Free English Literature Dissertations - Death Will No Longer Be Denied; We Are Forced To Believe In It. People Really
Death will no longer be denied; we are forced to believe in it. People really die, and no longer one by one, but many often tens of thousands, in a single day33. On the other hand, Freud’s concept of the unconscious denial of death is not based on any religious dogmas in relation to death.
For Freud and other thinkers of the twentieth century the unconscious denial of death is inseparably connected with people’s childish illusions that prevent human beings from realising their life and death. According to Freud, a person finds it difficult to realise his/her own death, thus a person starts to believe in the idea of afterlife created by Christianity. But only modern thinkers with their concept of death as life in contemplation found certain wisdom in death, and this philosophy is reflected in Shakespeare’s King Lear. As Jonathan Dollimore states, death which consigns everything to oblivion, is also what gives meaning to everything34. Shakespeare’s tragedy supports this idea; Cordelia’s death provides Lear with some realisation of life and the world he lives in. The deaths of other protagonists contribute to the notion that as people make an attempt to suppress the thoughts of death, they simultaneously reject life, because life and death constitute the necessary wholeness of the universe. Thus, denying death that is a natural part of human existence, a person fails to realise the meaning of life; instead he/she becomes obsessed with a natural world that deprives a person of any spirituality35. Cordelia’s death allows to preserve the spiritual values described throughout the play, especially when, as Berger puts it, Cordelia triumphantly refined the victim’s role to a Christ-like perfection36. Cordelia is a victim of her father’s inner destruction and madness, as well as his unconscious desires. And as Marjorie Garber puts it, Freud himself explicitly refers to the unconscious as ‘another theater’37. Thus, Lear creates his own world, his theatre, manipulating other people’s lives, according to his wishes. However, the created illusions result in Lear’s degradation and death, leaving only the shades of his power38.
In this regard, Shakespeare brings up the issue of justice, but his tragedy does not give an appropriate answer. Although the dramatist punishes Goneril and Regan for their evil, he also kills Cordelia, Lear and Gloucester who appear to be victims of the occurred events. In view of such an ending, it is easy to agree with George Bataille’s conclusion that literature bears some elements of evil; in the case of Shakespeare’s Lear, the dramatist places good and evil at the similar scales, demonstrating by the end of the play that both extremes may appear in a close connection with each other. In this context, George Bataille rejects the idea of literature as an innocent instrument of expression39.
Dissertations - Free English Literature Dissertations
