Because whist—the card game that Ivan and his friends play—serves as a distraction that briefly helps Ivan ignore his illness, it stands for the shallow, materialistic concerns that people like Ivan tend to gravitate toward in order to distract themselves from their own discontent. Ivan takes great joy in gambling, relishing his ability to best his opponents. When he becomes sick, he continues to play for as long as he can, treating it like his work, at least insofar as both whist and his job give him something to focus on other than his various hardships. Similarly, Pyotr Ivanovich rushes out of Ivan’s funeral to play a game of whist, clearly eager to stop thinking about death. As a result, the card game becomes a symbol for the denial that the characters in this novella experience, as they turn to petty gambling to avoid having to think about whatever is bothering them.
Whist Symbol Timeline in The Death of Ivan Ilyich
