For many people, death is terrifying. It is something unknown that reaches into every human life, steals loved ones, and eventually catches up with each person. Many view it as an enemy to be defeated or held off as long as possible.

Yet Tennyson presents a very different perspective on death in "Tithonus." The title character has gained what many literary characters want the most until they actually get it: immortality. Tithonus no longer wants his immortality; he longs to die. His life has drawn out to infinity, but his youth has failed him. He is old and miserable.

Now, death seems like Tithonus's best friend. He realizes that it is the natural state of human beings. It is what is supposed to happen to people when they grow old, and it eliminates their suffering. It is an end, but to Tithonus, it no longer carries any fear; it is just release, calm, and peace.

In fact, Tithonus looks upon the people who can die and calls them happy. Death is impossible for him, yet he longs for it, and he envies those who can have it, viewing it as a gift that he does not have the privilege of possessing.

Human life is filled with desires. People want all kinds of things: money, love, honor, glory, material possessions, and friendship. These longings seem endless. But Tennyson, in "Tithonus," reflects on the negative effects of human desire, how people get what they want only to discover that it is not what they truly need.

Tithonus himself offers a prime example of desire gone wrong. In his youth, Tithonus fell in love with the goddess Eos, and she with him. Their desire was such that they became wrapped up in each other, and their good judgment faltered. He asked her for immortality to fulfill his desire for her forever. She granted that desire in response to her own desire for him.

Their desires blinded them to reality and led Eos to make a critical mistake when she granted her lover immortality without perpetual youth to go along with it. Within the span of a few years, Tithonus learned that his desire was not what he truly needed. It did not correspond with his human nature. Desire led only to misery.

At the time of the poem, Tithonus is focused on another desire; he wants his goddess to take back her gift and allow him to die. The withered old Tithonus has discovered that humans often want exactly what is worst for them. Now, he is trapped, for Eos cannot give him what he wants the most: death. His desire will remain forever unfulfilled.