pptthe dilemma of death

8/9/2019 PPTThe Dilemma of Death

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Literature, Art and Film

Connections

Literature, Art and Film

Connections


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EdvardMunch


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yFellowship assures Everyman that

he will accompany his friend

wherever he is going, but when hehears of the destination,

Fellowship declines.

yHe offers women and good times,

but he will not go on a journey to

face Gods judgment


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y Pride: excessive belief in one's own

abilities, that interferes with the individual's

recognition of the grace of God.

y Envy: the desire for others' traits, status,abilities, goods, or situation.

yGluttony: desire to consume more than

that which one requires.y Lust: a craving for the pleasures of the

body.

yAnger: manifested in the individual who

spurns love and opts instead for fury.


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yEveryman turns to Goods, for

whom he has committed so many

of the sins that weigh heavily uponhim.

yGoods cannot leave earths

bounds; what man acquires on

earth must be left behind.


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yFellowship abandons Everyman

yRelatives abandon Everyman

yEveryman becomes aware that hehas trusted in the wrong things

yWhat willhe donow?


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yEveryman next asks Good

Deeds for help, but Good

Deeds is weak collapsed atEverymans feet.

yGood Deeds is incapacitatedby Everymans sins and cannot

help.


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y Knowledge takes Everyman to visit Confession, wherehe learns that repentance of his sins is the means tosalvation.

y

Acknowledging his sins, the burden is lifted fromEverymans soul


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yIn addition to Knowledge,Everyman now has the

companionship of Discretion,Beauty, Strength, Five Senses


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y Everyman prepares to meet Death

y Beauty abandons

y Strength departs

y Discretion leavesy Five Senses abandons Everyman

y Knowledge departs

y O

nly Good Deeds remains for the final journey


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yAn Angel greets Everyman to

escort him to the Final Judgment,

where only Good Deeds canspeak for him.

yAll men must make this journey


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y Devastated, pestilence, fatal, hideous, horror of blood,sharp pains, profuse bleeding, scarlet stains, victim,disease

y The signature marks of The Red Death:y Redness of the blood

y Scarlet stains

y

Death occurs within thirty minutes of infection


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y Prince Prospero, has summoned a thousand of hislighthearted friends to join him in a "castellatedabbey" which has strong and lofty walls and "gates ofiron."

y Outside the secure fortress Red Death rampages anddecimates its victims


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y Folly and futility

y People think they can escape death byerecting physical barriers, high walls andiron gates


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y Poe uses the unity of effect, in this case a closed roomand high exterior walls, to give the impression thatthere is no escape from impending doom

y

The revelers are locked inside high walls and the gatesof iron; they are further enclosed by the seven halls

y The Red Death passes in close proximity to all of theguests


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yPossible interpretationsy Seven Deadly Sins

y

Shakespeares Seven Ages of Man


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y Pride: excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interfereswith the individual's recognition of the grace of God

y Envy: the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, goods, orsituation

y Gluttony: desire to consume more than that which onerequires

y Lust: a craving for the pleasures of the body

y Anger: manifested in the individual who spurns love and

opts instead for furyy Greed: the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the

realm of the spiritual

y Sloth: the avoidance of physical or spiritual work


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y Infant

y Scholar

y Lover

y

Soldiery Justice

y Middle age

y Old Age, Declension, Death

That ends this strange eventful historySans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.


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y Room 1: decorated in blue

y Room 2: decorated in purple

y Room 3: decorated in green

y Room 4: decorated in orangey Room 5: decorated in white

y Room 6: decorated in violet

y Room 7: decorated in black


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y The apartment is "shrouded in black velvet, thewindows are "scarleta deep blood-color.

y The effect of the firelight upon the blood tinted panesis ghastly in the extreme, and produces so wild a lookupon the countenance of those who enter it that thereare fewbold enough to set foot within it."


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yPoe's purpose in these descriptions,particularly the black room, has norelation to reality. No such place as theblack room would be used as a part of aballroom. But Poe wants to achieve aneffecta total, unified effectin order

to show the close proximity oftherevelry of life to the inevitability ofdeath.


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y Black usually symbolizes death, and it is usually usedin connection with death. Moreover, in describing theblack decor of the room, the narrator says that it iss

hroudedin velvet,s

hroudedbeing a word alwaysreferring to death. Likewise, the window panes are"scarlet a deep blood color." This is an obviousreference to the "Red Death."


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Beginning

y The Eastern room(symbolic of the

beginning of life)

y The Western room(symbolic of the end of

life).

End


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yMan's quick and brief journey through life

y The rapid passing of time, represented by

the black clock; every time the clock strikesthe hour, the musicians quit playing

y It is as though each hour is "to be stricken"

upon their brief and fleeting lives.y Poe reminds the reader that between the

striking of each hour there elapses "three

thousand and six hundred seconds of the

"


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y The appearance of the "Red Death" at midnight ispropitious and symbolic

y This is the end of the day and, by analogy, the end oflife

y His appearance strikes a note of "terror, of horror, andof disgust.

y The figure is "shrouded from head to foot in thehabiliments of the grave." His mask is that of a corpse

y His entire outfit is sprinkled with blood and "all thefeatures of the face were besprinkled with the scarlethorror."


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y

Poe, by his choice ofwords, captures man's

universal fear of death


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y Ebenezer Scrooge is an unfeeling,unsympathetic, miserly man who cares only

for making money regardless of who isinjured


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y Ebenezer Scrooge: employers versus employees

y Ebenezer Scrooge versus employees: symbolized by Bob Cratchit

y Ebenezer Scrooge versus the poor: symbolized by the two GoodSamaritans

y Ebenezer Scrooge versus the imprisoned: symbolized by the two GoodSamaritans

y Law (symbolized by Ebenezer Scrooge) versus Grace (symbolized by

Fezziwig, Fred Scrooge, and especially, Tiny Tim)y Ebenezer Scrooge versus the sick: typified by Tiny Tim

y Ebenezer Scrooge versus the supernatural: typified by the Spirits


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y Scrooges encounter with the Ghost of the Future (AKADeath) transforms him from a cold, ruthless, miserinto a giving and caring gentleman

y

Scrooge temporarily avoids his inevitable date withDeath

y He is given more time to accrue Good Deeds and to gethis account in order before the Day of Reckoning


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y I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dearFather.

y Joseph, Jesus and Mary. Help my friend Mr. Bailey.

y Help my son George tonight.

y He never thinks about himself, God; that's why he's introuble.

y George is a good guy. Give him a break, God.

y I love him, dear Lord. Watch over him tonight.

y Please, God. Something's the matter with Daddy.

y Please bring Daddy back.


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y Potter: Have you put any real pressure on those peopleof yours to pay those mortgages?

y Bailey: Times are bad, Mr. Potter. A lot of these people

are out of work.y Potter: Then foreclose!

y Bailey: I can't do that. These families have children.

y Potter: They're not my children.

y Bailey: But they're somebody's children.y Potter: Are you running a business or a charity ward?


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y George Bailey (s the unsung, beloved hero of Bedford Falls.y Throughout his life, George lives by a creed that always

placed human need above richesy Although the predominant tone is upbeat, Capra effectively

captures the darkness of George's mood as his mountingpersonal and financial troubles plunge him into an abyss ofdespair.

y Later scenes in the movie depict George standing on abridge, contemplating suicide.

y George's lovable, bumbling guardian angel, has to prove toGeorge that his life is worth living.

y To defend his position, he grants George one wish: to seewhat the world would be like if he had never been born.


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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


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y Pass by! O pass me by!Away, wild mask of death!I am still young! Oh whydestroy me with your breath?Give me your hand, you lovely, tender childI am your friend and bring no harm.Have courage. See, I am not wild.Now go to sleep upon my arm.

Schubert's 1817suite Der Tod und das Mdchen.


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y Because I could not stop for DeathHe kindly stopped for meTheCarriage held but just OurselvesAnd Immortality. We slowly droveHe knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, ForHis CivilityWe passed the School, where Children strove At Recessinthe RingWe passed the Fields of Gazing GrainWe passed the SettingSun Or ratherHe passed usThe Dews drew quivering and chillForonly Gossamer, my GownMy Tippetonly TulleWe paused before aHouse that seemed

y A Swelling of the GroundThe Roof was scarcely visibleThe Cornicein the Ground Since then'tis Centuriesand yet Feels shorter thanthe DayI first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity

y

y


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OUT of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeoningsof chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms 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.

y

y


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Sunset and evening starAnd one clear call for me

And may there be no mourning of the barWhen I put out to sea.

Twilight and evening bendAnd after that the dark

And may there be no sadness or farewellWhen I embark.

But such a side is moving seems asleepToo full for sound and foam

When that which drew out from the boundless deepTurns again home.

For tho' from out our stream of time and placeThe flood may bear me far

I hope to see myPilot face to face,

When I have crossed the bar.


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Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If youbecame believers because you trusted the proclamationthat Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you letpeople say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If

there's no resurrection, there's no living Christ. And faceitif there's no resurrection for Christ, everything we'vetold you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you'vestaked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, butwe would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies aboutGod, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying thatGod raised up Christsheer fabrications, if there's noresurrection.

If corpses can't be raised then Christ wasn't


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If corpses can t be raised, then Christ wasn t,because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren'traised, then all you're doing is wandering about inthe 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 fewshort years, we're a pretty sorry lot. But the truthis that Christ has been raised up, the first in along legacy of those who are going to leave thecemeteries.


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There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially cameby a man, and resurrection from death came by a man.

Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive inChrist. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, thenthose with him at his Coming, the grandconsummation when, after crushing the opposition, hehands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won't letup until the last enemy is downand the very lastenemy is death! As the psalmist said, "He laid them low,one and all; he walked all over them." When Scripturesays that "he walked all over them," it's obvious that he

couldn't at the same time be walked on. Wheneverything and everyone is finally under God's rule, theSon will step down, taking his place with everyone else,showing that God's rule is absolutely comprehensiveaperfect ending!

O l h li d ' i h l l d h ki d f


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Our natural, earthy lives don't in themselves lead usthe kingdom ofGod.?Let me tell you something wonderfulWe're not all going to diebut

we are all going to be changed. When you hear the last trumpetlookup 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 threesin, guilt, and

deathwill be vanquished and demolished. In Deaths place we will begiven the gift of eternal life. Thanks be to God and the Lord JesusChrist.

pptthe dilemma of death

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