Victory over Death in Wordsworth¡¯S ¡°Intimations of...

The concept of death most frequently conveys the dark and mysterious affect. Pondering over death can be similar to stumbling down a dark passage with unstable guesses as the only guide; not only do we not know when we will die, but also what comes after death. William Wordsworth, a nineteenth-century author, was no exception to this universal dilemma of considering death as the absolute end of one ¡Ã‚ ¯s existence or the beginning of one ¡Ã‚ ¯s existence in a new setting.  ¡Ã‚ °Nothing was more difficult for me in childhood than to admit the notion of death as a state applicable to my own being, ¡Ã‚ ± Wordsworth frankly describes to Isabella Fenwick in 1843 about the anxiety and fear he experienced when he first understood the concept of death.†¦show more content†¦Words worth laments the loss of perspective of looking at the world as a flawless paradise, but clings to the hope that maturity, the state of knowing death and sufferings, actually allows us to peek a t the  ¡Ã‚ °immortal sea / Which brought us hither ¡Ã‚ ± (9). Thomas Raysor calls this image of  ¡Ã‚ °immortal sea ¡Ã‚ ±  ¡Ã‚ °the symbol of infinity as life without end, of which the soul of the child is a part ¡Ã‚ ± (Raysor 863). Thus, getting a glimpse of the  ¡Ã‚ °immortal sea ¡Ã‚ ± from which we come is possible only when we are mature. Wordsworth calls this moment in which the soul is awakened to look back to our heavenly origin,  ¡Ã‚ °years that bring the philosophic mind ¡Ã‚ ± (10). The  ¡Ã‚ °philosophic mind ¡Ã‚ ± is different from a child ¡Ã‚ ¯s mind, which is ignorant of death; instead, it acknowledges the existence of death and the world ¡Ã‚ ¯s imperfection, but raises further  ¡Ã‚ °obstinate questionings ¡Ã‚ ± about why such afflictions occur. At last, the  ¡Ã‚ °philosophic mind ¡Ã‚ ± concludes that the imperfect world brings distress because we come from a different home, Heaven. Raysor points out that the  ¡Ã‚ °philosophic mind ¡Ã‚ ±  ¡Ã‚ °means not merely stoic fortitude, but rather the discipline of Christian resignation based on the hope of immortality ¡Ã‚ ± (Raysor 865). Wordsworth ¡Ã‚ ¯s definition of the  ¡Ã‚ °philosophic mind ¡Ã‚ ± is not the one of a superego, which copes with our worldly instincts