The Personification of Death in Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus Essay

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” (Mark Twain). This quote from the famous American writer is the basis for what became one of the hardest ideas to comprehend, death. Death has always been a complex term, causing one to struggle with what the true definition is. It is also hard to wrap your mind around what does it truly mean to die. These are the questions we long for the answer. Whether we acknowledge it or not, death has always been feared by many. Death remains an impossible question, one that has been unexplained since beginning of time. Even though dying is a natural, we as a human race still fear it. What can be done to defeat this never-ending battle? According to Montaigne’s “To Philosophize is to Learn to Die” and Cory Taylor’s “Questions for Me About Dying” we can overcome this by living to the fullest, living with no regrets, living a legacy, and lastly not fearing the inevitable. If you want to conquer the question of life, live in the moment.

When Orpheus is being done inside the novel, an actor plays his part: “And as though the singer had been waiting for this cue…he chose this moment to stagger grotesquely to the footlights, his arms and legs splayed out under his antique robe, and fall down in the middle of the property sheepfold” (201). In this case, the actor playing Orpheus can be seen as the actual Orpheus in the myth because he goes to do what he loves, acting, even though it is risky for him because it is assumed that he is sick with the plague. Although the actor does die from the plague, he still went to dangerous lengths to achieve his passion, like Orpheus actually does in the myth when he goes to retrieve Eurydice. In addition, the reader can now see that Orpheus and Eurydice represent all of the couples throughout the novel, and is able to see examples earlier in the novel of characters going against extreme conditions, and the possibility of death because of circumstances against their will, to be with their love. An example of this is when the town is first closed off, because citizens are not allowed to leave, only come in, and only one person does decide to enter: “At the height of the epidemic we saw only one case in which natural emotions overcame the fear of death in a particularly painful form…The two were old Dr. Castel and his wife...But this

Sarah Ruhl’s play, Eurydice, is a devastating story battling love, grief, life, and death. Although it is set during the 1950’s, the play manages to encompass the ancient Greek myth of Eurydice and Orpheus. The three most evident themes of this play are recurring death, fleeting happiness, and the power of love. The main conflict in this play is ultimately about the painful choice that comes with death; this is often caused by the King of the Underworld. One of the most impressive parts of this play is the ability to change the way the play is perceived through design.

If you met a man named Orpheus who had a girlfriend, would you assume her name was Eurydice? Many people would, because the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is from “many, many thousand years ago” and is still passed on today, verbally and through works of literature. In his 1959 film Black Orpheus, Marcel Camus interprets this well-known myth, making changes to the story to make it more dramatic and interesting. Black Orpheus is substantially different from the original myth because Orpheus has a girlfriend before meeting Eurydice, Hermes plays a different role, Orpheus kills Eurydice, Orpheus cannot bring Eurydice back from the underworld, and Orpheus’ death

She mentions how all girls are exposed to princesses, no matter where they go. Orenstein expresses her concern as a parent and how princesses could be damaging to the mental and emotional

The theme death has always played a crucial role in literature. Death surrounds us and our everyday life, something that we must adapt and accept. Whether its on television or newpaper, you'll probobly hear about the death of an individual or even a group. Most people have their own ideas and attitude towards it, but many consider this to be a tragic event due to many reasons. For those who suffered greatly from despair, living their life miserably and hopelessly, it could actually be a relief to them. Death effects not only you, but also those around you, while some people may stay unaffected depending on how they perceive it.

Everyman is a Christian morality play written during the 1400s. No one yet knows who wrote this play. It is said that Everyman is the English translation of similar Dutch morality play of the same period called Elckerlijc. Everyman is generally represented as the best and most original example of the English morality play. “Like other morality plays from the late medieval period, it is meant to communicate a simple moral lesson to both educated and illiterate audiences” (Gyamfi & Schmidt, 2011). “Everyman” is about a man who is content with his life when Death calls and tells him about his end. The author has used metaphorical names for characters to show up the moral of the play.

When you think of a princess you may picture a girl with a lavish dress on and a crown full of jewels on top of her head, but not in William Goldman’s The Princess Bride. The readers encounter just a regular girl from a family that was never royalty, and who is always thinking of her one true love who was once thought dead.

The skeleton character in the film Black Orpheus is Death, who personifies the immortal concept of death which eventually claims Eurydice before her time and kills her. This character is very important to this movie, which offered a modern day update of the myth (a legend or story used to explain things such as nature or aspects of gods) of Orpheus when this film was initially created in 1959 (No author, 1958), because he serves as the antagonist. An antagonist is an adversary. It is due to the pursuit and the machinations of the skeleton character that Eurydice even travels to Brazil. And, it is due to the skeleton character's relentless pursuit that Eurydice is eventually destroyed by Orpheus, although she compromises her safety by hanging from a power line in order to escape from Death.

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is one that has been passed down through generations for thousands of years. Almost every generation has heard a rendition of how Orpheus and Eurydice fall in love with one another and are eventually parted by death. I say rendition because this myth is passed on by word of mouth, which in return causes the story to change depending on the story teller. This may also have a great deal to do with the different interpretation people form about the story. Black Orpheus, directed by Marcel Camus in 1959, is an interpretation or modern rendition of the Greek myth, Orpheus and Eurydice. Although this film does not adapt the literal meaning of the

At the most basic level of subconscious thought, every living animal possesses a desire to stay alive. Usually, this instinct lays dormant, although in dire situations, we can be led to do unexpected things. In addition to this subconscious drive, there is a socially constructed motivation for fearing death. Thanks to the pervasive nature of religion throughout history, much of humanity has, at some point or another, feared the prospect of eternal damnation and torture during one’s life after death. Although not every religion has a negative aspect of the afterlife, or even any semblance of an afterlife at all, those religions which do contain some such construct receive much more attention in this regard. Throughout history, many

Personification is a type of figurative language one uses to give abstract ideas human-like characteristics. Dickinson uses personification in this poem because it allows the reader to understand death in a more intimate way. Death became so real to her and to her contemporaries because of the time in which she lived. Through her life experiences, the poet became intimate with death. Because of all the disease and epidemics in her lifetime, many of her loved ones passed away. These deaths were very "intense breaks in her life" (Murray). Some critics suggest that the death of her cousin was the inspiration for this poem (Semansky). In any event, death had a large impact on Dickinson's life. This impact explains why she writes so descriptively about it. In this poem, death is personified as a gentleman caller taking the lady out for a carriage ride. This personification gives the reader a better image of the writer's idea of the coming of death.

In The Stranger, Albert Camus writes about a detached yet normal man, Meursault, who encounters unusual situations that evidently leads to his demise. From cover to cover, it was established by the author that Meursault had an unusual way of thinking and that he was continuously revealing his peculiar perspective on life and death. Throughout the novel, Meursault is reminded of death and continues to be judged by everyone in the society that he lives in, for instance, when he was put on trial for shooting an Arab man. Camus writes about the main character by describing his absurdist mindset. It is through the focus of funeral scene, however, that Camus is able to formulate the values of the character and the society in which they live in. This scene was able to reveal Meursault’s perspective on life as well as death.

His fervent and imperious ways were in instilled in her since birth. Knowing the princess’s nature, the king did not just “happen” to find out about their affair it was planned. The fact was obvious, her choice in men was not one of which her father would approve. The discovery was a perfect way to ride her of the youth. She had no future.

In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the protagonist, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and during the course of the play he contemplates death from numerous perspectives. He ponders the physical aspects of death, as seen with Yoricks's skull, his father's ghost, as well as the dead bodies in the cemetery. Hamlet also contemplates the spiritual aspects of the afterlife with his various soliloquies. Emotionally Hamlet is attached to death with the passing of his father and his lover Ophelia. Death surrounds Hamlet, and forces him to consider death from various points of view.