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# Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur Morgan, Ivan Ilyich & Memento Mori (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 4)
- URL: https://mythicmindfellowship.com/red-dead-redemption-2-arthur-morgan-ivan-ilyich-memento-mori-mythic-mind-games-ep-4/
- Published: 2025-06-13T13:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:59:24.000Z
- Author: Andrew Snyder

Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 4

# Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur Morgan, Ivan Ilyich & Memento Mori (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 4)

Dr. Andrew Snyder

13 June 2025

[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynV50tCh6oc&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)

## In this episode

Red Dead Redemption 2’s Arthur Morgan and Tolstoy’s Ivan Ilyich both teach memento mori: facing death can renew how you live. After Arthur’s tuberculosis diagnosis he turns from outlaw vanity toward an honorable redemption; after Ivan’s fatal illness he sees that a respectable career and middle-class image were a false life.

In this Mythic Mind Games solo essay, Dr. Andrew Snyder reads RDR2 against The Death of Ivan Ilyich. He traces Ivan’s acquaintances who think “it is he who is dead and not I,” the widow’s inconvenience over grief, Gerasim’s honest acceptance of mortality, and Ivan’s spiral of denial until the end. Then he sets Arthur beside that arc: a bad man who wants to be good, collapsing into TB, asking whether he has wanted the right things, and redeeming what remains of his life by living well. The shared archetype is mortality that reorders desire; the medieval Latin reminder is not morbid retreat but a call to responsibility, virtue, and the form of a human life (Aristotle, Westminster). Along the way Andrew argues that video games can approach the literary and connect us to the true, good, and beautiful.

### People

**Dr. Andrew Snyder**Host and speaker

### Key themes

- Memento mori in Arthur Morgan and Ivan Ilyich
- Gerasim’s honest acceptance of mortality
- Ivan’s spiral of denial

## Related

- [**Red Dead Redemption 2: Honor, Loyalty & Arthur’s Redemption (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 5)**Watch the episode](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/red-dead-redemption-2-honor-loyalty-arthurs-redemption-mythic-mind-games-ep-5/)
- [**Red Dead Redemption: Honor, Vengeance & John Marston (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 43)**Watch the episode](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/red-dead-redemption-honor-vengeance-john-marston-mythic-mind-games-ep-43/)
- [**Video Games as Fairy-Stories: Tolkien and Subcreation (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 1)**Watch the episode](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/video-games-as-fairy-stories-tolkien-and-subcreation-mythic-mind-games-ep-1/)
- [**Are Video Games a Waste of Time? Art and Upbuilding Value (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 10)**Watch the episode](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/are-video-games-a-waste-of-time-art-and-upbuilding-value-mythic-mind-games-ep-10/)

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[Previous in Mythic Mind GamesSWTOR: Jedi, Sith, and the Moral Nature of MMO Gameplay](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/swtor-jedi-sith-and-the-moral-nature-of-mmo-gameplay-mythic-mind-games-ep-3/)[Next in Mythic Mind GamesRed Dead Redemption 2: Honor, Loyalty & Arthur’s Redemption](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/red-dead-redemption-2-honor-loyalty-arthurs-redemption-mythic-mind-games-ep-5/)

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