What Is The Stoic View Of The Inevitability Of Death

People deal with the concept of mortality with many different worldviews and a perception according to different aspects such as the brevity of life, the method of dying, and the final destination of the person. In “We Are Seven”, William Wordsworth describes the attitude of an eight year-old girl toward the death of her two siblings. In “January 22nd. Missolonghi“, George Gordon, Lord Byron has the perspective of a man past his youthful prime and is considering that the best way to die is to go out in a blaze of glory as a soldier. In “Mutability”, Percy Bysshe Shelley promotes the stoic view of the inevitability of death and how brief life is. In “Mutability”, Shelley alludes to the brevity of life when he states, “We are as clouds
Byron has the most apparent opinion of going out in a blaze of glory. He proposes that a soldier’s death is the most noble when he writes, “A Soldier’s Grave, for thee the best;” (Byron 38). Byron obviously does not want to die as an old man. He seems to be wallowing in self-pity about growing old and ending his life in an uneventful death. While addressing himself, he reveals his own thoughts when he states, “If thou regret’st thy Youth, why live?”(Byron 33). He prefers a noble, sudden death, a death that he chooses rather than a slow erosion of the human body and mind. He implies that dying as a soldier is nobler than dying as an old man. On the other hand, Wordsworth describes the death of the two children through the eyes of the little girl in a matter of fact manner implying that death is natural, but not necessarily noble. The children’s deaths were the result of sickness and disease. The release of their souls was relief from the pain of this world when Wordsworth writes, “In bed she moaning lay, Till God released her of her pain;”(Wordsworth 50-51). He shows us through the innocence of a child who has not been corrupted by the fear of death that innocent faith reveals that death can be a relief from the suffering of this world. Shelley does not mention how a person dies, but he talks about the inevitability of it and the fact that every person will die physically when he
Their views range from apparent annihilation to the prospect and hope of heaven. In Shelley’s poem, death appears to be the final end of a person. As his final assessment of existence, Shelley states, “Nought may endure but Mutability.”(Shelley 16). Shelley makes no inference to the possibility of hope for a life after death. He says that no matter what a person may feel, think, or do, “It is the same! For, be it joy or sorrow,” (Shelley 13). In other words, what is felt, experienced, or accomplished in life does not matter. Since he believes change is the only thing that lasts, then he implies there is not any life after death. Byron has some clues in the poem that imply a belief in the afterlife. Byron mentions his own spirit when he says, “Awake, my spirit! Think through whom thy life- blood tracks its parent lake And then strike home!” (Byron 26-27). This can be interpreted as Byron agreeing to the existence of an eternal aspect to the human life called the spirit. Also, when Byron mentions, “And take thy Rest!”(Byron 40), this might be an allusion to eternal rest or a release from suffering for the spirit of a person in paradise. Wordsworth is at the opposite extreme from Shelley when he however espouses his view that a person goes to heaven when he writes, “But they are dead; those two are dead! Their spirits are in heaven!”(Wordsworth 65-66). Wordsworth also