Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Suicide
I thought the discussion we had at the end of class today about suicide was really interesting. Personally, I believe that committing suicide is a very cowardly act. Life is very difficult but everyone must face it. They few who chose to end their time on earth are taking an "easy" way out. Death is inevitable and is not a choice but suicide is a choice. What do yall think? (Sorry, I know its not a very uplifting topic!)
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9 comments:
I mainly agree with you Katherine, but for the sake of argument I'm going to present Hamlet's take on suicide in the passage we read.
Hamlet states, "To grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all." (page 1821) Here Hamlet asserts that people are cowards if they do not commit suicide, fearing the unknown. He seems to believe that killing ones self is braver than suffering the familiarities of life.
Although I think Hamlet's perspective is interesting, I do not believe that people who commit suicide should be praised for being brave.
We just read Vergil's account of Dido's suicide in the Aeneid which was a tragic, solemn event. I pity Dido and understand her decision, but I would not call her heroic because she chose to end her life. She felt trapped, just as Hamlet feels, and decided that her life was no longer worth living.
As Julia mentioned, Hamlet believes that a person who chooses to suffer, rather than take his own life, is a coward because he fears what the afterlife entails. Since I happen to agree with Katherine, Hamlet's viewpoint directly contrasts with mine. Like Katherine, I believe that suicide is an act of cowardice. It serves as a way to escape suffering, rather than embrace such pain and make a conscious attempt to conquer it. If suicide was considered a courageous act, why wouldn’t everyone kill themselves, since human life is marked by frequent episodes of pain?
I find both Julia's and Katherine's arguments appealing but agree more with the latter. Personaly, I believe that suicide is one of the worst sins man can commit. It demonstrates one's upreciativeness for life itself. It also can be seen as the ultimate cop out which I'm sure will not be looked kindly upon in the next life. And what if there is no next life? Than the suicide victim has perpetually ceased their existence.
I agree, Katherine. But I read Hamlet's speech in the same way Julia did. He made it seems as though all humans who wait until they die are being cowards. Suicide is elevated to a brave and heroic death; one is choosing to face the unknown of the after life by his own will, instead of waiting until the last days of life to face death.
If in fact Ophelia committed suicide, which will never be known for sure, I believe Hamlet would have viewed this as an act of courage. In other words, instead of suffering unnecessarily, she would have been fearless of the unknown afterlife. However, in one of Hamlet's soliloquies he mentioned that he wants to be guaranteed a chance at an afterlife in heaven, so he would not commit suicide himself. This implies that those, including Ophelia, who commit the sin of suicide, end up in hell.
I think it's selfish to commit suicide, and would be selfish or cowardly of Hamlet to do so. We've discussed the motif of suicide in other works we've read, and i've noticed a common thread of the tragic hero questioning his own life. I disagree with Hamlet's take on waiting to die.
I'm going to go all the way back to something Julia said in connection with the Aeneid. I think that Hamlet's consideration of death could be seen as another example of how he is caught between Christian and pre-Christian value systems. In terms of the pre-Christian value systems in which revenge plays would have initially been cast, suicide would be an honorable sacrifice. However, when Shakespeare sets the play in Christian times, this cannot remain to be the case. The result is a conflicted character who is disconnected from the common wisdom of the time.
I agree with Katherine, in that suicide is a very cowardly act. In many cases, the person who commits suicide leaves behind many grieving friends and family, making it a selfish choice as well. I think Hamlet's speech depicting it as a heroic or brave act is Hamlet's attempt to raise it to a level on which it does not belong. It would be a much braver act to face your problems and try to overcome them than to flee like a coward.
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