Coward dies many times, a valiant but once
Outline
· The pithy epigram encompassing various aspects of an individual as well as a society.
· Shakespearean symbolic depiction.
· Relative aspects of a coward and a valiant in the Utilitarian, Kantian, Aristotelian term.
· Pessimistic hopelessness of the unseen.
· Hamlet’s inaction and coward’s behaviour.
· French Revolution, 1947 Indo-Pak independence, brave gave their life .
· Regrets and guilt slow poison for the cowards and learning experience for the brave.
· self-destructive pseudo-toughness vs the true valour.
· Coward’s fear of death and economic loss compared to the perilous life of the gutsy.
· Political agendas achieved by the feeble hearted men inhabitants of the nation.
· A brave person’s symbolic death becomes fuel for the dying nation.
· Hemingway’s brave men accept and endure the tyranny of life.
· Superstitious mind a heaven for the parasites of anxiety and fear.
· Social repercussions of a coward.
· Impulsive coward kills the situation.
· Spiritual death
· The very foundation of a society depends on its people to be brave. Education and a good infrastructure can train and teach such significant aspect to the society.



The pithy epigram illuminates not just a psycho social aspect but also signifies other pivotal features of human behaviour. Hopelessness, looming on every nation’s fate, be it economical or religious, pre-emptive wars, suicide attacks, deteriorating human conditions, deaths, unjust suppression, sanctions, expectations all ad up to the countless deaths of the nations and their inhabitants every day. Yet among all this catastrophe there is one and few of his likes who always fight with the hurdles, the ones who dare to face and challenge, and together make a valiant nation.

The proverb has been traced back to Mortimeriados. Shakespeare used it in his tragedy Julius Caesar. The first part of the quotation, "Cowards die many times before their deaths," how someone can actually "die many times" before they actually die. The binary opposition between a symbolic death and a true one because a person can't physically die multiple times in a single lifetime refers to the symbolic death to convey how a person feels inside when he or she runs away from a challenge. That person "dies" a little inside each time he or she denies the reality, meaning that he or she loses a little strength of character each time he or she refuses to face a challenge of life. Shakespeare is drawing a comparison between someone who is a coward, that is, someone who is afraid to face the challenges of life, such as dealing with difficult situations, taking risks, and fighting for what he or she believe in and someone who is valiant; someone who is brave in facing the challenges of life, is never afraid to face difficult or risky situations, and will always fight for what he or she believes in

What can incite the hollowing emotions of death and despair compared to fulfilment and bravery are quite relative. A utilitarian would say that if being heroic would create the most aggregate happiness then being the hero would be the most moral choice. A Kantian would say that the moral thing to do would be to preserve and respect humanity, which would depend on the particular heroic situation. A virtue ethicist would say that "the good life," which is what Aristotle said we are striving for, would consist of certain virtues. If the medium of cowardice and rashness is bravery, then bravery is what should be striven for. Most persons can be influenced by a culture, the traditions the trends they live in that often defines what is to be shunned or what to be accepted. What is cowardly for one might be prudence for other. However, there are certain criterion that does draw a line between a one who is day by dying in his heart and the one who is becoming stronger day by day and would only let the natural death to take his life away.

The instinctive pessimism of humanity is shown in many careless phrases such as "It's too good to be true." The majority of men and women believe that hopes are illusory, but fears accurately foretell the coming event. Yet any sensible old man or old woman will tell that nearly all the fears and worries from which they themselves suffered almost daily during a long life really never materialised. They suffered for nothing. People learn little from their ex*perience, but go on their way filled with apprehen*sion and alarm, and hence daily die a bit in their hearts as it is good to ponder and yet over doing ruins. The Incomprehensible fears take away the ability to act.

In hamlet the protagonist dies a thousand times as he refuses to face the reality of his father’s murder. The melancholic antic disposition, ultimately causes him his life illuminating another kind of coward, someone whose delay to get justice is also equal to coward’s refraining from justice and truth. The category of such ultimatlely forms an unjust society where not just the justice dies daily but it kills the innocents as well

Submission without question and inquisition kills the ego of the nation and its people. The French Revo*lution is a quintessence of how people died for ages and then gave up the ghosts for ever. The world has never been quite the same since the year 1789. Before that date, people really believed that those who were born in noble and royal families were superior to the common herd; after that date the nobility still believed it, but the common people did not agree. They found they had been respecting that which they had been told to respect, rather than that which is respectable in itself. A Frenchman re*marked, "The great appear to us great because we are kneeling. let us rise." In 1789 every*body stood up. Likewise, the 1947 martyrs of Indo-Pakistan gave life but once and refused to die bit by bit at the hands of the colonialists.

Regrets and guilt are such a curse that every one will avoid that kind of living death. No one wants to live with regret or with the nagging sense that life is passing you by. Rather then learning lesson, majority if the people live lives under their burden. This is another trait of the coward, rather then facing the truth and accepting mistakes, the coward dwells in the realm of insecurities, hides and rejects life. A coward learns and grows with the experiences good or bad.

One can pointlessly face danger to prove to himself that he is tough, called as self-destructive pseudo-toughness. But that's not generally what a brave person is. Similarly, choosing not to face danger when facing the danger is more harmful is not what is meant by cowardice. Cowardice generally refers to people who make harmful decisions out of fear. Courageous are generally people like fire-fighters who overcome their natural fear of fire when they can see it is worth the risk. Of course, people are more prone to use the word bravery when they feel the brave decision is especially compassionate, more prone to use the word cowardice when the fearful decision is especially selfish.

A beautiful poem says it all;

A coward dies many times
Even before the death comes home
He dies at all possible times
Where he could have shown
His valor and his skill
His kindness or his love
Rather a coward chooses other paths
Those seem direct but crooked
Where upon ideas are wicked
To hurt, to blame, to shout
This is when the coward dies
Other times are many
More than one can think
All I can sum unto
Is whenever he shrinks
From what is right to what is wrong
What is difficult to what seems easy?
So how you decide to die
Once in life time or may be countless death
That’s a choice for you to make
Hope you choose a better way
And never die a coward’s death

The fear of death, combined with materialistic fear of economic loss has thrown mankind in a constant dread. Though, death stares old men in the face, and lurks behind the back of youth, yet when finally it comes it’s always a shock. The booming insurance companies, the future plans, the treachery involved in securing the future of the next generations is another dilemma of the weak ones. Weak spend all their lives in a constant threat while the brave lead a tranquil life. This person can hold their head up high and be proud that he or she faced that difficult situation or fought for what he or she believed in. So, when this brave and valiant person physically dies, this is the only time he or she will know death because he or she has never been afraid to face the challenges of life.

Politically such fear is incited to attain some agendas. Courageous person like Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men shows how America subjugates not just its own people to attain some hidden purposes but also leads the world as mere puppets in its hands by inculcating fears, deprivation, hopelessness, dependency; the traits common in a coward. Likewise, governments trigger and arrange situations that breed such fears in the hearts of the people that they offer unquestioned submission. People suffer, yet do not complain, bear and don’t protest which gives rise to socially politically dead society. Tyranny, despotism and dictatorship become the norm and like cowards no one questions it.

There is another side to a brave person. Practically speaking, people keep dying and rising in how they interact with others. They keep repenting and being forgiven. If and when they catch themselves getting snared by the world's way of defining success, they re-adjust their perspective. they die to society so they can rise to the kingdom. When they hurt someone, they don't merely shrug it off. They do the hard work of confessing and seek forgiveness. They die to all that so that they can be compassionate and gentle and kind and open toward all others. People need constantly to be beating back the clutching of ego, desire and pride for the desire for the limelight. Here the brave win by letting go those pretensions, where as, the weak ones relies on them to live an estranged life.

Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, ‘...the brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them, he accepts the challenges, the fears', sheds light on the enduring nature of the one who accepts every thing life has to offer.

Superstition is enemy to sanity. Hundreds of strange notions re common equally among men and women. People opt against logic and empirical evidence and rely on the stories. A superstitious person is most of the times panicky, anxious, afraid, the illogical tales feeds upon the confidence and serenity of the person’s life and makes its living hell.

‘The brave man can decide/the coward remains silent’, refers to the quality of leadership. The social success falls in the lap of those who have what it takes to be brave. The cowards with their bickering, complaints, backbiting, and schemes only end up in destroying their inner.

‘A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer’ is what Ralph Waldo Emerson thinks of the two. Because valiant endures, then with patience comes up to a conclusion and reacts. A coward is impulsive reacts instantly and then later regrets for ruining the situation. The difference becomes evident in the words of Thomas Paine, ‘The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.’

If one looks at it from a spiritual perspective, a coward "dies" a spiritual death, each time he lacks the faith. One, who may be considered a coward, could be someone lacking in faith, or confidence. And simply just doesn't have the courage to try. They may actually experience a sort of spiritual death. So each time they choose to back down or choose not to pursue a braver course, they risk "death. " And a coward is often aware of their own cowardice and its consequence, ‘Spiritual death’. So a brave man will surely only experience death; the mortal one, just once "A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man, only once." they don’t seek truth or are following the wrong path.

A coward is afraid of all dangers, real or imaginary ones. Therefore, it is in his mind that he meets these many challenges and because of his fears, he dies a death with each one that he conjures up. Even though he flees from it, it feels like a real death, every time he stumbles into a problem. The brave man, on the other hand, knows the danger but goes into it with courage. Because the danger is real and out come can be fatal he dies but once. He appreciates the peril and that is what makes him a brave man because he attempts it despite the odds against him. The coward as expected turns and flees from danger, which saves him for the time being but deprives him of the life force bit by bit.

So every one would prefer to be brave than cowardly, a success rather than a failure, popular rather than unpopular, esteemed rather than despised. People would rather be noticed than overlooked, be envied than pitied, they prefer to be the object of admiration rather than the target of scorn. If a person wants to make the most out of life, society has plenty of advice. The attributes in their binary opposition, deprives one of the life force, on the hand the very opposite attributes build what a courageous person is all about. People can be taught and trained, with a better moral and just society, good education system pupil can be taught to be brave. That may or may not come from knowing how important life is. It may also come from facing whatever life has to offer, the good and the bad. The fact of the matter is that neither an individual nor a society can advance with its people passing lives as living dead.