The Many Themes of Death Essay

The Many Themes of Death Essay

Why do so many people fear decease? Is it because of its conclusiveness? Or is it because they fear the unknown? Death has been a major subject throughout literary history. Many writers have probed decease and no two can hold on exactly how decease should be discussed and wrote approximately. Death can be amusing. tragic. peaceable. helter-skelter. welcome. resisted. dejecting. or a release. In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” . William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” . Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” . and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” the subject of decease takes a outstanding topographic point.

Yet. non all of them treat decease the same manner. The subject of decease in Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is that decease is a changeless. It is ageless. It is peaceable. In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” decease is an unburdening of others and can even ensue in disclosures. Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” uses the subject of decease to demo how it can be a release from an unhappy life. Finally. in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” he uses a religious and mental decease as an flight from duty and as a transforming event.

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These are merely some of the ways decease is used as a subject in literature. Emily Dickinson in “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” uses the subject that decease is inevitable or changeless. In the first two lines of the verse form the subject is stated: Because I could non halt for death— He kindly stopped for me ( line 1-2 ) . Even if person is excessively busy or seeking to avoid decease it is non possible. Death is inevitable. Dickinson besides uses the subject that decease is non something to be feared. Death should be accepted. This is conveyed by the tone and word pick used by Dickinson. The verse form flows easy and calmly.

There is no blare or rushing. As in the undermentioned transition: We slowly drove—He knew no hastiness And I had put away My labour and my leisure excessively. For His civility— ( line 5-9 ) She intentionally uses words such as “slowly” and “no haste” to demo how the action in the verse form is relaxed and composure. She besides shows how decease is ageless ; it can non be escaped or avoided: The Carriage held but merely Ourselves— And Immortality ( line 3-4 ) Or Since then—tis Centuries—and yet Feels shorter than the Day ( line 21-22 ) Emily Dickinson used many different subjects of decease in her verse form “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” .

Another usage of the subject of decease occurs in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” . These two authors use the subject of decease as a release from duties to another individual. In “A Rose for Emily” the whole town is released from their duty of Miss Emily when she dies. Miss Emily became like a precious household heirloom. “…she passed from coevals to generation-dear. ineluctable. imperviable. tranquil. and perverse” ( Para. 51 ) . Death released the townsfolk from their duties to Miss Emily.

Another usage of decease as subject is that decease brings disclosures to those left buttocks. After Ms. Emily’s decease the townsfolk find Homer Barron’s dead organic structure in a room of Ms. Emily’s house that had non been opened in old ages. “What was left of him. rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt. had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay ; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even surfacing of the patient and biding dust” ( Para. 59 ) . Kafka in “Metamorphosis” uses the same subjects ; decease as a release from duties to another and as a disclosure.

In the concluding paragraph Kafka writes how Gregor Samsa’a household has been released from their duty of taking attention of Gregor and their disclosure of their daughter’s comeliness and their hopes for the hereafter: Leaning back comfortably in their seats. they discussed their chances for the clip to come. and it seemed on closer scrutiny that these weren’t that bad at all. for all three positions-about which they had ne’er truly asked one another in any detail- were extremely advantageous and particularly assuring for the hereafter. The greatest

immediate betterment in their state of affairs would come easy. of class. from a alteration in flats ; they would now take a smaller and cheaper flat. but one better situated and in every manner simpler to pull off than the old 1. which Gregor had picked for them. While they were speaking in this vena. it occurred about at the same time to Mr. and Mrs. Samsa. as they watched their girl acquiring livelier and livelier. that recently. in malice of all the problems which had turned her cheeks picket. she had blossomed into a good- looking. shapely miss.

Turning quieter and pass oning about unconsciously through glimpses. they thought that it would shortly be clip. excessively. to happen her a good hubby ( last paragraph ) . This is how these two writers use the subject of decease as a release from duties to others and as a disclosure. Kate Chopin in “The Story of an Hour” uses the subject of decease as a release from an unhappy life. After Louise Mallard gets over the daze of losing her hubby so all of a sudden. she comes to the realisation that she is now free from a largely loveless matrimony and the laterality of her hubby. “Free. free. free! ” ( parity.

11 ) . and “Free! Body and soul free! ” ( parity. 16 ) . Brently Mallard’s prematurely decease releases his married woman from an unhappy life. As she realizes she will no longer be under her husband’s “powerful will” that was “bending her in that unsighted continuity with which work forces and adult females believe they have a right to enforce a private will upon a fellow creature” ( Para. 14 ) . She comes down the steps with a “feverish victory in her eyes. and she carried herself inadvertently like a goddess of Victory” ( Para. 20 ) . Yet. even once her hubby is found to be alive Mrs. Mallard realizes her dream of freedom.

Not through her husband’s decease but through her ain at the terminal of the narrative. Chopin approached decease from the position of freedom. Kafka in his narrative “Metamorphosis” uses the subject of decease as an flight from duty. However. this is a religious and mental decease non a actual one. At the beginning of the book when Gregor Samsa wakes up and discovers he has been transformed into a elephantine droppings beetle it can be considered a religious decease of the adult male. He. either consciously or unconsciously. has escaped his duty by leting decease to take his psyche but go forth his organic structure behind.

It is ne’er clearly stated whether Gregor has genuinely been turned into a dung beetle or whether this is merely a psychic image in his ain head. Either manner he is seeking to get away his duty to his household. He is tired of working to pay off his parent’s debts and to back up his household. He is overwhelmed by the function of breadwinner that he took on inadvertently. In an early transition from the narrative Gregor. talking to himself. provinces: Oh God…what a grueling occupation I’ve picked! Day in. twenty-four hours out- on the route. The disturbance of making concern is much worse than the existent concern in the place office. and. besides.

I’ve got the anguish of going. worrying about altering trains. eating suffering nutrient at all hours. invariably seeing new faces. no relationships that last or acquire more confidant. To the Satan with it all! … This acquiring up so early. …makes anyone a complete imbecile. Human existences have to hold their slumber. Other going salesmen live like harem adult females. For case. when I go back to the hotel before tiffin to compose up the concern I’ve done. these gentlemen are merely holding breakfast. That’s all I’d have to seek with my foreman ; I’d be fired on the topographic point.

Anyhow. who knows if that wouldn’t be a really good thing for me. If I didn’t keep back for my parents’ interest. I would hold quit long ago. I would hold marched up to the foreman and talk my piece from the underside of my bosom. He would hold fallen off the desk! … Well. I haven’t given up hope wholly ; one time I’ve acquire the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to him—that will likely take another five or six years—I’m traveling to make it without fail ( pg 4 ) . Another illustration of Gregor seeking to get away his duty is when his director arrives at the flat and Gregor will non allow him come in.

During the brush his sister begins to shout and Gregor admirations why: “…what was she shouting approximately? Because he didn’t acquire up and didn’t allow the director in. because he was in danger of losing his occupation. and because so the foreman would get down hunting his parents about the old debts? ( pg 11 ) . ” Gregor is really evidently seeking to get away his duties to his household and to his foreman and his religious and mental decease allows him to make so. Gregor may or may non hold literally turned into a droppings beetle and as it is ne’er revealed in the narrative we have to presume he did.

Kafka ne’er straight references Gregor looks as perceived by the remainder of the household and the lone character in the narrative who even mentions his expression is the cleaning adult female. However. instead Gregor’s metabolism is physical or mental it has an amazing consequence on his household. his male parent most particularly. During the class of the narrative the household. because of Gregor’s flight from duty. all have to take occupations and this motivates them to get away the populating decease they had been in due to the fortunes of the father’s failed concern.

The father’s transmutation during the narrative from an old. crush adult male into a strong. disdainful figure is another manner Kafka uses the subject of decease in the narrative. Death as transmutation. Death as a subject has a long literary tradition. It allows people to examine its deepnesss and highs. A individual can go comfy with decease through reading literature. However. each narrative. verse form. and play dainties decease otherwise. Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” uses the subject of decease as inevitable. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” use the subject of decease as a release from duties to others.

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” uses the subject of decease as an flight from an unhappy life. Finally. Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” uses religious and psychic decease as an flight from duty. Death is the concluding release from duty and duties to others. It is non to be feared. Death is ageless and inevitable. It can be transforming. When we can non halt for decease because we are excessively wrapped up in our lives he will halt for us.

Plants Cited

DiYanni. Robert. Literature: Reading Fiction. Poetry. and Drama. McGraw-Hill Companies. New York: 2005.



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