The Death Theme in Michael Cunningham's The Hours

The Hours by the American contemporary writer Michael Cunningham interweaves three women's one-day stories in the different places in 20th century with the thread of Woolf's Mrs.Dalloway.The periods they lived separately were the early part of the 20th,the time after the World War Two and the end of the 20th.Three women lived in England and the USA so that they had different culture backgrounds.They were independent and sensitive,and tried to find the meaning and value of themselves and their lives.But in reality,they failed to achieve the goals.They always lived in the shadow of death,not only to face the death of themselves but also that of their lovers,but luckily,they all had strong desire to live.Pondering over the problem of die and live made them get the meaning of the life at last.With the understanding of "important moment" offered by Woolf,they lifted the value of life to the fact that they should face the life forever.They understood the death and over it,with the passion of life,the emotion of their lovers,the insistence of their families and even with the zealous of their died lovers,they decided to live on,which showed their vitality and strength of the lives and gave the lives self-sufficient meaning and value.The novel told us,ordinary individuals could lift their lives to farrand after the satori of death.