Category: Death Be not Proud

Society is a threadbare blanket, torn apart at the seams. In the twenty-first century, it continues to be split by the smallest of conflicts, slowly being ripped into pieces. Although some have tried to mend the tears, it is difficult to bring back what it used to be. That is why unity is crucial: finding a way of staying connected despite conflict. One way to achieve this unity is through a shared faith. In 17th-century England during the Reformation Era, British society faced many predicaments regarding religion and politics. Caused by the struggle between Catholic and Protestant leaders, some British people used literature as a way to resolve this mounting conflict and find a way to stay united. Reformation author John Donne uses allegories in his works to remind his readers that during times of conflict, it is the supremacy of God, not the monarchs, that ultimately unites the British people.

John Donne begins with a comparison between Death and the monarchy in “Holy Sonnet 10”, saying that just like Death, the monarchy has no true power. With this poem, the speaker directly confronts an enemy—Death personified—and essentially, tells him off. Being raised Catholic led to several conflicts with the Protestant monarchy and thus, Donne never fully acknowledged the supremacy of the king over the church (Notes). Donne’s personification implies the plausibility that he is speaking not only to Death but also to another enemy: the monarch in power. The speaker in this poem immediately creates a personified version of death, saying “Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so” (Donne 427). Even though generations have feared him and called him “mighty and dreadful”, Death ought not be so proud. The speaker is warning Death against pride in his power. Such power is merely an illusion; the end that Death thinks he brings is actually freedom from earthly suffering. Again, this message seems all too well suited for the monarchy. The speaker continues to taunt Death, addressing him in a more personal manner by saying “yet canst thou kill me” (line 4). Here, it seems to be a dangerous challenge, regarding the very occupation of Death, but Donne plays into the Christian theology of eternity. Even if Death takes his physical body, he will never truly be killed because his soul is with God. Though it is obvious that Death is very real, the speaker explains his little regard towards Death, saying “One short sleep past, we wake eternally… Death, thou shalt die” (line 12-13). Death himself is destined to die. When his “victims” all wake in eternity in Heaven, Death will cease to exist and will be no more. If Death represents the monarchy in this poem and God has power over death, then God’s power is greater than any earthly king. Despite all the religious conflict between Protestant and Catholic rulers, God’s omnipotence prevails, and thus, British society remains united under His divine power.

Donne draws a distinction between earthly kings and the King of Heaven using an allegory contrasting physical and spiritual love in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”. Donne writes this poem on the occasion of separation from his wife, forbidding her from mourning. He declares that his love is spiritual in nature, transcending all mundane obstacles and they need not the exaggerated emotions of a shallower, physical love. These “dull sublunary lovers’ love…cannot admit absence” and are unable to experience separation without losing the sensation of love (Donne 424). The word “sublunary” means to belong to this world, as contrasted with a better or more spiritual one. “Sublunary” connotes a feeling of the temporary, easily corruptible. Those relationships exist under the moon, rather than in the sky. This type of love cannot endure the forces of separation because the “heart” of the relationship is defined by physicality, with touch and sight held with utmost importance. But Donne’s spiritual, “refined” love, on the other hand, will hold strong; the pair will be bound together regardless of any earthly distance between them. Donne’s comparison of the two types of love implies another connection to the monarchy: the superficial, sublunary love represents earthly kings, while his transcendent love represents God, the King of the Heavens. Earthly relationships do not last and break easily under pressure, indicative of the weakness of earthly kings. On the contrary, spiritual relationships prevail through hardships, proving that once again, the abiding power of God is durable even during the conflict faced by British society during the Reformation era.

In both of his poems, John Donne relies on symbolic connections to bring his audience to the conclusion that, ultimately, it is the supremacy of God and not of the monarchs that promotes unity in the conflict caused by a theological schism. Although death and love are on two ends of the spectrum, Donne successfully portrays them in a way that guides the reader back to the same subject: the monarchy. Donne uses Death to represent a monarch and strips him of any power by tapping into the Christian doctrine of eternal life after death. Donne compares two types of love—physical and spiritual—to differentiate between earthly kings and the King of Heaven. Although the conflicts between Protestant and Catholic are no longer so serious urgent in the twenty-first century, new conflicts have arisen since, and it is up to society to decide on how to stay united and keep the blanket from ripping into two.

The textual conversation between John Donne’s 17th-century metaphysical poetry and Margaret Edson’s late 20th-century metatheatrical play W;t is distinctly established through the shared exploration of the awareness of death as a universal human condition. Despite a paradigmatic shift from a theological to a postmodern society and the various and language features and textual forms, such disparity in context and form adds depth to the value of enduring resonances between the persona Donne and the protagonist Vivian Bearing, which act to highlight the intellectual facet of human nature and its consequences. The meaning of the two texts is mutually enriched by realising the radical purpose of spiritual faith, in unmasking the existential anxieties concealed under one’s metaphysical facades, when confronted with the fear of mortality, and the subsequent facilitation of self-effacement through provoking the desire for redemption.

Framed by a contextual faith in God, Donne in his poem Death be not proud claims victory over morality, employing his personification and intellectual prowess in the oxymoron “And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die” to obscure his own apprehension of death, diminished due to the Christian view of the eternal soul. Since Donne had been an Anglican priest in the early 17th century, his argument seemed valid and therefore irresistible to his audience. His arrogance can be seen in the poem If poisonous minerals, through the repetition of rhetorical questions “If poisonous minerals… if that tree, … If lecherous goats, if serpents envious”, logically questioning God’s judgement of humanity, catalysed by the religious tension between the Catholics and the Protestants after the death of Queen Elizabeth. Yet, his initially insolent tone becomes submissive in claiming the simplicity of salvation as seen in the ironic line, “And mercy being easy, and glorious” in which he indirectly confesses that his wit and superficial spirituality are incapable of resolving qualms regarding mortality. Analogously, Edson’s play W;t dramatises Vivian, a scholar of Donne’s poetry in a science-oriented and secular context, who like Donne, conquers her fear of death through a confident and arrogant facade, demonstrated by her intellect and the academic register she employs. Her analytical tone is immediately evident in the initial diagnosis of her ovarian cancer, deconstructing the medical jargon as “Antineoplastic. Anti: against, Neo: new, Plastic: to mould”. Being a scholar specialising in Donne’s poetry, deconstruction is a familiar and effective approach for Vivian to eliminate her fears by ‘studying’ the unknown. However, in the scene where Vivian teaches Donne’s poem poisonous minerals, through the accumulation of her words “aggressive intellect, pious melodrama, and a final fearful point” she admits that her academia, dedicated to Donne’s wit, has failed to facilitate her attempt at overcoming existential anxiety. Furthermore, in the same scene, Edson employs a stage direction where “VIVIAN moves in front of the screen, and the projection of the poem is cast directly upon her.” This dramatic device creates visual intertextuality that conveys parallelism between Vivian and Donne: Vivian’s relationship with Donne is aligned to Donne’s relationship with God. This alignment is an example of the value that can be added when two texts are considered in tandem resulting in a textual conversation. In this case, Donne questions his faith in God and Vivian questions her faith in Donne.

The universal pursuit of self-effacement and salvation is foregrounded by both Donne and Edson as prompting an exploration of human connection and spirituality. Despite the theological dissonances in the context, the value of self-redemption and spiritual legacy is realised in both texts, as demonstrated in Donne’s poem This is my plays last scene through the biblical allusion within the extended metaphor “my pilgrimage’s last mile”, confessing the notion of spiritual journey in preparing to face judgement after death. Furthermore, Donne’s Christian virtue is evident through his acceptance in Hymn to god, my god, in my sickness, where the extended metaphor “I joy, that in these straits I see my west” signifies his acceptance and embracing of death, while the wordplay likens his personal suffering to an ocean voyage. On the other hand, the dominance of scientific paradigm in a postmodern society has reduced Vivian’s life to something purely academic, demonstrated by her sardonic use of alliteration in “published and perished”, conveying her trivialised personal legacy. However, the didactic flashbacks catalyse Vivian to desire for a self-redemption and to relinquish her pride, as evidenced by her regretful tone in “I look back, I see these scenes, and I…”, mirroring Donne’s spiritual process, while independent of religion. As a result, Vivian accomplishes her self-introspection in her transition from life to death, visually denoted in the stage direction “The instant she is naked and beautiful, reaching for the light” asserting that human connection and spirituality transcends tempting trappings of the workaday world, such as academic title and other honours. This notion is furthered in Donne’s poem Hymn to god, my god, in my sickness through paradox “death doth touch the resurrection”, conveying that regardless of the presence of religious belief within a society, it is spiritual faith that defines us as human.

Overall, the parallel relationship formed in two texts, incongruent in context and from, realises a conversation which reveals misconceived faith hidden behind the assertation of wit, as the true catalyst in detracting the human ability to acknowledge the universal inevitability of death. The reimagining of true faith across poetic and dramatic forms reveals the enduring significance of spiritual value entrenched within humanity.