Philosophical Understanding of Death in the Works of Shakespeare, Goethe and Pushkin

The aim of the article is to identify and compare by means of historical and philosophical analysis those philosophical reflections and ideas about death, which can be found in the works of Shakespeare, Goethe and Pushkin. Genetically, the philosophical and thanatological ideas of the great poets go back in many ways to Montaigne, whose renaissance genius inspired Shakespeare, Goethe and Pushkin to philosophically comprehend death not only as a constitutive moment of human existence, but also as a powerful incentive for productive creative activity that allows achieving social immortality. Assessing the phenomenon of death, Shakespeare became a kind of symbol of the late Renaissance, Goethe metaphorically embodied the renaissance synthesis of the sensual and the supersensible, giving rise to the idea of the productivity of the spirit as a victory over death, and Pushkin continued and creatively developed all the spiritual intentions peculiar to Montaigne, Shakespeare and Goethe ‒ first of all, the love of life and “reverence” for it.