Meaning Of Life By Virginia Woolf

The Meaning of Life

Opposing forces, life and death, must coexist in order for the life cycle to continue revolving: the birth of one replaces the death of another. However, these forces do not hold an equal partnership. Life is given positive characteristics as a result of people enjoying living. Likewise, most people do not enjoy the trepidation that anticipating death brings, so they ignore the possibility of death. Those fixated on the uncertainty of death constantly live in fear of it. The emotions one feels can give death negative characteristics. Death is either feared or forgotten. Death is never accepted as simply death. Virginia Woolf accepts death as itself and demonstrates her understandings through her essay, The Death of the …show more content…
Conforming to societal norms unknowingly creates individuals that strive for materialistic successes and fortunes rather than metaphysical items that hold more significance. In either situation death will eventually overtake the individual, but the difference is in their life’s value. A prime example of a man who was faced with making a decision to follow his heart’s secret aspirations or obey society's wishes is Ethan Frome. He could have either given his life meaning and lived with the one he loved or he could have been acceptable by society and secretly never been satisfied by his life. His inability to choose allowed death to leave a present; a present that allowed his life neither to have complete value nor to have no value. Society often blinds one to disregard future emotional consequences till the window to make life choices expire. Hence Ethan Frome realised too late what he really desired and fell into society’s trap. For people like Frome, when their lives’ potentials are revealed they don’t have sufficient time to capture all the possibilities. Individuals needs to escape preconceived influences so that when death comes to take them on their next journey, their current journey can be satisfactorily