Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
In his book, The Book of Dead Philosophers, Simon Critchley follows the various philosophical perspectives of “190 or so dead philosophers” (1) in an effort to elucidate the societal investment with death throughout the centuries. Quoting Cicero, Critchley writes, “To philosophize is to learn how to die” (xv). Beyond simply thinking, reasoning, or arguing how death comes about (ODE definition 1.a.), Critchley’s work illustrates how death continues to influence culture and thought throughout the twenty-first century. Given the stated interest with death, I would like to call attention to the way English writers, thinkers, and philosophers of the sixteenth and seventeenth-centuries address death. As the seedbed to modern thought, these works have influenced the way certain themes and values have been adopted into contemporary culture. Turning to the various Early Modern confrontations with death is relevant here because the work done throughout this literature provides the foundation for understanding death in our own experiences. Due to the interest of time and space within this essay I will be focusing specifically on the way Milton’s Paradise Lost, Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, and the martyrdoms of Thomas More and Anna Askew illuminate the role of death in the twenty-first century production of the film Room (2015). Throughout these texts, the confrontation with death leads to an inevitable moment of choice, and it is precisely that moment of choice that I argue necessitates greater examination. The decision between hope and despair, between fear and faith, between life and death seems to be very straight forward. But in each of the instances mentioned, the choice that brought life, wasn’t life. It was death. Choosing to die in order to live.
Copyright and Licensing of My Content
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Origin of Submission
as part of a class
Faculty Involvement
Brandie Siegfried--She had mentioned that she was potentially willing to chair this session
On Death: The Paradox of Dying to Live in Early Modern British Literature
In his book, The Book of Dead Philosophers, Simon Critchley follows the various philosophical perspectives of “190 or so dead philosophers” (1) in an effort to elucidate the societal investment with death throughout the centuries. Quoting Cicero, Critchley writes, “To philosophize is to learn how to die” (xv). Beyond simply thinking, reasoning, or arguing how death comes about (ODE definition 1.a.), Critchley’s work illustrates how death continues to influence culture and thought throughout the twenty-first century. Given the stated interest with death, I would like to call attention to the way English writers, thinkers, and philosophers of the sixteenth and seventeenth-centuries address death. As the seedbed to modern thought, these works have influenced the way certain themes and values have been adopted into contemporary culture. Turning to the various Early Modern confrontations with death is relevant here because the work done throughout this literature provides the foundation for understanding death in our own experiences. Due to the interest of time and space within this essay I will be focusing specifically on the way Milton’s Paradise Lost, Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, and the martyrdoms of Thomas More and Anna Askew illuminate the role of death in the twenty-first century production of the film Room (2015). Throughout these texts, the confrontation with death leads to an inevitable moment of choice, and it is precisely that moment of choice that I argue necessitates greater examination. The decision between hope and despair, between fear and faith, between life and death seems to be very straight forward. But in each of the instances mentioned, the choice that brought life, wasn’t life. It was death. Choosing to die in order to live.