The Virtual Coffeehouse

On pg 1010 at the top, the notion of suicide is mentioned "Should someone now, at the turning of that corner, blow thee suddenly out of Space, or into the other World, or other No-World, by pistol shot-how were it?" This is the segway into questions about death and is there and after life and so on. It seams as though Teufelsdrock fears death because of the mystery of where do we go. Heaven, hell, or no where. This also encompasses religion. Is there something after this life and does God determine where we go?

After what seems like a rationalization with himself by way of conversation, he realizes that he has nothing to fear "...there rose a thought in me, and I asked myself: 'What are though afraid of? Wherefore, like a coward, dost thou forever pip and whimper, and go cowering and trembling?..." He then "Shakes the fear away from him forever” and comes to terms that he will die, not sure where he is going, but is a peace with that uncertainty.

That's what I gathered, I could be way off base.

I also felt that where we go after we die was a big theme here. Like Theresa mentioned Teufelsdrock is unsure whether we go to heaven or hell or neither when we die. On page 1009, he says, "O, the vast, gloomy, solitary Golgotha, and Mill of Death! Why was the Living banished thither companionless, conscious? Why, if there is no Devil; nay, unless the Devil is your God?"

I could be way off base, as I had a hard time making it through this reading, but I believed that this showed confusion. I thought that maybe Teufelsdrock was worried that the Devil and God were the same. If this were the case, is there a heaven or a hell? What happens to us when we die?

So, basically, what I got from this was a questioning of both religion and the afterlife.

But I could be really, really, horribly wrong, of course.