Compassion and self-deception: The unity of love and truthfulness in Leo Tolstoy's The 'Death of Ivan Ilyich' (Exploring revelations of spiritual andmoral danger through divinely inspired interconnections of personal morality and ethics)

This essay examines Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" in light of the mo ral status of self-deception, particularly as defended on grounds of compas sion. It argues that Tolstoy's powerful depiction of the interconnection of love and truthfulness reveals the spiritual and moral dangers of self-dece ption and particularly its destructive consequences for interpersonal love and friendship.