

What function does Quixote serve? It fulfills what need? Quixote led a comfortable, yet dull life. It’s not surprising that he loved reading chivalric romances, because they let him live through the experiences of honor, true love and victory. It is logical to assume that someone who enjoys something in a vicariously enjoyed way will enjoy it even more in reality. Quixote was compelled to act by the idea that the world would suffer if he waited, seeing all the wrongs, grievances, and injuries he could rectify. Quixote, then, became a errant knight to fulfill his thirst of adventure, honorable fame, and a meaningful purpose. Sancho is also deluded to fulfill a need, namely to provide for his wife and children, as well as to elevate his social standing.

The reader should ask how the behavior is defined and by whom. Quixote is considered insane because his behavior is incongruent with the world most people perceive as real. Don Quixote’s inability to be a knight is a tragedy. Don Quixote doesn’t Don Quixote authors his identity and purpose.

Cervantes makes a final argument in Don Quixote to show that identity and behavior change with internal needs. Quixote was defeated as a Knight Errant. When he’s forced to stay for a whole year in a village, he decides he wants to be a shepherd. “It would allow me to indulge in my amorous thoughts while I occupied myself in this pastoral and virtue calling,” (Cervantes). Don Quixote’s melancholy nature is best suited for a life of shepherding. This would enable him to be with his male friends, mourn the loss of love he lost and give free rein to his amorous thoughts. Quixote suddenly becomes unable to fulfill this need when he is hit by “a severe fever” (Cervantes 955). Following a sudden conversion, he renounces his knightly folly and becomes a Christian. Cervantes warns the reader, however, that there may be more going on. Cervantes says that Quixote regrets his impending death because he has no time to read other religious books, which could enlighten him. This ties his conversion from knight-errantry to his conversion of Christianity. Christianity is just another identity one can wear like a coat. Cervantes suggests, however, that there’s no absolute identity. Even socially acceptable, “sane”, identities (such as Christianity), are constructed and not intrinsic.

Cervantes, like Dostoevsky, has a similar approach to madness. Dostoevsky’s goal is to convince readers that Raskolnikov has madness, much like Cervantes. Dostoevsky reveals Raskolnikov’s inner thoughts and feelings through his free, direct dialogue. Cervantes did not allow the narrative voice to be the same as the protagonist. Dostoevsky combines Raskolnikov’s voice and the narration to transport the reader into Raskolnikov’s world. Raskolnikov’s thought, for example: “But not to stop and dodge on the stairs all the while. Make excuses. Lies – oh nay, better to stealcatlike down the steps somehow and slipaway unseen” (Dostoevsky 3-4). Dostoevsky used a similar technique to portray Raskolnikov’s fragmented thinking. Raskolnikov often uses ellipses to illustrate the way his thoughts flow into each other. These are normally found inside quotations. The ellipses can sometimes escape, as in “Now the peculiar ring reminded [Raskolnikov] suddenly of something, and brought it clearly to him?” (Dostoevsky, 6). Raskolnikov screams insanity in his first transcribed words, where he babbles on about babbling. “I learned how to babble during this month of lying in the corner day after day, thinking about Cuckooland.” (Dostoevsky 4, p. 4) Raskolnikov is described in a way that reinforces his madness: “There seemed to me to be something strange about him. He seemed lit up with rapture and there was also a flicker in his eyes” (Dostoevsky, 12). Raskolnikov seems to become more insane as the book progresses. The evidence is mainly based on actions and thoughts which seem contradictory, inconsistent, asocial or without a reason. Raskolnikov exhibits contradictory emotion after reading his letter to his mother. He displays both sadness and malicious joy. His face was “wet with tears” but after he had finished, his face was pale, contorted in a convulsive manner, and an evil, bitter smile spread across it (Dostoevsky 38). Raskolnikov’s madness is evident in a number of ways.

Dostoevsky wants Raskolnikov’s mind to be sane, but the line between madness and normality in Crime and Penalty is less defined than in Don Quixote. The first binary is that Raskolnikov is insane and the outside world is sane and orderly. This binary breaks down as the readers sees glimpses in Raskolnikov’s behavior and reasoning that are both lucid and calculated. Raskolnikov shouts “with exaggerated frustration” at this sister and mother in one scene (Dostoevsky 246; p. 264). Raskolnikov is the maddest extreme, while Razumikhin is the sane. This binary parallels Cervantes binary of Sancho Panza against Don Quixote. The same principle applies. Razumikhin is also a madman: his constant intoxication obscures his reasoning and makes his social dominance. Dostoevsky may have destabilized the binary most dramatically between Raskolnikov’s character and that of the reader. The reader is deemed sane whereas Raskolnikov appears to be insane. Dostoevsky creates a bond between the protagonist and the reader by allowing them to see Raskolnikov’s world. The reader is as engrossed in Raskolnikov’s murder as he is. He feels the same excitement and emotion as Raskolnikov.

Dostoevsky and Cervantes both suggest that madness, unlike Cervantes’s, is simply a classification of behavior. Raskolnikov’s motives are left purposefully ambiguous. They may even remain unresolved by the novel’s end. Dostoevsky gives several reasons for Raskolnikov’s crime. They include financial gain, humanitarian concerns, mental illness, or environmental influences. Although each of these explanations is plausible and worthwhile, they are not sufficient to explain Raskolnikov’s actions. One possible explanation is the environment. It is not surprising that his desperate situation is due to the poverty he lives in. Svidrigailov says that one rarely finds a city with so many strange, gloomy and sharp influences on a person’s soul as Petersburg (Dostoevsky 467). Razumikhin calls him “a poor, hypochondriac student on the brink of delirium and cruel illness” (Dostoevsky 268). Others are against the theory, claiming that it is “nature-less” and “does not take into consideration society’s normal structure”. It is only when all of these theories do not seem sufficient that it can be concluded “that this crime could not have happened without some kind of temporary insanity. This conclusion is incredibly insufficient and leaves the reader feeling coldly dissatisfied. Raskolnikov’s political theory is that people are divided into two categories: ordinary and extraordinary. Raskolnikov is as eager to believe that the crime he committed was a sort of test to determine if he was Napoleonic or not, but in reality he seems to already know that he doesn’t fit that description. He says, “I knew beforehand?” But I knew beforehand!” (Dostoevsky 275). Raskolnikov, perhaps the most eloquent of all, concludes “I just wanted to dare! That’s it!” (Dostoevsky 418). This deep, subconscious urge is unidentifiable and visceral.

Dostoevsky is not able, as Raskolnikov was, to decode fully the subconscious of man. However, he does have the ability to create a small pang in the reader’s subconscious that may be similar to the urge Raskolnikov has to kill. Dostoevsky’s genius may be in this. This urge is not madness in the traditional sense. Dostoevsky’s writings were written in a post Freudian period, and Dostoevsky appears to encourage his readers to make theories about Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov’s dreams of the horse and an apocalyptic universe beg such an analysis. In this particular dream, he was a child walking with father. The drunken group of people is forcing an old mare, who can’t pull the load, to do so. Raskolnikov the child is completely powerless. He can neither get a reaction from his father, who is impotent, nor stop the whipping of the horse. Raskolnikov may have been motivated by his impotence in the dream to act against it. Porfiry may be referring to our subconscious activity when he says “Human nature, sir, is the clearest of mirrors.” (Dostoevsky 342 ). The subconscious is similar to a dark box which consolidates multiple causes that result in one particular thought or action. Dostoevsky doesn’t fully explain how the causes of a particular action or thought interact within this box. The subconscious is more complex than the conscious mind can imagine. Due to the difficulty of understanding the subconscious, actions caused by it could be mislabeled as madness by the society.

Dostoevsky, Cervantes and others argue that the definition of madness is society. It is not an individual. They acknowledge that we all have the same urges to satisfy our subconscious desires. Don Quixote’s and Raskolnikov’s differences from the rest of us are not insignificant. Quixote & Raskolnikov seem to have a different approach to fulfilling their desires, as they do not consider how this will affect the society. Raskolnikov is overheard by two young men at a pub talking about whether they should “kill her for justice” because she was “a stupid and meaningless woman, a wicked old crone, a sick, old crone…harmful towards everyone.” (Dostoevsky 64). Raskolnikov is thinking the same thing as the two young men, but he actually does it. Raskolnikov argues that men are all driven by desires and urges but do not act upon them due to “cowardice.” They fear “a new move, [their] own new words” (Dostoevsky 4) Cervantes shows that these desires are universal. Cervantes doesn’t make delusion seem real, but he does effectively incite the same visceral urge that Quixote felt to change himself to suit his needs. We are not the only ones. Sancho, as well as the priest and barber who all represent voices of sense and reason in the novel, became enthused by Quixote’s latest proposal. “Astonished at Don Quixote’s latest craze,” Sancho, the priest, the barber and others “admitted his new idea and accepted it with enthusiasm. They applauded Quixote’s folly for its wisdom and offered to follow him” (Cervantes 933).

Cervantes, as well as Dostoevsky, acknowledge that identity always depends on society. However they don’t denounce it or suggest that people create fictional worlds to meet their own needs. Both authors warn that subconscious desires can override reason and lead to asocial behavior. Raskolnikov’s apocalyptic nightmare, where the human race has been infected with trichinae, which make everyone believe that “the truth is contained within himself,” illustrates this point particularly well. This dream illustrates the wide-ranging implications of this behavior. Cervantes also shows a darker side of knight errantry.