Finality of Death
- Keven Gao
- Jan 16, 2019
- 2 min read
Life is short, and these authors know that death is inevitable. In Death of a Moth, the theme of death is prominent on how fragile it is and how all living things will ultimately die. In Hamlet, the protagonist talks about the finality of death and how no one can escape. While in Station Eleven an epidemic causes 99% of the population to die. Death is always an uncomfortable topic to talk about, but once we realize the finality of it and how life works, it enables us to be able to appreciate life a lot more.
In Station Eleven the prominence of death is not as great compared to the other 2 texts, but throughout the story, the idea of death becomes much more serious to them as lifespan is shortened dramatically and modern technology is of no use. Although at the beginning of the epidemic violence was very prominent and people were fending for themselves, when things relatively calmed down the awareness of the finality of death started to weigh in. Kirsten, being a protagonist along with her symphony would tattoo how they killed people in honour of them. By knowing the finality of death I think it made the story much more intense whenever a character was in danger.
In Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet is seen to always have an opinion of death. His famous scene of Yorick’s skull pronounces death as the undoing of anyone and everyone. As everyone will turn to dust, Hamlet claims that no matter how great of a person you are we will all be the same after death and that is to return to dust. What he is basically saying here is that ones we knock on death’s door there will be no turning back, nothing can bring us or anyone back from the dead.
Lastly, in Death of a Moth, Virginia Woolf examines a moth trapped in her house. The moth is seen to be energetic, but then drops and is suddenly struggling to live. The theme of death here is also similar to Hamlet, and that is the finality of death. Woolf adds a little more to it by expressing that life has to move one, whether our life ends today or tomorrow, it doesn’t really matter as we will all have to die eventually.
A rather dark theme that we all will encounter sooner or later, but is part of the circle of life. All three texts convey one true meaning that we should all take into consideration and that is the finality of death. No matter who you are, no one will be able to escape death, but instead of looking at the end we should enjoy our journey now and not have regrets when the time does come.
Hi Keven, I really enjoyed how you decided to take a more positive approach toward death in this post. I agree with the fact that death is typically an uncomfortable topic but should not be. It is definitely important to realize that it is something that is inevitable; however, as you mentioned, it is necessity in order to appreciate life more. If we could live forever, what would be our purpose? Would we still try to live each day to the fullest or would we become more lazy? We wouldn't know the answer for sure, but I feel that knowing that one day every one of us will die gives us a sense of assurance, or meaning. You did a…
Great connection you made between all three texts. I do agree that death is something that everyone will have to experience some day. Whether it is death among your loved ones, death is everywhere and we need to be accepting of it. Throughout the three texts you have mentioned, death is also highlighted strongly one way or another. In Hamlet, death is prominent through the graveyard scene in which he acknowledges the fact that someday everyone will turn to dust, no matter how great you are. He also mentions death in his soliloquies in which he contemplates on whether to commit suicide or not. In Station Eleven, death affects almost the entire population and the rest of the population who…