What opinion about Russian society does Leo Tolstoy express in this excerpt from The 'Death of Ivan llyich?
The awful, terrible act of his dying was,
level of a casual, unpleasant, and almost
he could see, reduced by those about him to the
indecorous
incident (as if someone entered a drawing room defusing an unpleasant odour) and
this was done by that very decorum
which he had served all his life long. He saw that no one felt for him, because no one
even wished to grasp his position. Only Gerasim
recognized it and pitied
him. And so Ivan Ilyich felt at ease only with him. He felt comforted when Gerasim supported his legs
(sometimes all night long) and refused to go to
bed, saying: "Don't you worry, Ivan Ilyich. I'Il get sleep enough later on," or when he
suddenly became familiar and exclaimed: "If you weren't sick it would be another matter, but as it is, why should | grudge a little
trouble?" Gerasim alone did not lie; everything showed that he alone understood the facts of the case and did not consider it
necessary to disguise them, but simply felt sorry for his emaciated and enfeebled master. Once when Ivan llyich was sending him
away he even said straight out: "We shall all of us die, so why should grudge a little trouble?"-expressing the fact that he did not
think his
work burdensome, because he was doing it for a dying man and hoped someone would do the same for him when his time
came.
• A.
The peasant class in nineteenth-century Russia was full of honest and compassionate people.
O B.
Educated professionals gained influence in Russian society in the nineteenth century.
O C.
In the nineteenth century, middle-class Russians were rich and well-educated.
• D.
Peasants more readily accepted unpleasant facts of life, while the middle class tried to deny them.