Critical Analysis Of Death Be Not Proud By John Donne

Donnie’s “Death Be Not Proud” uses his sonnet to tell ways in which one can defeat the fear of death and anticipate the happiness of an eternal life. Dickenson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” shows death from the perspective of one moving to quick through life and could not take the time to think about death. Death does what Dickenson could not do and

This strict form of the villanelle emphasizes the dissatisfaction Thomas feels with his father’s fast approaching death. Therefore, he writes this villanelle poem for his dying father to encourage him to fight for his own life. While men of differences may learn too late, and lament their lack of foresight, even they “do not go gentle into that good night,” instead they “Rage, rage against the dying of the light. ” . Thomas’ elements of form and character create every attempt to influence his father not to give up easily on dying, but it allows Thomas to cope with the

These elements not only increase the power of Donne’s message, but also symbolize the meaning of hope of eternal life as the ultimate escape to death. The first quatrain of the poem begins undermining the idea of death by personifying it. Death is personified by Donne throughout the poem as he challenges death by stating that it is not the “mighty and dreadful” aspect of life that people are afraid of, but as an escape from life where people can find peace after death because “nor yet canst thou kill me” (Donne 1100). He argues that death does not really kill those whom it thinks it kills to further beat death into humility. In the opening line of the poem he uses an apostrophe, “Death, be not proud..” to begin with a dramatic tone to argue with death as people’s adversary (Donne 1100).

He wants to get this message across to those that fear and respect death that death is controlled by people, not the other way around. These two poems can each be summed up by one line from each. In "Do not go gentle into that good night" the main point of the poem is "Old age should burn and rave at the close of day" (2), and in "Death Be Not Proud," "death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die" (14). When one looks at these two lines, the essence of these two poets disagreement on death is typified. Thomas believes one should "not go gentle into that good night," while Donne believes death is the "Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery" (8).

Also, he lets his pride get in the way which triggers the suicide of Haimon and his wife, Eurydice. By the end of the tragedy, Creon is forced to live through the painful death of his family, thus being the tragic character because he suffered the most. Creon is the tragic character of Antigone because his pride blocks the path of him being wise. He sentences his niece, Antigone, to death because she has buried her brother, Polynices, whom Creon considers a traitor. This leads to an argument to his son, Haimon, who is also Antigone’s fiancé.

Just about everyone he seemed to care about died. Especially having his parents die at such a young age must have been horrible on him. Even in his story "Ligeia" he loses the woman he loves shortly after being married. "She died; -- and I, crushed into the very dust with sorrow, could no longer endure the lonely desolation of my dwelling in the dim and decaying city by the Rhine" (Poe 6). Poe is describing how he is so heartbroken that he had to leave the city where they lived together.

Poe was too young to remember his Mother since her death occurred when he was very young, but later in his life he grew resentful for being raised as a foster child. After the loss of his Mother, Poe would go on to experience the death of many more loved ones. This became the source of the terrible fear Poe would associate with death and dying, a common theme in many of his works. Soon after the death of his mother, Poe was taken in by John Allan and Frances Keeling Valentine Allan, and he relocated to Richmond to join his new foster family. His foster father, John Allan, continually abused him.

He has seen corpses and walked with dying men. He was trying to help one of his injured friends when his friend died convulsively. Earlier in his experiences, especially when he first encountered fighting, he was immensely afraid of death, so afraid that he ran away from battle. During the passage, and later in the novel, he knows that he could die at any time but he is unapprehensive. When death does strike a loved one, I feel that it is unfair.

To begin with, when Mr. Donne first commences his poem, he uses the personification “Death, be not proud” (1). The author is giving death the human characteristics of being “not proud.” The rest of the line continues as “though some have called you thee. ” Death should not be prideful even if people think it is. John displays through this first line how he feels about death: he is too prideful for his own good. Furthermore, Donne uses another personification when he states “Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so” (2).

Yes suicide is frowned upon because it means that you are deceiving God of His plans for you, but you are allowed to grieve for them. Okonkwo hung himself because he could not see himself giving up and leaving his cultures and traditions; even though everyone else had accepted the new faith. But when push came to shove, the newly converted Christians could not believe in their new religion that they were so bent on joining. As the novel comes to an end the reader can’t help but wonder why these people would revert back. And the question remains as to why.