Tuesday, March 3, 2009
ok, for real this time; Death
one of the views that we see on death, is that death is the great equalizer of all time. Like Hamlet says in the scene where he is watching the gravedigger sing while he works, he says that the skull that the gravedigger tosses out of the grave might have been a very wealthy, very prominent man, and now they are being tossed around as if the gravedigger were playing "loggets" (5,1,94) with them. Another way that he puts it, is that one of the skulls he throws out, might have been able to sing when it was living, is dashed to the ground as if " 'twere Cain's jawbone" (5,1,79). It's seen, then, that it doesn't matter where you are in the social status, you will end up the same as the most benevolent king, even it you are the poorest, dirtiest peasant.
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3 comments:
Interesting take. There is some of the same stuff in Mrs. Dalloway when she is thinking about Septimus. Once you are dead, you are nothing but a body that will slowly rot, no matter who you were or what you did when you were alive.
I really like that notion that death is the equalizer and that in the end every one becomes the same. Dispite what they may have done in their lives they all die and are barried essentially the same. It was well emphisised and it makes you think. Good post.
This equalizer theme is not that dissimilar from Hamlet's rant about a king being able to feed a pauper because he will die and be eaten by the worm. I like the idea and it is a really interesting theme. Could this maybe be why Shakespeare's tragedy ended with every character with some sort of secret or misgiving be killed? and why the character Horatio, who Hamlet deemed as the most noble and trustworthy survived?
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