Die Welt Als Wille Und Vorstellung Analysis

We have established that life is meaningless and valueless. Then why do we exist? Shouldn’t we just be in a state of non-existence? Schopenhauer’s standpoint on suicide emphasizes the separation from suffering through the negation of the Will. In fact, suicide, “Schopenhauer argues […], fails to achieve [freedom from suffering], primarily because it is an act of will that confirms, rather than denies, the Will-to-life [as this act] involves the individual will’s willfully seeking to exterminate itself as a way of escaping the wretchedness of willing”. (C.R.Trogan, Suicide and Freedom from Suffering in Schopenhauer’s “Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung”, p.5). Nevertheless, Schopenhauer does not overlook the fact an individual has the right to commit suicide in an attempt to escape ones suffering, he just doesn’t believe that freedom, in that viewpoint is achievable. As taking your life shows “unawareness of the futility of the individual will and the experience of the wholeness and totality of will-in-itself. One has the freedom to destroy oneself, but one’s freedom to free oneself from suffering is an illusion” (C.R.Trogan,
His approach on suicide is quite inconsistent. For instance, if “the aim of life is death, and death is an unreal aspect of the world as appearance” (D. Jacquette, Schopenhauer on the ethics of suicide) how is suicide not justified? To me, it is quite unclear to why Schopenhauer regards suicide as a crime. One incident that come to my mind is the fact that as a teenager, Schopenhauer father, whom he was close to committed suicide. Hence is it because his own father committed suicide that he rebukes the act? To what extent has this event influenced his opinion regarding