How we
view death is often determined by how we view
life. This paper examines how two stories that illustrate opposite points of view regarding this subject are William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and Francois Voltaire's "Candide." It
looks at how with Hamlet, Shakespeare presents us with a character whose life is totally disrupted and for all intents and purposes, destroyed by death. From the onset of the play, Hamlet is forced to deal with death. In contrast, it shows how Voltaire looks at death in a completely different way through the theme of
resurrection. With "Candide," we see how death hardly has an impact on the characters at all and how this notion is emphasized through the resurrection of Pangloss,
Cunegonde and her brother, the baron.
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