Introduction “ [Like Ilyich], we all die, and if we only live to live, to create and carve our own meaning into the universe, then life itself becomes ultimately meaningless and painfully insignificant.” In The Death of Ivan Ilyich Tolstoycombines a savage satire on futility and hypocrisy of conventional life with a powerful symbolic presentation of isolation in the struggle with death and hope for a final resurrection. This constant battle illustrates mid-nineteenth century realism. Realism is a “school of thought which greatly promoted the individual's own thoughts and feelings, as well as idealistic ideas of a perfect world”. Realism is the way in which a person views the world through the imagination of the individual who determine the form and content of an artistic creation. Realism deals with the emotions, and it also discovers what is mysterious and meaningful in life as observed in Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
The poet wants to show the meaning of life. He sheds light on the fact of death and the brevity of our life. The rhetorical question shows that the poet belittles man's life because it is short and transient. The word "division" shows that man's happiness is short and temporary. The word "short" shows the brevity of the earthly life.
“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens portrays a theme of resurrection and sacrifice to display the injustices and liberties of most everyone’s lives. In the face of death, as he faces extermination, Sydney Carton is content with sacrificing himself in the place of Charles Darnay. He comes to a conclusion that he wants to have his life mean something and through self sacrifice, he can achieve it. Despite the love we have for ourselves, we must often sacrifice some, if not all, of our life to protect the ones we love so they have a chance at a better and happier one. Sydney Carton is introduced as an alcoholic lawyer at a trial against Charles Darnay, a person who coincidentally greatly resembles him.
Grendel's frustration is not simply a matter of loneliness; he also cannot choose between his hatred of humanity on the one hand, and his admiration of man's accomplishments on the other. The novel ends where its inspiration, the epic Beowulf, begins--with the arrival of the mighty Geat soon after one of Grendel's bloodier rampages. Grendel, we know, is doomed to die by Beowulf's hand. In Grendel, Gardner makes that death a matter of great philosophical
- Could save his life by an untrue statement of being involved in witchcraft. - Refuses to weaken and sign name to a lie, instead rips confession, states cannot live without his name. • Finally proclaims, “How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” - Dramatically confirming the play’s key theme of reputation. - Deciding on death and his good name instead a life without his reputation, play is brought to shocking and emotional climax.
Yet to this day, no one seems any closer to an answer than when they first started. In consequence, when trying to compare two works with very different views of life and death, like Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards and Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant, one can find many differences, but also a few key similarities. To be specific, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God shows that Jonathan Edwards believes that the sinful way man lives his life brings wrath from a god that they should fear, while Thanatopsis portrays a worldview in which death is welcomed and god is not considered. In his work Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards uses fear to manipulate his audience into repenting and turn to Christ. His puritan worldview led him to believe that “God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell” (Edwards 175).
RESEARCH PAPER EVERYMAN Christol Council Liberty University August 19, 2012 Thesis The play “Everyman” uses characters that are spiritual to tell the story of Everyman. Everyman has to give an account of his life no one can stand with us before God we have to stand alone. Everyman realizes that death is inevitable and man has to an account for his sins. Everyman often does not think of their spiritual life, but in the end finds way to repent of their sins. The summons of Death makes Everyman realize he is not ready to die and does not want to take the journey alone, but ultimately has to stand alone.
In the poem, Roethke establishes the connection between his self and the self’s labor of love. Although his art is natural, it is so difficult that it is painful. His secrets do not speak; they “cry aloud” (line 1) Saying that his “truths are all fore-known,” (line 7) Roethke acknowledges a personal clairvoyance, as though he has meditated on the self-many times. “This anguish self-revealed,” (line 8) the journey through his own house, the anguish self, has taken him inward to a place of universal mystery, a deep room of creativity. Roethke only approaches rage at the end of the poem, as if pure creativity is like fire life-enhancing or all consuming.
Unlike Virgil, Dante makes explicit moral judgment on each of the individuals he meets, and the damned encountered range from historical figures, to contemporary popes and poets, to the greatest sinner of them all: Judas Iscariot. The quality of punishment given out to the sinners is thus increased as Dante's descend, and Dante's compassion for the dead lessens as he moves downward to the bottom of hell. On the contrary, much of Dante's Hell is original, but that which he did extract from the Aeneid he carefully adapted to his tenacities. In pursuing his Christian vision of the afterlife, Dante thereby created an otherworld structurally distinct from, yet stylistically suggestive of, Vergil's Underworld.
Despite his hopes, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh “the quest for immortality is is a futile one, as creation itself contains the seed of death, making it inescapable.” The gods, he explains, intentionally did this because life couldn’t exist without death. Gilgamesh returns to Uruk having learned that the quality of one’s life is measured not by wealth and fame, but by the quality of time he spent with the people around him. This in turn gives Gilgamesh a second chance at life, and he becomes a wise ruler who instead of hating death, does everything he could to live a good life. On the contrary of Gilgamesh’s change for the good by embracing life, the Egyptians embraced death and prepared their whole lives preparing for an afterlife. The Egyptian “Book of The Dead” contained instructions on how one would live their lives and