Pursuit of Happiness

As life continues people are always striving to find their own forms of happiness. But what defines happiness? Happiness is found in different ways for different people. Is it achieved through money? Some people find that wealth ultimately makes them happy. Or could it be the feeling of being accepted by your peers? Trends are followed because people want to fit in. Society can consume someone because the feeling of being accepted can create happiness for that individual. Or could happiness be related to your position in class. Some believe that the poor cannot be happy because they are poor and the wealthy upper classes are the happiest of all. What could make someone truly happy? Different questionings of happiness appear in Leo Tolstoy’s books Family Happiness and Death of Ivan Ilyich. Tolstoy portraits the search for happiness in his two books through society, wealth, and social class. In the book Family Happiness, the main character, a young girl named Masha was driven through the acceptance of society. She wanted to be a part of “the normal”, and believed that would make her happy. Ivan Ilyich of The Death of Ivan Ilyich believed he was happy only when he was wealthy and a part of the upper class. Classes have been molded since civilization truly formed. The Greeks, the Romans, and even the present-day United States have classes. The only thing that has changed is the sizes of each class over the centuries. In Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich the main character is an older man by the name of Ivan Ilyich living in 19th century Russia. Classes were split into upper and lower class. Ivan bounced around in the book. Ivan Ilyich worked at becoming upper class his whole life. He wanted to feed his family and stay in the high division of society. But things changed when he didn’t get the job he had been grinding so hard for. He was passed over at the job opportunity and was forced to take another. This other job did not pay well and could not keep up with his pleasant upper class lifestyle he had been living.
Ivan was no longer happy. He thought, “that he was forgotten by all, and that what seemed to him a great atrocious, injustice toward himself was regarded by others as a perfectly natural thing,” (Tolstoy 81). Ivan Ilyich could not bear to think of himself as a poor or lower class man. What people thought was normal living he thought was dreadful. He became depressed and isolated, the complete opposite of happiness because he was not a part of the upper class any more. The sense of isolation continued, he thought, “He was abandoned by all his friends,” (81). He was involved in a friend circle, “that consisted of the very best society; men of high position…” (86). And Ivan did not want to lose being a part of that group because he was no longer high class.
He had had enough of the isolation that his lower class statue had brought him. Ivan Ilyich found himself a new job that would put him back on the map. He acquired a new job that placed him above his colleges. Once he knew that his upper class lifestyle was back intact, a weight was lifted off his shoulder. “All his grievances against his former rivals and against the whole ministry were forgotten, and Ivan was entirely happy,” (82). Leo Tolstoy portrayed that Ivan Ilyich found his own happiness through his position in social class.
But Ivan was also consumed by money. He thought that money could ultimately make him happy. Tolstoy revealed that Ivan Ilyich ran on the idea of making as much money as possible so he could afford anything he wanted and live the lavish lifestyle of his upper class life, explained earlier in the essay. Ivan Ilyich was a man who wanted material things; the more money he had the more things he could buy. He never kept to the things that he needed but purchased everything that he wanted. Tolstoy explains in the text, “He wanted only one thing, - to obtain a place worth five thousand a year,” (82). Now that Ivan was worth more, he became happy. He immediately bought himself a new house that showed how much he was worth. He filled the house with all new furniture and all new possessions, just because he could. His relationships grew stronger because he was now worth something. The money even affected the relationship with his wife of many years. “They became better friends than they had been since the first years of their married life, (83). Although Ivan was happy in his relationships and in general, he ultimately died due to the idea of finding happiness through his money. While Ilyich was hanging his newly purchased, expensive drapes, he fell off the stepladder. He was putting up the expensive drapes in his new homes to show the neighbors that he had as much money as them, maybe even more. Ivan found that having more money than the people around him provided him with happiness. But the injury from the fall continued to plague him, and eventually killed him. Ivan was too obsessed with the idea of wealth even though he found happiness in it. Although some people find happiness in wealth or class, society can play a crucial role in someone’s life. Everyone wants to feel accepted so they follow the crowd. The idea of society is the group of people that are considered, “the normal.” In Leo Tolstoy’s Family Happiness the main character Masha wants to be apart of society. Masha was a young girl who was still a bit immature. She lived with her husband who was many years older than her, but became bored of her life. She was not happy. So Masha went out into the town to search for the missing happiness. She encountered a group of people that were basically known as the society of the group. Masha admired these people having dances, parties and fun. Masha wanted to be apart of this. So Masha changed her lifestyle and became consumed in society. She led a life of gossip and partying the people around her. She began to feel happy again. This was because the people around her accepted her. Masha was a part of the crowd and no longer the awkward girl out. Everyone wants to be accepted but this girl was controlled by it. She changed her personality and her lifestyle just to be happy. But did she really find happiness? Throughout Tolstoy’s stories he portrays different characters in different lifestyles trying the find happiness. Though they look for happiness in different ways, they are all similar. Ivan Ilyich could only find happiness in the material things. He strived to the idea of wealth and a high position in social class. Tolstoy also shows that although some people have money like Masha, they cannot find happiness, but need to search for it somewhere else. Masha never cared about her money but it care about the acceptance by the society around her. Tolstoy portraits the search for happiness in his two books through society, wealth, and social class.