The tragedy of death and the drama of life

Abstract

The contradictory unity of life and death is revealed in the very birth of a being mortal by nature. Life is an undoubted good. But the one who is born has to suffer and die. Death is an undoubted evil. But when those who are born mortal die, they find peace. One of the contradictions is whether we should accept death. It will be moral to reject death as an evil which we should resist and prevent, so that the evil does not enter the world through my will. So that we accept as a matter of course not death in general, but our own death. Another contradiction is whether we should be awed by death, or despise it. A reverent attitude is caused by the connection of the person with such mysterious phenomena as conception, soul, God, which incomparably exceed and encompass his existence both in scale and meaning. Death evokes awe in our souls. At the same time, contempt allows us to perceive death tragically as a universal untruth of life and an unnatural and ugly phenomenon. Possible attitudes to death are not unambiguous. We condemn the death of body and in the same time revere it as a vital phenomenon. We accept our own death and reject it as a cosmic law or fate. The philosophy of life and death is possible in a state of serenity, when one is able to concentrate and consistently think of oneself in the flow of life. The very nature of one’s existence prevents a clear understanding and distinct description of life and death as events occurring in one’s life. We can predict death by looking at its forms, but we can't be sure about it. Here all speaking is met with a stupor in an attempt to identify with death in the act of understanding penetration. Mortal memory is different from the rational way of viewing death. It is not a constant reflection on death, but the awareness of our mortal nature which is not accompanied by constant thoughts about death. It is a sober and humble attempt to look at oneself from the future moment of eternity, to view one's life as a whole. Death is personal, because it is always my death. The personal nature of death also determines personal attitude to it. One can isolate oneself from thinking about death and choose not to form one’s own attitude to it, but borrow the understanding of it from someone else. But death will directly affect my whole being, and I will not remain detached from my own death. The whole life captured in the moment of death appears as a drama contrasted with the tragedy of death.