The Dilemma of Death

Literature, Art and Film Connections

Edvard
Munch
 Everyman
Fellowship assures Everyman that he will accompany
his friend wherever he is going, but when he hears of
the destination, Fellowship declines.
He offers women and good times, but he will not go
on a journey to face God’s judgment
 Seven Deadly Sins
Pride: excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with
the individual's recognition of the grace of God.
Envy: the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, goods, or
situation.
Gluttony: desire to consume more than that which one requires.
Lust: a craving for the pleasures of the body.
Anger: manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts
instead for fury.
Greed: the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm
of the spiritual.
Sloth: the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.
 Goods
Everyman turns to Goods, for whom he has
committed so many of the sins that weigh heavily
upon him.
Goods cannot leave earth’s bounds; what man
acquires on earth must be left behind.
 Betrayed
Fellowship abandons Everyman
Relatives abandon Everyman
Everyman becomes aware that he has trusted in the
wrong things
What will he do now?
 Good Deeds
Everyman next asks Good Deeds for help, but
Good Deeds is weak collapsed at Everyman’s
feet.
Good Deeds is incapacitated by Everyman’s
sins and cannot help.
 Knowledge
Knowledge takes Everyman to visit Confession, where
he learns that repentance of his sins is the means to
salvation.
Acknowledging his sins, the burden is lifted from
Everyman’s soul
 Discretion, Beauty, Strength, Five Senses
In addition to Knowledge, Everyman now has the
companionship of Discretion, Beauty, Strength, Five
Senses
 End of the Journey
Everyman prepares to meet Death
Beauty abandons
Strength departs
Discretion leaves
Five Senses abandons Everyman
Knowledge departs
Only Good Deeds remains for the final journey
An Angel Attends Everyman
An Angel greets Everyman to escort him to the Final
Judgment, where only Good Deeds can speak for
him.
All men must make this journey
“O Death, you come when I had you least in
mind.”
 Sudden destruction will come upon them…they shall not
escape.

Devastated, pestilence, fatal, hideous, horror of blood,

sharp pains, profuse bleeding, scarlet stains, victim,
disease
The signature marks of The Red Death:
 Redness of the blood
 Scarlet stains
Death occurs within thirty minutes of infection
 Happiness and Prosperity
Prince Prospero, has summoned a thousand of his
“lighthearted friends” to join him in a "castellated
abbey" which has strong and lofty walls and "gates of
iron."
Outside the ‘secure fortress’ Red Death rampages and
decimates its victims
And the high fortifications of his walls he
will bring down, lay low, and cast to the
ground, to the dust
Folly and futility
People think they can escape death by
erecting physical barriers, high walls and
iron gates
 Unity of Effect
Poe uses the unity of effect, in this case a closed room
and high exterior walls, to give the impression that
there is no escape from impending doom
The revelers are locked inside high walls and the gates
of iron; they are further enclosed by the seven halls
The Red Death“ passes in close proximity to all of the
guests
 Poe’s Seven Rooms
Possible interpretations
Seven Deadly Sins
Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man
 Seven Deadly Sins, Again
Pride: excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with
the individual's recognition of the grace of God
Envy: the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, goods, or
situation
Gluttony: desire to consume more than that which one requires
Lust: a craving for the pleasures of the body
Anger: manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts
instead for fury
Greed: the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm
of the spiritual
Sloth: the avoidance of physical or spiritual work
Seven Ages of Man
 Infant
 Scholar
 Lover
 Soldier
 Justice
 Middle age
Old Age, Declension, Death
That ends this strange eventful history…
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
 Poe’s Seven Rooms Reprise
Room 1: decorated in blue
Room 2: decorated in purple
Room 3: decorated in green
Room 4: decorated in orange
Room 5: decorated in white
Room 6: decorated in violet
Room 7: decorated in black
The Seventh Door
 I’ll take what’s behind door number 7!

The apartment is "shrouded in black velvet,“ the

windows are "scarlet—a deep blood-color.“
“The effect of the firelight upon the blood tinted panes
is ghastly in the extreme, and produces so wild a look
upon the countenance of those who enter it that there
are few…bold enough to set foot within it."
 Unified Effect Reprise
Poe's purpose in these descriptions,
particularly the black room, has no
relation to reality. No such place as the
black room would be used as a part of a
ballroom. But Poe wants to achieve an
effect—a total, unified effect—in order
to show the close proximity of the
revelry of life to the inevitability of death.
 Symbolism

Black usually symbolizes death, and it is usually used

in connection with death. Moreover, in describing the
black decor of the room, the narrator says that it is
shrouded in velvet, shrouded being a word always
referring to death. Likewise, the window panes are
"scarlet — a deep blood color." This is an obvious
reference to the "Red Death."
 Beginning End
The Eastern room The Western room
(symbolic of the (symbolic of the end of
beginning of life) life).
You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your
life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and
then vanishes.
Man's quick and brief journey through life
The rapid passing of time, represented by the black clock; every
time the clock strikes the hour, the musicians quit playing
It is as though each hour is "to be stricken" upon their brief and
fleeting lives.
Poe reminds the reader that between the striking of each hour
there elapses "three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time
that flies."
There never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Arabesque Costumes
Phantasm Costumes
Madmen
 Red Death Appears
The appearance of the "Red Death" at midnight is
propitious and symbolic
This is the end of the day and, by analogy, the end of life
His appearance strikes a note of "terror, of horror, and of
disgust.“
The figure is "shrouded from head to foot in the
habiliments of the grave." His mask is that of a corpse
His entire outfit is sprinkled with blood and "all the
features of the face were besprinkled with the scarlet
horror."
 HORROR

Poe, by his choice of words, captures

man's universal fear of death
A Christmas Carol
 Redemption versus Death

Ebenezer Scrooge is an unfeeling,

unsympathetic, miserly man who cares only
for making money regardless of who is
injured
 The Powerful
versus the
Powerless
 Ebenezer Scrooge: employers versus employees
 Ebenezer Scrooge versus employees: symbolized by Bob Cratchit
 Ebenezer Scrooge versus the poor: symbolized by the two Good
Samaritans
 Ebenezer Scrooge versus the imprisoned: symbolized by the two Good
Samaritans
 Law (symbolized by Ebenezer Scrooge) versus Grace (symbolized by
Fezziwig, Fred Scrooge, and especially, Tiny Tim)
 Ebenezer Scrooge versus the sick: typified by Tiny Tim
 Ebenezer Scrooge versus the supernatural: typified by the Spirits
 The Ghost of Christmas Past
"It was a strange figure -- like a child: yet not so like a
child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural
medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded
from the view, and being diminished to a child's
proportions.
Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was
white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in
it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were
very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold
were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most
delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare.
Ghost of Christmas Present
Ghost of Christmas Future
 Changed!
Scrooge’s encounter with the Ghost of the Future
(AKA Death) transforms him from a cold, ruthless,
miser into a giving and caring gentleman
Scrooge temporarily avoids his inevitable date with
Death
He is given more time to accrue Good Deeds and to get
his account in order before the Day of Reckoning
It's a Wonderful Life
Cosmic Battle
 Spiritual Dimensions
It’s a Wonderful Life
I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dear
Father.
Joseph, Jesus and Mary. Help my friend Mr. Bailey.
Help my son George tonight.
He never thinks about himself, God; that's why he's in
trouble.
George is a good guy. Give him a break, God.
I love him, dear Lord. Watch over him tonight.
Please, God. Something's the matter with Daddy.
Please bring Daddy back.
 When the wicked triumph over the
righteous
Potter: Have you put any real pressure on those people
of yours to pay those mortgages?
Bailey: Times are bad, Mr. Potter. A lot of these people
are out of work.
Potter: Then foreclose!
Bailey: I can't do that. These families have children.
Potter: They're not my children.
Bailey: But they're somebody's children.
Potter: Are you running a business or a charity ward?
Angels we have heard on high
George Bailey (s the unsung, beloved hero of Bedford Falls.
Throughout his life, George lives by a creed that always placed
human need above riches
Although the predominant tone is upbeat, Capra effectively
captures the darkness of George's mood as his mounting personal
and financial troubles plunge him into an abyss of despair.
Later scenes in the movie depict George standing on a bridge,
contemplating suicide.
George's lovable, bumbling guardian angel, has to prove to
George that his life is worth living.
To defend his position, he grants George one wish: to see what the
world would be like if he had never been born.
Portrayals in Art and Poetry
Memento mori (Latin: remember that you must die)
Ars moriendi ("The Art of Dying")
 The Three Dead
You, Laborer who in care and pain
Have lived your whole life
Must die, that is certain...
You should be happy to die,
For it frees you from great care...
To which the Laborer replies;
Many long for death
Not I! Come wind or rain,
I'd rather be back in the vineyard again. The Guyot verses
 I’m not ready!
Pass by! O pass me by!
Away, wild mask of death!
I am still young! Oh why
destroy me with your breath?
Give me your hand, you lovely, tender child
I am your friend and bring no harm.
Have courage. See, I am not wild.
Now go to sleep upon my arm.
Schubert's 1817 suite Der Tod und das Mädchen.
 Because I could not stop for Death

Because I could not stop for Death–He kindly stopped for me–The
Carriage held but just Ourselves–And Immortality. We slowly drove–
He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For
His Civility–We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess–in
the Ring–We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain–We passed the Setting
Sun– Or rather–He passed us–The Dews drew quivering and chill–For
only Gossamer, my Gown–My Tippet–only Tulle–We paused before a
House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground–The Roof was scarcely visible–The Cornice–
in the Ground– Since then–'tis Centuries–and yet Feels shorter than the
Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity–
 
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 Invictus
OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul. 
 
 
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 
 
 
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 
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 Crossing the Bar
Sunset and evening star
And one clear call for me
And may there be no mourning of the bar
When I put out to sea.
 
Twilight and evening bend
And after that the dark
And may there be no sadness or farewell
When I embark.
 
But such a side is moving seems asleep
Too full for sound and foam
When that which drew out from the boundless deep
Turns again home.
 
For tho' from out our stream of time and place
The flood may bear me far
I hope to see my Pilot face to face,
When I have crossed the bar.
 I Corinthians 15
Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you
became believers because you trusted the proclamation
that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let
people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If
there's no resurrection, there's no living Christ. And face it
—if there's no resurrection for Christ, everything we've told
you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you've staked
your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we
would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about
God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that
God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there's no
resurrection.
If corpses can't be raised, then Christ wasn't,
because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren't
raised, then all you're doing is wandering about in
the dark, as lost as ever. It's even worse for those
who died hoping in Christ and resurrection,
because they're already in their graves. If all we
get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few
short years, we're a pretty sorry lot. But the truth
is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a
long legacy of those who are going to leave the
cemeteries.
There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came
by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man.
Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in
Christ. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then
those with him at his Coming, the grand
consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he
hands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won't let
up until the last enemy is down—and the very last
enemy is death! As the psalmist said, "He laid them low,
one and all; he walked all over them." When Scripture
says that "he walked all over them," it's obvious that he
couldn't at the same time be walked on. When
everything and everyone is finally under God's rule, the
Son will step down, taking his place with everyone else,
showing that God's rule is absolutely comprehensive—a
perfect ending!
Our natural, earthy lives don't in themselves lead us…the kingdom of
God.?
Let me tell you something wonderful…We're not all going to die—but
we are all going to be changed. When you hear the last trumpet…look
up and our mortal life will be over. As the last trumpet sounds the dead
will be raised from their graves, never to die again.
Everything perishable will be replaced by the imperishable, this mortal
will be replaced by immortality. Then the saying will come true:

"Death has lost the battle!

    Where is its victory?
   Where is its sting?“

 Sin is what gives death its sting, and the Law is the power behind sin.
But in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, and death
—will be vanquished and demolished. In Death’s place we will be given
the gift of eternal life. Thanks be to God and the Lord Jesus Christ.