Human Response to Death in The Seventh Seal, by Ingmar Bergman

Explained: When people understand that death will occur, then they will spend there life doing things with meaning and not walking around half-asleep. Then, they will learn they only have a specific time to live so they should live life to the fullest and do things that are enjoyable.

Death is the most inevitable and unknown aspect of life. It is unescapable, and by most of today’s population, it is feared in the utmost regard. Our materialistic views and constant desertion of religious ideals has forced our society to view death as an ultimate end. Socrates and St. Augustine’s views on death differ from many views on the subject in 2017, however, for their time, these men had the power to influence a plethora of individuals with their theories. For Socrates, death should never be feared and should be considered a blessing if our souls were to ascend to heaven, or death could be an extensive slumber without any dreaming whatsoever. With

Martin Heidegger defines death as an “ownmost possibility of Da-sein,” in that it is non- relational potentiality-of-being that is certain yet indefinite but is “not to be bypassed.”2 As an ownmost possibility, every human being’s experience of death differs from one another due to the fact that one lives out his or her life differently. Even with the way one follows a routine of waking up in order to eat and carry out daily tasks and recuperating the energy one exhausted in sleep, every person creates a form of meaning in one’s daily encounters, which individualizes one person from another in these unique

As I read the reading “death”, I can conclude that the main idea for this reading that the author wants his readers to believe that the death is not something scary. We all should not be afraid about the fact that our bodies will cease to exist after death.

First, the religious concept views death as the commencement of a new life (Campione, 2004). Next, the

In this sense, inexplicable fear of death can manifest itself in an excessive desire to obtain achievements to counteract this anguish and the person takes an anxious race against time, no enjoyment of one's own achievements. The deep religious beliefs, rituals and ceremonies helped familiar with death. Friends and neighbors accompanied the suffering and the dying and provided support and comfort in this difficult time of the end of life. “Numerous Researchers now for many people believe that, continuing bonds with the deceased is a regular part of healthy adaptation” (Klass & Walter,

By biological logic, we human beings will face death sooner or later in our life and death has its very own ways to approach us - a sudden deadly strike, a critical sickness, a tragic accident, a prolonged endurance of brutal treatment, or just an aging biological end. To deal with the prospect of death come different passive or active reactions; some may be scared and anxious to see death, some try to run away from it, and some by their own choice make death come faster. But Viktor Frankl, through his work Man’s Search for Meaning, and Bryan Doyle; in his essay “His Last Game” show us choices to confront the death, bring it to our deepest feelings, meaningful satisfaction. To me, the spirit of the prisoners at deadly concentration camps, Frankl’s Logotherapy theory of “. . . striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.” (99), as well as the calmness of Doyle’s brother on his last ride, like an awaken bell, remind us of how precious life is, how we should find the significance in every act of living, determine to live a meaningful life at any circumstances; hence, when death comes, we can accept it without anxiety nor regrets.

The Civil War shook the United States in 1861, forcing families and soldiers, both in the North and South, to reevaluate what it meant to live and die under less-than-ideal circumstances. In Drew Gilpin Faust’s essay, titled The Civil War Soldier and the Art of Dying, Faust goes through every change the Civil War made in the standard perception of death and mourning at the time and the lasting implications death in the Civil War would have for years to come. In every sense, the changes Faust outlines were put in place to cater towards the They of Heideggerian thought and ultimately did not help Civil War soldiers and families think authentically about death, but rather shaped social norms that still support the They and prohibit Dasein from authentically anticipating death as a possibility.

In the play “everyman” death is depicted as something that is terribly feared as no one seemed ready for it, death is perceived as something that takes one away from the pleasures of this world.

Everyman is a morality play from the 15th century with no known author, and The Seventh Seal is a 1950’s fantasy film about a knight returning from the Crusades. Although the timelines for these two pieces don’t match up, they share a lot of similarities: the most prominent of which being the personification of death into a character. Both pieces feature death as an ever-present entity and solidify the inevitability of death. However, through the characterizations of death within these two pieces, the two offer differing views on the role of religion in human mortality, and the creators offer interesting views of human relationships with death himself.

Within all these theoretical standpoints, the theme and process of coming to terms with death and relationship could be regarded as the essence of an existential quest; one

In the movie “The Seventh Seal” a knight and his squire are returning home from the crusades when Death appears to the knight and tells him that his time is up. After the knight realizes that he doesn’t want to go, he then challenges Death to a classic game of chess for his life. The rules of the chess math were simple. The knight gets to keep on living so as long as the chess match is going on and if the knight wins then he is free to go but if he loses he will then have to go with death. While Death and the knight play a cultural turmoil envelopes with the people around the knight and squire as they all try to deal with the upheaval the plague has caused. In the movie it was not as historically accurate. However there were many symbols in the movie that were very helpful. This film is set in Sweden during the time of the plague. What is called allegories and symbols of death or is also referred to in art as memento mori, which is another way of reminders of death, those grew more popular during the time when all members of the Medieval society who were aware of mortality and felt powerless over their lives and what they have done in their life much like the knight portrayed in the movie.

  Cultures all over the world have different convictions surrounding the final, inevitable end for all humans - death. In the United States, and in most Westernized cultures we tend to view death as something that can be avoided through the use of medicine, artificial respiration machines, and the like. To us, death is not a simple passing, and usually, we do not accept it as a normal part of life. Death, to Westernized folk, is not celebrated, but is rather something to be feared, something that haunts us all in the back of our minds. However, this mentality is not held through all cultures -- in Mishima's The Sailor, a Japanese novel steeped

The abstract idea of life cannot be explained by such simple ideas as being animated, breathing, or speaking. Ordinary machines in this century can perform all of these basic functions. The quandary with defining death is not as abstract and elusive as that of life. The problem of defining life and death has plagued philosophers and the religious bodies for thousands of years for one reason; each philosophy or religion has tried to define the meaning of life and death from only their certain perspective. The seemingly appropriate approach to this problem would be to understand the ideas presented in various philosophies and religions and through this knowledge create a new definition for each idea of life

Eternal life thus defeats death and throughout the poem, John’s strong background of Christianity allows him to associate death with temporary entities as he refers to death as a state of “much pleasure” (7). Death is conceptualized as a phase rather than an element which represents finality. Death is personified and therefore has no greater power over human beings. Death losses its fearful connotation and achieves a new meaning that makes it less intimidating and less powerful.