Analysis Of Senesca's 24th Letter From Seneca To Lucilius

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In this response from Seneca to Lucilius about the fear of death, Seneca maintains throughout his 24th letter that this type of fear is insignificant and that we should accept it because it is human fate (Seneca sec. 2). First of all, he explains that anticipating something that is going to happen inevitably ruins what you live presently. Indeed, you live continuously in the future, feeling afraid and unhappy in the moment (Seneca sec. 1). Instead, he gave examples of people who died with a sense of glory, like “[Socrates that] remained [in prison], in order to free mankind from the fear of two most grievous things, death and imprisonment” (Seneca sec. 4). According to him, you suffer more by inflicting pain to someone than suffering pain yourself (Seneca sec. …show more content…

He also demonstrated that death has been for many a salvation from their misery, like Scipio who committed suicide when his ship was in the hands of the enemies; death is often a smaller fear than what is coming (Seneca secs. 9-10). In fact, Seneca believes that when you die, "[you] cease to run the risk of sickness; [you] cease to run the risk of imprisonment; [you] cease to run the risk of death" (Seneca sec. 17). After the analysis of a verse from Lucilius himself supporting that we die a little bit every day, Seneca concludes that the final death is the last but not the only one (Seneca secs. 19-21). Therefore, since we advance towards the end with tiny deaths all our life, why being so afraid of the final one (Seneca secs. 19 and 21)? Finally, he finishes his letter by affirming that we are meant to die and cites Epicurus saying that it is foolish to seek death while the final destination meant for us is death (Seneca sec. 23). Nature is a cycle, and everything will come back; according to many, living is only a needless part of our cycle (Seneca sec.

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