TY - BOOK ID - 1602587 TI - Mocked with death : tragic overliving from Sophocles to Milton AU - Wilson, Emily R. AU - Johns Hopkins University Press PY - 2004 SN - 0801879647 DB - UniCat KW - Comparative literature KW - Thematology KW - English literature KW - Classical literature KW - anno 1600-1699 KW - Bereavement in literature KW - Death in literature KW - Dood in de literatuur KW - Helden in de literatuur KW - Heldendom in de literatuur KW - Heldhaftigheid in de literatuur KW - Heroes in literature KW - Heroism in literature KW - Héros dans la littérature KW - Héroïsme dans la littérature KW - Mort dans la littérature KW - Overleving in de literatuur KW - Sterfte in de literatuur KW - Survie dans la littérature KW - Survival in literature KW - Tragedie KW - Tragedy KW - Tragic [The ] in literature KW - Tragique [Le ] dans la litterature KW - Tragische [Het ] in de literatuur KW - Tragédie KW - Treurspel KW - Classical drama (Tragedy) KW - Classicism KW - Death in literature. KW - Heroes in literature. KW - Literature, Comparative KW - Survival in literature. KW - Tragedy. KW - Tragic, The, in literature. KW - History and criticism. KW - History KW - Classical and English. KW - English and Classical. KW - Classical influences. KW - Milton, John, KW - Shakespeare, William, KW - Characters KW - Heroes. KW - Tragedies. KW - Milton, John KW - Heroes KW - Shakespeare, William KW - Tragedies KW - History and criticism KW - Literature [Comparative ] KW - Classical and English KW - English and classical KW - Classical influences UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:1602587 AB - In 'Paradise Lost', Adam asks, "Why do I overlive?" Adam's anguished question is the basis for a critical analysis of living too long as a neglected but central theme in Western tragic literature. Emily Wilson examines this experience in works by Milton and by four of his literary predecessors: Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, and Shakespeare. Each of these writers composed works in which the central character undergoes unbearable suffering or loss, hopes for death, but goes on living. 'Mocked with Death' makes clear that tragic works need not find their moral and aesthetic conclusion in death and that, in some instances, tragedy consists of living on rather than dying. Oedipus's survival at the end of 'Oedipus Tyrannus' and 'Oedipus Coloneus' is clearly one such instance another Euripides' 'Heracles'. In Seneca's 'Hercules Furens', overliving becomes an expression of anxieties about both political and literary belatedness. In 'King Lear' and 'Macbeth', the sense of overliving produces a divided sense of self. For Milton, in both 'Samson Agonistes' and 'Paradise Lost', overliving is a theological problem arising from the tension between mortal conceptions of time and divine providence. Each writer in this tradition, Wilson concludes, attempts to diminish the anxieties arising from living past one's time but cannot entirely minimize them. Tragedies of overliving remain disturbing because they remind us that life is rarely as neat as we expect and hope it be and that endings often come too late. ER -