Chapter 7 Summary

In the third month of Ivan's illness, he realizes that everyone is waiting for him to die so that they can be released from his suffering. He is frequently given opium and morphine, but the depressed feeling the drugs give him is as bad as the pain itself. Food becomes more and more distasteful, so Ivan eats as little as he sleeps.

The hardest thing for Ivan to bear is that others have to be involved in his excretions. He hates it that another person has to witness the unseemliness and smell. Through this humiliation, however, Ivan finds some comfort in Gerasim, the butler's assistant.

Most people pretend that Ivan is not dying, even while they treat his dying as an imposition. Gerasim, on the other hand, is cheerful and kind and he doesn't pretend that Ivan will get well. Before long, it...