Saving Schrödinger's Cat

Flirting with Death (and getting rebuffed)

In the movie “Jacob’s Ladder,” the titular character has to contend with monstrosities that plague him throughout the story as he tries to find out what happened to him during his time in Vietnam. It turns out (spoiler alert) that he never left Vietnam, and that the monsters stalking him are actually angels of death trying to carry him away after he was mortally wounded. Once he realizes this, the cosplaying angels become the avatar of his previously-dead son, who leads him away to the next plane of existence. After much thought after my previous post, I felt like I should discuss a lighter and more uplifting subject.

So of course, I decided on Death.

Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius apocryphally said, “Death smiles at us all; all a man can do is smile back.” This reflects the sentiment among snooty Roman patricians that everyone should face death with dignity, or haughty indifference depending on one’s own temperament. This attitude would not be surprising among people influenced by the Stoics. But Aurelius personifying death might reflect the Roman polytheism, which included the god Mors, who was himself (herself? themself?) derived from the Greek god Thanatos.

Thanatos was a thoroughly unpleasant character, widely disliked by the Greeks, which suggests that death was something they preferred to avoid, perhaps because it often came in unpleasant ways. There are even Greek epics about individuals sticking it to Death, such as Sisyphus, who tricked Thanatos into shackling himself and annoying the bloodthirsty Ares who noticed that soldiers were not dying properly on the battlefield. I’m not sure if this is meant to be comedic on the part of the Greeks, but it certainly comes off that way to my modern sensibilities, with Death incarnate looking like a bumbling idiot.

A far more common a personification is the Grim Reaper we are all familiar with. He is a mysterious figure derived from the biblical depiction of the one who “rides a pale horse.” The Grim Reapers have been featured in far too many artistic works to count, with his defining appearance in Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” casting his image in stone for modern times and influencing more recent cameos like the one in “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.” Bill and Ted pull a Sisyphus and trick the Reaper for a time, but in the end, they have to dance with the Reaper as everyone does.

In many works, a particular character might not look like a literal hooded skeletal figure wielding farm implements but would act as a metaphor for him. One character who exists as Death in subtext in my mind is Horatio, friend to the famous Prince Hamlet of Denmark. I don’t know if anyone else ever interpreted the character this way, but I did notice that characters other than Hamlet either ignored or told Horatio to go away, perhaps reflecting denial of Death’s inevitability. Only Hamlet acknowledges him as a friend, and Horatio is there at the end to usher him on his way. Earlier, Horatio even dissents with Hamlet on the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Perhaps it was not their time. In any case, Horatio is the last friendly face Hamlet sees before shuffling off the mortal coil.

There are many other depictions of Death, some even more famous than the ones I list here. But my favorite incarnation of Death is that depicted in Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel series The Sandman. In this one, Death appears in the form of a Goth girl with a very pleasant demeanor. She appears to the newly departed and gently ushers them into the hereafter. In the series, Death is the older sister to the main character of the series, Dream, which ties neatly into a line from Hamlet: “To sleep, perchance to dream.” Billy Shakespeare certainly made his mark. In any case, I think when the Grim Reaper finally comes for me, I could do a lot worse than a girl wearing black lipstick and an ankh, cheerfully inviting me to see what comes next.

Whatever happens next, I like to think I would face the end with an Aurelian smile, and a polite nod to the gatekeeper to eternity, whatever they may look like.