Existentialism in Fiction

In The Fabric of Existentialism, Richard Gill (1973) identifies the following themes as being common to the philosophical worldview known as existentialism:

Freedom and responsibility, with limited control over unforeseen circumstances.

How we "create" ourselves by our choices.

The anguish and fear that is part of the radical responsibility we have for our choices.

The inescapability of death and finite time of life.

Loneliness of being ultimately alone with our choices.

The burden of our situation in a historical context that we did not shape, but in which we must live.

The conflict between our unlimited desires and the finitude of human existence.

Most if not all of these themes are illustrated in works of fiction by Ernest Hemingway (A Clean Well-Lighted Place), Jean Paul Sartre (The Wall), Ivan Tolstoy (The Death of Ivan Ilych), and Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman). However, chief among these themes in these works are two: 1) The inescapability of death and finite time in life; and, 2) The anguish and fear that is part of the radical responsibility we have for our choices. This analysis will explore these themes as exhibited in these works, including a comparison of how Wittgenstein and Heidegger view these themes from the analytical and phenomenological approaches respectively. A conclusion will summarize my personal views of meaning and experience in comparison to the existentialist approach to life.

In A Clean Well-Lighted Place, critics gener

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tialist worldview because there are no universal or transcendent powers that construct any standards of judgement or values. In Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych, we find a situation quite similar to those condemned to die in The Wall. This is true in terms of Ivan's recognition of the meaninglessness of the choices he has made to find meaning in his life, as well as it is with respect to his recognition that most people lead empty, vacuous lives in an effort to escape responsibility for making meaningful personal choices in the face of the inevitability of death and a finite time in life. Showing how we are all alone and that friendships are only a diversion from our responsibility to make meaningful choices before dying, we see that Ivan's friends at work are much more concerned over who will next be promoted or take his place at bridge than they are over Ivan's demise, "The more intimate of Ivan Ilych's acquaintances, his so-called friends, could not help thinking also that they would now have to fulfill the very tiresome demands of propriety by attending the funeral service and paying a visit of condolence to the widow" (Tolstoy 1960, 97). The story shows that Ivan never considers the inevitability of his death or his fi

Category: Literature - E