"Final Idealogical Criticism"

Introduction

there is a question that i believe everyone will or has at one point asked themselves or asked someone they trust and believe to be of some intelligence; that question is what happens to us when we are gone from here, when the metaphorical candle burns out?

Description

the feeling of this picture is a feeling of despair, a feeling of dreary times.  its pretty colorless and lifeless, everything visible seems to be dead.  the trees look dead, the plants look lifeless and the water in the background just looks grey and lifeless as well.  laying upon the rock is a woman dressed in white who to me appears to be lifeless as well, and standing by the tree, as i see it is, that same girl also wearing white.  

Ideological Analysis

using the semiotics style of ideological criticism "the science of signs" which was developed by Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce i am going to attempt to share my analysis of this picture with you.  Semiotics uses techniques such as camera angles, colors, clothing, etc. to study an artifact and those three techniques that i have named are what i am basing much of my interpretation off of.

My Own Analysis

the lack of any color in this picture gives it that feeling of despair and lifelessness.  The dead trees, and ground cover with the grey colorless rocks and water, and the girl lying there on the rock says to me that this is the moment where she has died, and her spirit body is being risen from her.  She has her back turned to the body lying upon the rock and is leaving the body and crossing the very thin veil into the afterlife.  The white dress on the girl who is laying on the rock is looks to be a little bit off white suggesting that through life like everyone does she made mistakes along the path, thus becoming less pure than she was when she entered this earth.  the girl who has risen and has crossed through the veil her dress has become a pure white, she has left the body and become spiritually clean again now that she has passed on and cleared through the veil and into the afterlife.

Improving The Human Condition

Although not all people believe in an after life most do believe in some sort of life after death, and knowing and/or having faith in that there is some sort of life after death is comforting to anyone, and believing that in that world when we pass on has to be a much more beautiful and wonderful place where everyone that has left us in the years past is going to be there to welcome us home.  Its nice to know that once our "candle has burned out" that we do not simply cease to exist, rather we can look forward to a place that is much better than the world we live in now; a paradise some would say.