tl;dr: Pain isn't something to be erased - it's part of what makes our Life meaningful. A life without suffering, only focused on superficial pleasantries - something Lumon wants to achieve- is meaningless and empty. True meaning of life comes from the relationship we form with others, and we cannot achieve that without first embracing pain as its natural consequence.

Plot

(Spoiler Warning)

Ivan Ilyich is a mid-ranking government official who works an office job. He is in a unhappy marriage and has unfulfilling relationship with his children. Instead of facing his challenges, he throws himself to work, and distracts himself on buying nice things and getting promotions.

One day, Ivan ends up with a mysterious pain on his side. The doctors unable to find reason, and prescribe him opioid to relieve pain, which does not work. Terrified of worsening pain and his eventual death, Ivan angrily questions the injustice of his situation. He feels like he has done everything right with his life. What did he do to deserve this? He questions God, and lashes out his wife and his family.

However, on the last day of his life, after watching his son and his wife crying for him, he realizes that he has focused on wrong things in his life. He realizes that what truly matters is the love he shares with his family. He decides that the best thing he could do is to die. When he is finally ready to accept pain and death, he feels none of them. A light shines upon him, and he is free from both.

Upon hearing the news of his death, his friends feel relieved that it is he, not them that has died. They only think about how Ivan's death can be beneficial for their social status and wealth.

Link to text: https://web.stanford.edu/~jsabol/existentialism/materials/tolstoy_death_ilyich.pdf

Theme and Foreshadowing

Interesting Quotes Reminiscent of Severance

• "Reintegration" of Dual Minds
  • "it was as if he were listening not to a voice that spoke in sounds, but to the voice of his soul, to the course of thoughts arising in him. "What do you want?" was the first clear idea, expressible words, that he heard. "What do you want? What do you want?" he repeated to himself. "What? Not to suffer. To live," he replied. And again he gave himself entirely to such intense attention that even the pain did not distract him. "To live? To live how? " asked the voice of his soul. "Yes, to live as I lived before: nicely, pleasantly." "As you lived before, nicely and pleasantly?" asked the voice.
  • And he started to go over in his imagination the best moments of his pleasant life. But-strange thing-all those best moments of his pleasant life seemed now not at all as they had seemed then. All--except for his first memories of childhood. There, in childhood, there had been something really pleasant, which one could live with if it came back. But the man who had experienced that pleasure was no more
  • it was as if the memory was about someone else. As soon as that began the result of which was he, the Ivan Ilyich of today, all that had then seemed like joys melted away and turned into something worthless and often vile. And the further from childhood, the closer to the present, the more worthless and dubious were those joys
• Using Medicine to Avoid Pain
  • "He slept less and less; they gave him opium and began injections of morphine. But that did not relieve him."
  • "The doctor came out to the drawing room and informed Praskovya Fyodorovna that things were very bad and that the only remedy was opium to ease his sufferings, which must be terrible"
  • "He was given a large dose of opium and became oblivious; but at dinnertime the same thing began again. He drove everyone away and thrashed from side to side."
• Accepting Inevitability of Death
  • "The example of a syllogism he had studied in Kiesewetter's logic- Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal-had seemed to him all his life to be correct only in relation to Caius, but by no meanS to himself"
  • He sought his old habitual fear of death and could not find it. Where was it? What death? There was no more fear because there was no more death. Instead of death there was light
• Sacrifice for the Ones We Love
  • Just then Ivan Ilyich fell through, saw light, and it was revealed to him that his life had not been what it ought, but that it could still be rectified. He asked himself what was "Fight," and grew still, listening. Here he felt that someone was kissing his hand. He opened his eyes and looked at his son. He felt sorry for him. His wife came over to him. He looked at her. She was gazing at him with a despairing expression, openmouthed, and with unwiped tears on her nose and cheek. He felt sorry for her. "Yes, I'm tormenting them," he thought. "They're sorry, but it will be better for them when I die."
  • He was sorry for them, he had to act so that it was not painful for them. To deliver them and deliver himself from these sufferings.

Theme of Love and Pain

The Death of Ivan ilyich explores meaning of life in relation to pain. What makes our life worthwhile? Through Ivan's final enlightenment, and the sacrifice he makes for his family, the novella underscores that true meaning of life can only come from accepting pain, because it is only from love, and our willingness to show up for our loved ones where our life takes meaning.

"Kiesewetter's logic- Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal."All men inevitably die, thus, to love someone is to face pain and death. For your Life to have meaning, you must love, and to love you must embrace pain. Ivan is freed from his prison of pain and fear of death by realizing that his life focused on pleasantries, to live "nicely, pleasantly," was the manner of life that needs to be rectified. Through embracement of pain and death as part of life he is relinquished.

The way Ivan achieves solace from pain is exact opposite from what Lumon is trying to achieve. Lumon focuses on separation of pain from life. Dr Maur tells Gemma, "Kier will take away all his pain just as he has taken away yours." Gemma does not feel pain on the testing floor because her innies are experiencing it for them. Kier separates himself from Dieter's sins. The Severance procedure allows workers to separate themselves from boredom of work.

If Ivan freedom from pain was achieved by embracing pain and focusing on his relationship with his loved ones, Lumon's method of freedom from pain can only stand upon entrapment, (literal and metaphorical) severance, and isolation. Gemma has "achieved" her painless status by entrapping multiple versions of herself. Lumon has most likely kidnapped and entrapped Gemma to achieve this pain free life. The severed workers are isolated from the real word, and from each other. Mark tried to free himself from his grief of losing Gemma, but has only isolated himself more by sinking into lonely alcoholism which does not give him any solace.

The world Lumon is trying to create with its technology will be void of meaning, and probably does not work. If love transcends severance, then losing that love will cause pain. To truly avoid pain, Lumon must learn how to sever love, which the show has repeatedly hinted that is not possible yet

Foreshadowing

Ivan and Mark's journey are similar in that both try to deny pain through medical procedure (opium, severance). Ivan "converses" with his soul, Mark reintegrates with his innie and they both look back on their lives. Ivan makes sacrifice, lets go of his life for his wife and his son. What will Mark do? How far will he go?