[Depiction of a human resisting death] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [Depiction of a human resisting death]
Subject: Immortality; Immortality in literature; fictional works; Fictitious characters; imaginary places; imaginary creatures; satire
Period: 1800-1850;
Description: After Gulliver spoke about the wonders of immortality, a diplomat from Luggnag corrected him. The diplomat explained that while elsewhere in the world most people did not want to die, saying that even with one foot in the grave they would try and hang onto life. This is the image shown here. A skeleton, representing death, tries to pull a man into his grave, while the man pulls away, holding onto the cliff, representing life. The diplomat from Luggnagg explained that on the island, most people did not have this same resistance to death because they could see people who were immortal. These immortals would not die, but would continue to age, thus their quality of life would continue to deteriorate forever. The same image appears in the 1839 Krabbe edition.
Image Creator: Grandville (Illustrator)
Type: StillImage; Vignettes
Identifier: mta:21770
Language: ger
Source Name: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder
Parent Collection: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder Vol. II. Vignettes by Grandville (1843)
Image: mta_21770_OBJ.png