A Literary Analysis of Three Messages about death from Elegy

We all know that there are hard times in life that we all have to endure. One example of this recently was when my brother Caleb and his fiancée Hannah were driving my car to my grandparents house a week or so ago. I was working at the Health Club when suddenly I got a phone call asking if I had heard what happened. Soon I learned that on the way to my grandparent’s house, my brother had swerved off the road and over corrected, causing him to hit a guard rail and roll my car down the highway going sixty five miles per hour. This whole story came as a complete shock to me, thankfully they are both okay, but my car, that is a different story. Anyway, this whole situation made me think of what would have happened if I were in their shoes, and what would have happened if they wouldn’t have been so lucky. In the same way, Thomas Gray, the author of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” writes about how he imagines peoples’ lives that are dead, and then imagines his own and how people will think of him after he passes. In Gary’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” there are three messages learned about death.

Initially, Gray suggests that death is the great equalizer. According to his piece, he makes multiple statements saying that basically weather you are poor or rich, it doesn’t change that fact that you will die. “The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, and all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, awaits alike the inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the grave” (Page 668, Lines 33-36). This quote means that when it comes down to it, there is nothing special about being rich when you are dead. You still end up six feet under. Fame and fortune don’t matter when you are dead, or even when you are alive, even ...

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...ne to do all the hard work, because all the rich people are too stubborn and greedy to get their hands dirty and do work.

In conclusion, Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” makes multiple suggestions about death. First, Gray points out that death is the great equalizer. This means that no matter what your wealth is, when you die, everyone is that same, and everyone will be put in a six by six foot hole in the ground. The second thing that Gray says is that everyone dies. While the character in his story is sitting in the churchyard, he realizes that he will die someday, thus pointing out that everyone in the world will eventually die. Lastly, Gray points out that the average people are the heart and soul of every country. This means that basically, the hard working normal people keep the world spinning, because without them, nothing would ever get done.