English literature of the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s focused primarily on death. This article discusses how death and dying are presented in literature. “A wide range of texts, primarily but not exclusively from the English-language tradition, are used to illustrate the themes. Broad categories are proposed for the study of death: some authors give personal accounts of their imminent death or their feeling of mourning; some use literature to structure and order our thoughts about death; and some treat death as a literary tool, using it, for example, as a symbolic representation of the decline of society.” Love and tragic stories were very popular at the time. William Shakespeare, born in 1564, wrote more interesting plays and surpassed everyone in his time. He knew how to interest everyone in his work. From peasants to queens, he brought everyone to his plays because his theaters included everyone. Even though all the actors were men, he used the younger ones to play women. “As the title page of the 1597 edition of the play tells us, Romeo and Juliet was a popular success at the time: '...it was often (with great applause) publicly pleaded'. Shakespeare designed it to be performed in daylight on the simple stage of an Elizabethan playhouse, where the rear balcony was Juliet's bedroom window and a trap door in the stage was her tomb. His stories made him a successful writer. He was an expert on love stories and tragic stories, usually combining the two to create sad stories about the death or suicide of a loved one. Shakespeare's thoughts on love were so heavy that it attracted people's attention, and they had to see his work. He often included the fact that we cannot live without the other. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Another Shakespearean play that includes death is Macbeth. A quote from the play Macbeth that provides an excellent example: “Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player, who struts and worries during his hour on the stage and then is heard no more. It’s a story told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, that means nothing.” Macbeth is the tragic story of a noble hero who goes bad just to gain power. He is eventually seized, but he changes some things before that happens. The story takes place in Scotland in the 11th century. Hamlet is another story where death is common. It begins with the death of Hamlet's father. We later find out that this is Hamlet's uncle, Claudius. A large group of Hamlet's friends and family are killed in the story. In the end, his friends, his family, and Hamlet himself died. Fortinbras sees that there is a family feud and comes as soon as he learns that there is no ruler in Denmark. He captured Denmark and continued to rule his native Norway. During the 1700s, Alexander Pope wrote some heroic couplets. He was a successful writer, but he had problems with tuberculosis. This pushed Alexander to be 4'6 inches tall. This affected the way he viewed himself and was one of the reasons he started writing. The poem An Essay On Man, written by Pope, really makes you think about the real meaning of life. He mentions that we live and die, but no one comes back to talk about the afterlife once you die. Everyone is afraid of death because no one knows what will happenafter your death. Pope, on the other hand, seems like a man who is not as afraid of death as the others. In An Essay on Man, “Born but to die” and “Created half to rise and half to fall.” This tells the reader that there are successful people and there are not. There are people who will live full lives, and there are others who won't. The moral of his story is therefore to live your life to the fullest because you never know when you are going to die. The Pope is a wise man who emphasizes the fact that “fools rush where angels fear to tread.” In the 1800s, Charles Dickens published his stories and books. He was a good worker and a better writer. The French Revolution had a considerable impact on English writing during Dickens's lifetime. When you read stories from the early 1800s, the French Revolution is mentioned in each book, or the book itself is about the French Revolution. The French Revolution took place in 1789 and ended in 1799. “The French Revolution was a period in France when the people overthrew the monarchy and took control of the government. » “It began on July 14, 1789, when revolutionaries stormed a prison called the Bastille.” Even though Charles Dickens was born in 1812, the French Revolution affected his writing, due to the stories he was told, the research he conducted, and the rebuilding of the towns around him. The French Revolution involved rich aristocrats and extremely poor people fighting each other. Most of the aristocrats went to prison and the poor people killed them. The poor simply sought equality in their bank accounts, but the aristocrats did not want that. The poor had to act for what was right and, after 10 years, they achieved the victory they sought. The Reign of Terror puts an end to the French Revolution. The reign of terror was led by Napoleon, killing 15,000 people in France, and then he crowned himself king of France. In the 1800s, the most common machine used for murder or the death penalty was the guillotine. A guillotine is a killing machine with a heavy blade sliding up and down in grooves, used to decapitate people. In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, the guillotine is used quite often to decapitate aristocrats. From there, their heads were placed on pikes for the city to see. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens wrote, “Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood, or Death.” This saying represents the guillotine on the spot because if you don't have liberty, equality or fraternity, you will be dead. The guillotine began to be found in every street. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens writes: “A hideous figure became as familiar as if it had been under the general gaze of the foundations of the world: the figure of the pointed woman called The Guillotine. This was the popular theme of jokes; it was the best remedy for headaches, it infallibly prevented hair from turning gray, it gave the complexion a particular delicacy, it was the National Razor which shaved closely: Who kissed The Guillotine looked out the small window and sneezed in the bag. ". The guillotine was often considered a joke by people who were not going to die. People made sick jokes about the deaths of strangers, even if they knew them. Death became so common that it didn't faze anyone to see someone die or be murdered. “During the reign of terror, at least 300,000 suspects were arrested; 17,000 were officially executed, and perhaps 10,000 died in prison or without trial” (“Reign”). There are also times when the guillotine was not used. A.