Free English Literature Dissertations - Thus, Francis Bacon Supports The Idea That People Are Afraid Of Death; The
Thus, Francis Bacon supports the idea that people are afraid of death; the philosopher compares this fear with the fear that children experience in the dark.
In this regard, Bacon considers that any stories and myths that deal with death intensify this fear; that is why Lear’s ending that reveals a tragic vision of the dramatist influences the attitude of contemporary thinkers towards the issues of death. As Bacon claims, men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin, and passage to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due into nature, is weak25. For Francis Bacon, death is a natural phenomenon, a part of reality that cannot be overcome by a person. Instead, the philosopher considers that a person should acquire as much knowledge as possible to understand and adjust to the thoughts of death. Bacon proposes a person to involve into the world of a child and learn to master his/her nature. King Lear’s madness prevents him from entering into this particular world; as a result, he is unable to rightfully perceive reality, turning to disillusion and loss of self. Lear imagines certain roles for himself, failing to realise that these roles destroy his true identity. The only person who is able to save Lear’s self is his daughter Cordelia who redeems Nature from the general curse / which twain have brought her to26. However, identifying Cordelia with Nature, Shakespeare proves that she cannot die in a natural way, thus Cordelia is killed. Cordelia’s murder signifies that every person who acts naturally and independently is dangerous for society, that is why he/she is finally killed. In view of this idea, Wilson Knight claims that in King Lear Shakespeare creates the most fearless artistic facing of the ultimate cruelty of things in our literature27. In his play Shakespeare uncovers the characters’ experience of loss and death, and as Dollimore claims, the experience of change and loss exerts an incalculable influence on the development of our culture. Western metaphysics and culture derive from that experience28.
The shift from the Renaissance thinking to the twentieth-century theories
The spread of psychoanalysis in the twentieth century reflected the shift from the early modern ideas on death that regarded death as life in contemplation towards the theories of Sigmund Freud, Martin Heidegger, George Bataille and Jacques Derrida that considered death as the unconscious desire of people for destruction. Such a shift contributed to different interpretations of Shakespeare’s play King Lear, demonstrating the changes in the minds of contemporary thinkers.
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