It’s Easter weekend, and while the skies are grey in Edina, the celebration of all things pastel and chocolate-flavoured goes on undimmed. Of course, with vague memories of bunnies and egg hunts, many of us grew up without ever learning the ‘real meaning’ of Easter. If you have a chance this weekend, flip to one (or all!) of the following passages in the Great Book and remind yourself why the Bank Holiday was instituted: Matthew 28:1-20; Mark 16:1-20; Luke 24:1-49; or John 20:1-21:25.
For those who would rather not, however, here is a list of 5 more great resurrections in literature:
Huck, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huck fakes his own death in order to escape the custody of his drunk, shiftless father, setting him off down the Mississippi to live in the wilds for a time before the real action of the book interferes with his quest to reach Cairo (Illinois). Twain at his wiliest.
Viola and Sebastian, Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night is undeniably one of Shakespeare’s funniest plays, and the most exciting moment is when the cross-dressing twins find each other long after a violent shipwreck. Their thrilled disbelief in that scene is one of the best stage moments in history.
Superman, The Death and Return of Superman
Yes, this multi-issue DC Comics series did exactly what it claimed: killed the hunky-yet-smart American ideal. Fortunately Doomsday is also killed in the battle. After a relaunch with a few new heroes, and thanks to the Last Son of Krypton and the regeneration matrix in the Fortress of Solitude, Superman’s body was returned to us (thank the Lord), weak but in good enough shape to save Metropolis once more.
Aslan,
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe CS Lewis’ Christian parable truly terrifies, especially in Aslan’s humiliation and slaying at the hands of the White Witch. When he returns to life, however, his breath has magical powers and he uses it to bring to life the stone statues in the courtyard of the Witch’s palace, so multiple resurrections in this story. Aslan is markedly less gentle than Jesus, though, and when he gladly leaps on the Witch in a later battle and kills her, she remains dead.
Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Final Problem
Public pressure made Conan Doyle resurrect Holmes after an eight-year hiatus, during which he was also pushed to write a prequel to ‘The Final Problem’ (The Hound of the Baskervilles). Publishers offered Doyle generous advances to bring back his anti-social brainiac hero, and fan fiction that accomplished as much was widely distributed, but he resisted. Finally, Holmes’s death by the Reichenbach Falls was deemed null and void in The Adventure of the Empty House, to the predictable astonishment of Doctor Watson.
