Abstract
This chapter examines the persistence of death, and the related concepts of salvation and the afterlife, in the life and writings of Johnson. As a pious rationalist, death presented a conundrum for Johnson, one that (according to Boswell) pitted his intellectual faculties against illogical, religious fear. It was indeed a source of enduring angst for Johnson, revealed in this chapter by: (1) his holy fear of death, a Christian duty that Johnson believed to be a deeply rational position informed by the uncertainty of salvation; (2) his contemplation of the dead, and his grief over departed loved ones (including his mother, his wife, and Robert Levet); and (3) the various biographical constructions of Johnson’s character when on his own deathbed, finally confronted with his own mortality.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Oxford Handbook of Samuel Johnson |
Editors | Jack Lynch |
Place of Publication | Oxford |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Chapter | 30 |
Pages | 551-566 |
Number of pages | 16 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9780191836138 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780198794660 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Keywords
- Samuel Johnson
- eighteenth century
- death
- mortality
- salvation
- afterlife
- religion
- mourning
- deathbed
- elegy
- epitaph