Question

Which two parts of this excerpt from Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich suggest that doctors, like lawyers, are part of the superficial middle-class world of nineteenth century Russia?

Options:

1. He went. Everything took place as he had expected and as it always does.

2. It was all just as it was in the law courts. The doctor put on just the same air towards him as he himself put on towards an accused person.

3. The doctor said that so-and-so indicated that there was so- and-so inside the patient, but if the investigation of so-and-so did not confirm this, then he must assume that and that. If he assumed that and that, then…and so on.

4. It was not a question the doctor solved brilliantly, as it seemed to Ivan Ilyich, in favor of the appendix, with the reservation that should an examination of the urine give fresh indications the matter would be reconsidered.

5. All this was just what Ivan Ilyich had himself brilliantly accomplished a thousand times in dealing with men on trial. The doctor summed up just as brilliantly, looking over his spectacles triumphantly and even gaily at the accused.

6. And this conclusion struck him
painfully, arousing in him a great feeling of pity for himself and of bitterness towards the doctor's indifference to a matter of such importance.

Answer 1

The two parts of the excerpt that suggest that doctors, like lawyers, are part of the superficial middle-class world of nineteenth century Russia are:

2. "It was all just as it was in the law courts. The doctor put on just the same air towards him as he himself put on towards an accused person."

5. "All this was just what Ivan Ilyich had himself brilliantly accomplished a thousand times in dealing with men on trial. The doctor summed up just as brilliantly, looking over his spectacles triumphantly and even gaily at the accused."

These parts show that the doctor's behavior is similar to that of a lawyer, who is also part of the superficial middle-class world of nineteenth century Russia.