One Hundred Greatest Death Speeches in Literature

[Opheilia]

[Hi People, This is my first thread so be gentle with me.

I’d be interested to know what your thoughts are on your favourite death speeches in literature. I’ve started you off with the last words from one of my favourites Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

’…the rest is silence’
Now it’s your turn!

[wolf_meister]

From "King Lear the death of Oswald:

“If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body And give the letters which thou find’st about me To Edmund, Earl of Gloucester. Seek him out Upon the English party. O, untimely death!”

Interesting for a few reasons. Oswald is really going overboard about his untimely demise. (Perhaps Shatner might like to play this character).
If you listen to the end of the Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus” you will hear this speech (along with some other lines from Act IV Scene VI).
AND due to the morbid nature of the speech - “bury my body” and “oh untimely death” - these were yet more “clues” to the ‘Paul McCartney is dead’ frenzy that swept the world in the Fall of 1969. (I was around then - it was fun finding clues)

[Miller]

Are you going to have this thread locked as soon as we reach 100? What happens if we can’t think of that many?

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” -Roy Batty, Bladerunner

[capacitor]

“Lay on macDuff,
And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”

MacBeth, arrogant till the end

[Morbo]

“It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before. It is a far better resting place I go to than I have ever known.” - A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens.

[Fretful_Porpentine]

Not technically a death scene 'cos Antony’s about to botch his own suicide, but still one of my favorite passages in all of Shakespeare:

ANTONY.
Eros, thou yet behold’st me?

EROS.
Ay, noble lord.

ANTONY.
Sometime we see a cloud that’s dragonish;
A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
A tower’d citadel, a pendant rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon’t, that nod unto the world,
And mock our eyes with air: thou hast seen these signs;
They are black vesper’s pageants.

EROS.
Ay, my lord.

ANTONY.
That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns; and makes it indistinct,
As water is in water.

EROS.
It does, my lord.

ANTONY.
My good knave Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body: here I am Antony;
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave.
I made these wars for Egypt; and the queen,–
Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine;
Which, whilst it was mine, had annex’d unto’t
A million moe, now lost,–she, Eros, has
Pack’d cards with Caesar, and false-play’d my glory
Unto an enemy’s triumph.–
Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us
Ourselves to end ourselves.–

[montag01]

I must go with Ahab’s death in Moby Dick:

“I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego! let me hear thy hammer. Oh! ye three unsurrendered spires of mine; thou uncracked keel; and only god-bullied hull; thou firm deck, and haughty helm, and Pole-pointed prow,- death- glorious ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in, ye bold billows of my whole foregone life, and top this one piled comber of my death! Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!”

This works nicely because most of it can also pull double duty for Khan’s death scene in Star Trek II.

[Katisha]

Bosola in Webster’s Duchess of Malfi has a good one:

In a mist: I know not how:
Such a mistake as I have often seen
In a play. O, I am gone!
We are only like dead walls, or vaulted graves,
That ruin’d, yield no echo. Fare you well.
It may be pain, but no harm to me to die
In so good a quarrel. O, this gloomy world!
In what a shadow, or deep pit of darkness,
Doth womanish and fearful mankind live!
Let worthy minds ne’er stagger in distrust
To suffer death or shame for what is just:
Mine is another voyage.

Actually – this isn’t quite her last speech, but the Duchess herself has some really good stuff before she goes:

What would it pleasure me to have my throat cut
With diamonds? or to be smothered
With cassia? or to be shot to death with pearls?
I know death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exits; and 'tis found
They go on such strange geometrical hinges,
You may open them both ways: any way, for heaven sake,
So I were out of your whispering. Tell my brothers,
That I perceive death, now I am well awake,
Best gift is they can give, or I can take.
I would fain put off my last woman’s fault,
I’d not be tedious to you.

[Annie-Xmas]

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

[metroshane]

Either the curtains go or I do. ; )

[Shodan]

"Don’t be ridiculous, men - they couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist- "

Regards,
Shodan

[Humble_Servant]

Here is the very end of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, which is not a single speech, but suits. Tolstoy tried to write a brutal, unvarnished look at death, but it came out tinged with his religious romanticism, IMHO.

At that very moment Ivan Ilych fell through and caught sight of the light, and it was revealed to him that though his life had not been what it should have been, this could still be rectified. He asked himself, “What is the right thing?” and grew still, listening. The he felt that someone was kissing his hand. He opened his eyes, looked at his son, and felt sorry for him. His wife came up to him and he glanced at her. She was gazing at him open-mouthed, with undried tears on her nose and cheek and a despairing look on her face. He felt sorry for he too.

“Yes, I am making them wretched, " he thought. They are sorry, but it will be better for them when I die.” He wished to say this but had not the strength to utter it. “Besides, why speak? I must act,” he thought. With a look at his wife, he indicated his son and said: “Take him away…sorry for him…sorry for you too…” He tried to add “Forgive me” but said “Forgo” and waved his hand, knowing that He whose understanding mattered would understand.

And suddenly it grew clear to him that what had been oppressing him and would not leave him was dropping away at once from two sides, from ten sides, and from all sides. He was sorry for them, he must act so as not to hurt them: release them and free himself from these sufferings. “How good and how simple!” he thought. “And the pain?” he asked himself, “What has become of it? Where are you pain?”

He turned his attention to it.

“Yes, here it is. Well, what of it? Let the pain be.”

“And death…where is it?”

He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. “Where is it? What death?” There was no fear because there was no death.

In place of death there was light.

“So that’s what it is!” he suddenly exclaimed aloud. “What joy!”

To him all this happened in a single instant, and the meaning of that instant did not change. For those present his agony continued for another two hours. Something rattled in his throat, his emaciated body twitched, and then the gasping and rattle became less and less frequent.

“It is finished!” said someone near him.

He heard these words and repeated them in his soul.

“Death is finished,” he said to himself. “It is no more.”

He drew in a breath, stopped in the midst of a sigh, stretched out, and died.

[Opheilia]

*Originally posted by wolf_meister *
**From "King Lear the death of Oswald:

“If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body And give the letters which thou find’st about me To Edmund, Earl of Gloucester. Seek him out Upon the English party. O, untimely death!”

Interesting for a few reasons. Oswald is really going overboard about his untimely demise. (Perhaps Shatner might like to play this character).
If you listen to the end of the Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus” you will hear this speech (along with some other lines from Act IV Scene VI).
AND due to the morbid nature of the speech - “bury my body” and “oh untimely death” - these were yet more “clues” to the ‘Paul McCartney is dead’ frenzy that swept the world in the Fall of 1969. (I was around then - it was fun finding clues) **

King Lear is one of the Shakespeare plays I have not yet had the pleasure of reading (will begin tommorow).

[Opheilia]

*Originally posted by Miller *
**Are you going to have this thread locked as soon as we reach 100? What happens if we can’t think of that many?

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” -Roy Batty, Bladerunner **

Ok What’s going on here? lol Have you ever had that goosebump feeling when somebody unexpectedly pulls something from your subconscious?
I saw that particular speech from Bladerunner just a couple of days ago and it stuck in my mind. Spooky!

As for locking this thread, it depends how interesting it gets. By the way I have every faith in you guys, we’ll reach a hundred and more…

[Opheilia]

*Originally posted by capacitor *
**“Lay on macDuff,
And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”

MacBeth, arrogant till the end **

So very true!

[Opheilia]

*Originally posted by Dooku *
**“It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before. It is a far better resting place I go to than I have ever known.” - A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens. **

Deeply profound.

[Opheilia]

*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine *
**Not technically a death scene 'cos Antony’s about to botch his own suicide, but still one of my favorite passages in all of Shakespeare: **

‘…there is left us Ourselves to end ourselves.’ Not one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, but I do like that last line you quoted.
‘With trees upon’t, that nod unto the world.’ Truely wonderful imagery.

[Opheilia]

*Originally posted by montag01 *
**I must go with Ahab’s death in Moby Dick:

This works nicely because most of it can also pull double duty for Khan’s death scene in Star Trek II. **

I was really enjoying the beautiful language and the deeply rich imagery, then you threw me with the Star Trek analogy…arrrrrghh…

Sorry I’m not a fan.

However, having said that! Thanks to your imput I’m now looking forward to readin Moby Dick in my fourth semester instead of dreading it. So thankyou!

[Opheilia]

*Originally posted by Katisha *
**Bosola in Webster’s Duchess of Malfi has a good one:

In a mist: I know not how:
Such a mistake as I have often seen
In a play. O, I am gone!
We are only like dead walls, or vaulted graves,
That ruin’d, yield no echo. Fare you well.
It may be pain, but no harm to me to die
In so good a quarrel. O, this gloomy world!
In what a shadow, or deep pit of darkness,
Doth womanish and fearful mankind live!
Let worthy minds ne’er stagger in distrust
To suffer death or shame for what is just:
Mine is another voyage.

Actually – this isn’t quite her last speech, but the Duchess herself has some really good stuff before she goes:

What would it pleasure me to have my throat cut
With diamonds? or to be smothered
With cassia? or to be shot to death with pearls?
I know death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exits; and 'tis found
They go on such strange geometrical hinges,
You may open them both ways: any way, for heaven sake,
So I were out of your whispering. Tell my brothers,
That I perceive death, now I am well awake,
Best gift is they can give, or I can take.
I would fain put off my last woman’s fault,
I’d not be tedious to you. **

My intended reading list grows ever longer as this is yet another play that I have yet to read. So many books so little time sigh…

[Opheilia]

*Originally posted by Annie-Xmas *
**Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. **

This is from where?