Death and Dying in Literature

Death and dying are common themes used in literature which illustrate the variety of beliefs intellectuals hold as to the meaning as wells as the physical and metaphysical implications it holds. Death is among the most confusing and gloomy subjects in human life. After all who really knows what is in store for us after we die, but those who have already succumbed. In the following works, I will analyze and explain each author’s message in regards death and/or dying.

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a work in which death hides in the shadows of the plot until finally revealing itself at the very end. It is apparent that Faulkner purposely casts the gloomy and eerie feel of death over the story in attempt to foreshadow the concluding events. Emily attempts to control death by denying the fact that those she loved have actually died. She clings to their corpses, housing them in her large house and actually sleeping with them. Some mental incapacity restricts her from acknowledging the sad truth that the men she has loved have all died. Emily tries to live with death, however in the end death wins out and she finally dies too. I believe Faulkner’s message in “A Rose for Emily” was that people use death as a way in which to cling to one’s path. Not only does Emily cling to the past by surrounding herself with her deceased loved ones, but the town she lives in also does this in relation to the death of the Old South.

“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe is a poem in which the unnamed narrator struggles to grasp death and the extent of it. “The Raven” does an excellent way of illustrating how people try to cope with the loss associated with death. The narrator’s wife, Lenore, has recently died and he is trying read “forgotten lore” so that he may forget this sad truth. When the narrator encounters the raven, all the raven seems capable of saying is “nevermore”. The narrator finds many excuses for why this might be however the real reason is that he is referring to...