Examples of How the Theme of Death is Crucial in Literature

This essay will focus on the theme of death in this story. There are lot

Life and death belong together and cannot be separated. Life is inevitably followed by death, the “permanent cessation of all the vital functions of an organism” (Dictionary.com) which can be caused by accidents, radiation or the accumulation of damage to cells over the course of a lifetime. Since the beginning of time people have been fascinated by this unavoidable phenomenon. Different cultures deal with death differently. However, death has been a central topic in art, poetry, literature, theatre and everywhere else. Death is often used to present und emphasize the beauty of life. Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” depicts death and the circle of life not just via dialogue but also metaphorically and via structure.

Death is the final stage of an organism’s life. Death can come at anytime and by any means, whether it be severe injury or natural causes. However, death is always an inevitability that comes to every living being on Earth, and is an unavoidable fate. “The Masque of The Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson both present these realities of death to the reader, but by different messages and occasionally methods. Poe focuses on the aspect of time, while Jackson moulds death around luck.

Death is something that at some point will come to each of us and has been explored in many forms of literature. “The Raven” and “Incident in a Rose Garden” are two poems that explore common beliefs and misconceptions about death. Though both poems differ in setting, tone, and mood there are surprising similarities in the literary tools they use and in the messages they attempt to convey. The setting and mood establish the tone and feel of a poem. In “The Raven” we are launched into a bleak and dreary winters night where a depressed narrator pines for his dead girlfriend.

The subject matter of death isn't the theme of this poem. The poem prevails truth being disguised and manipulated over documented history. This not only opens the mind into questioning whether historical events truly happened the way historians say it did, or whether documentation can prove a justification of truth, but it forces the second idea to raise questions whether any of the history being told is true at all. The poem "Richard Bone" carries out this idea strongly. The reason this poem plays an interest in my mind is that it synthesizes to current events happening every day in the real world in a variety of ways. The poem places the tactic of truth versus false and how reality plays with this fundamental game with scenarios of

In these three literary pieces a prevalent theme is death. Death may be defined as the end-ing period of physical life. However, throughout the development of these stories, it was possible to distinguish plenty of physical but even non-physical death as well. This absolutely

“The Story of an Hour” (Chopin 353-354) by Kate Chopin, is a short story about a young lady, Louise Mallard, who has her life turned upside down in an elapsed time of an hour. Louise has just been informed of her husband, Brently’s, death due to a railroad disaster. Louise has heart trouble and this tragic news begins to take a toll on her. Louise’s sister, Josephine, is aware of her heart trouble so naturally becomes concerned when Louise starts to sob and locks herself in her room. Desperately trying to get Louise out of her room before she becomes ill, Josephine finally gets her out and they continue to walk downstairs. Just as they make it downstairs, the front door opens and in walks Brently, alive. Doctors eventually arrive and explain how Louise has died from a heart attack brought on by happiness. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, it is said that there is a “joy that kills” (354). Is it the guilt from having any remote feeling of joy that kills, or truly the joy itself that kills? It is in fact, the guilt that kills.

In "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin suggests that in certain scenarios, the death of a loved one may be a blessing in disguise. Possible situations may include an abusive relationship, or an unhappy marriage, as the story suggests. Although the circumstances throughout the story might lead the reader to believe that Louise's husband's death would cause her great pain, ironically, when she hears the news, she feels a sense of euphoria. This suggests that death may not always cause agony.

Regardless of race, caste, religion, or age, every human has wondered about the one fact of life that unifies us all: What is death? Both poems, “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” by Margaret Atwood and “Because I could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson share a common subject of death. Using figurative language, both poems illustrate distinct takes on a similar topic.

In Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour," there is much hatred. The first hatred detected is in the way that Louise reacts to the news of the death of her husband, Mr. Mallard. Before Louise's reaction is revealed, Chopin turns to how the widow feels by describing the world according to her outlook of it after the bad news. Louise is said to "not hear the story as many women have heard the same." Rather, she accepts it and goes to her room to be alone. Now the person reading starts to see the world through Louise's eyes, a world full of new life.

As Laurell K Hamilton once said, “death is the last intimate thing we ever do”. It comes in different ways and at different times, but death comes for all of us. In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, Edna is faced with enormous heartache and desperation that she feels she has no other choice but to take her own life. This is paralleled in The Tooth and The Lottery, two short stories by Shirley Jackson. Both stories feature a character who is met with their death at unexpected moments in their lives, but in very different situations. The event of death plays a central role in these three works.

Similarly, Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" also draws readers into the emotions revealed within Louise Mallard's mind when her husband appears to have been killed. Chopin also succeeds powerfully but accomplishes this through the third person narration of this one character [with Louise as the center of awareness]. With third person narration in this story, one is provided a bystander perspective concerning other characters' treatment of her and the entire situation/scene set-up in the exposition of the story. The narrator assures us that ". . . great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death" (177). This type of narration brings both a sense of

Everyone who reads a story will interpret things slightly different than the person who reads it before or after him or her. This idea plays out with most every story, book, song, and movie. These interpretations create conflict and allow people to discuss different ideas and opinions. Without this conflict of thought there is no one devoting time to debate the true meaning of a text. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tells about a woman who is informed of her husbands death, processes the emotions, and becomes content with this new status as an individual person – losing all the expectations that society expected her to live by within a marriage. This story however is written in a way that the reader has the final interpretation of the text. There are many different interpretations on not only the reason for the main character’s death, but also on the overwhelming emotions that she faces.

In the poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, by Emily Dickinson and “Home Burial”, by Robert Frost, literary elements are used throughout both poems to get the message the authors are trying to portray. One main important literary element that is used to entice the reader, is symbolism, because it helps the authors describe something without actual describing it. Symbolism is also used because it shows how significant an object is. Characterization is also an important literary technique because it, gives the reader an idea on how the character would act, work, and their values in life. Death is a topic that is used in both poems. Also, every character express their opinion about death differently.

Although a scene of a funeral home might come to mind when a reader first hears a short story aptly named “The Dead,” the tale actually takes place in the festive setting of a winter dance at the home of the two aunts of the main character, Gabriel Conroy. James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” has a literal title, because its main concept is death – both physical death and spiritual death.