In the poem,
"The Dialogue Between the Body and Soul," Andrew Marvell structures
the poem in the form of a debate. The Body and the Soul are combating each
other in order to express the tragedy that both of them are put through in
life. The Body and Soul are shown as two different outlooks on life. The
structure of the argument is set up with ten lines for the first three stanzas,
but Marvell gives the Body the last word with a fourteen line stanza at the
end. The poem explores the polar opposites that people must deal with like the
body and soul, faith and reason, science and religion, man and nature, etc. The
two arguments are put forth so that they are looking at the same situation from
different points of view. The Body and the Soul are taking opposite positions,
but they complement each other at the same time. What one side twists, the
other side untwists.
The
Soul begins the argument by protesting that this Body is a "dungeon"
in which has "enslaved" it (lines 1 and 2). The Soul talks about the
devastation and degradation involved with being confined to the physical realm.
The Soul has a metaphysical nature that is on a different level from the Body.
The Body has a similar complaint for the Soul when he begins by asking,
"O, who shall me deliver whole/ From bonds of this tyrranic soul?"
(lines 11 and 12). Both the Body and the Soul are deeply troubled by the fact
that they cannot control their devastating situation.
The
Soul has a connection to the metaphysical and the divine. The Soul is on a
higher level than the Body, and the Soul is "blinded with an eye" of
the Body (line 5). The Soul has a purer eye than the Body because the Body's
eye is corrupted. The Body's eye can only see what is within the physical
realm, and it can only see things the way that the body defines them. The Body
has a flawed perception and judgment of everything. The Body strikes back by
accusing the Soul of having no purpose except to separate man from animal
(footnote 1687). The Body professes that the Soul only "Warms and moves
his needless frame/ (A fever could but do the same)" (lines15 and 16). The
Soul has the power to influence the Body by giving it love, hate, sadness, and
happiness. However, the Soul is being "tortured [...]/ In a vain head and
double heart" (lines 9 and 10). The Body always thinks its right because
it chooses reason over faith. The Soul can affect the Body's heart not only
emotionally but also physically. When someone is very sad, he or she can feel
the burden of the sadness on their chest like a weight being placed on the
heart. The Body is put through pain by the Soul, but the Soul will live on
after the Body. The Body says the Soul "Has made me live to let me
die" (line 18). The Soul has an eternal quality and hope for the future,
but the Body can "never rest" because the Soul will always cause it
pain while giving it a reason to live at the same time.
The
Soul disregards the Body's complaints by saying, "Where whatsoever it
complain,/ I feel, that cannot feel, the pain" (lines 23 and 24). The Soul
knows nothing of the physical pain because it can only feel the pain of mental
and spiritual anguish. The Soul describes at the same time being taken
advantage of by the Body because the Soul is used by the Body in order to cure
the problems of the Body. The Soul knows that the Body's resistance and
existence is a minor part of the Soul's life. The Soul endures beyond the Body.
The Soul describes the futile task of serving the Body by saying, "And all
my care itself employs,/ That to preserve which me destroys" (lines 25 and
26). The Soul desires the Body to die from "Diseases" because then
the Soul would not have to endure this enslavement any longer (line 28). The
word "Diseases" not only means the physical disease that the Body
gets, but also, it means that the disease of man and his parasitic presence on
Earth is ruining the divine nature of the Creator. The Soul cannot cure the
Body's destructive nature towards anything pure and virgin. The Body cannot
cure "The pestilence of love" that the Soul inflicts on them (line
35). The last stanza delivers a much more hopeless sorrow for the Body. The
ills of the Soul will not cease to give the Body its purpose. Purpose is
associated with love in the last stanza, but the Body is tormented by the
pursuit of love. Love fills the Body with "hope[,]" but at the same
time, the Body is tormented by "the palsy shakes of fear" (lines 33
and 34). The Body fears being hurt by the Soul again, and therefore, is bitter to
opening up to love. The bitterness is described as "hatred's hidden ulcer
[that] eat[s]" away at the initial trusting love that the Body once had
(line 36).
The
Body's closing argument is that:
What
but a soul could have the wit
To build me up for sin so fit?
So
architects do square and hew
Green
trees that in the forest grew. (lines 41 to 44)
The Body is saying
that nothing else could possibly cause this much pain and problems except a
Soul. The Soul plants seeds of love or of hope in the Body. The Body then
nourishes the seeds like nature nourishing seeds into trees, until the seeds
mature. The trees only purpose is to eventually be cut down by the 'Great
Architect' (God). The hope may have been implanted by God or by the Soul, but
it is nature and the Body that has developed the seeds of hope. The divine
conquers or overcomes what is human and natural. At every moment of the poem,
the argument pushes the reader to consider the duplicity of the struggle
involved in one's life. Neither the Body, nor the Soul wins the argument
because the two give opposite recounts of the tragedy of man. The writer does
influence the reader to feel more sympathy for the Body due to the apparent
hopelessness involved in its position and its ultimate fate being determined.
The Soul is not given a fate in the poem because it is immortal. The poem does
not provide any solution to the problem; it compels the reader to contemplate
and be torn between the two characteristics of human life.
2.) "The
Flea," by John Donne is a poem in which a man is trying to entice a woman
into having sex by using the analogy of the flea. The flea is used to represent
the act of sex itself. "Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee,/ And in
this flea our two bloods mingled be" (lines 3 and 4). The bodily fluids of
the man and the woman are mixed together inside the flea, so the man equates
the flea with the exchange of bodily fluids involved in sex. The flea's blood
sucking is seen by the man as insignificant when he says, "How little that
which thou deniest me is" (line 2). The man believes that the woman's
chastity is no big deal. He also uses religion to support his claim by saying
"that this cannot be said/ A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead"
(lines 5 and 6). The man is saying that the woman will lose no honor if she
partakes in the act. The man also talks about how the flea does not have to put
forth any effort to afford this pleasure when he says "Yet this enjoys
before it woo" (line 7). The blood coming together to form one blood is
said in the footnote to be the flea representing pregnancy, and the man
professes that "this, alas, is more than we would do" (line 9).
The
"three lives in one" represents the man, the woman, and the flea
whose blood all runs together as one. The man says that "Where we almost,
nay more than married are" which means that with their bloods coming
together they are already just like being married so there is no need for the
woman to be apprehensive about sex (line 11). The speaker then goes after the
morals that were instilled on the woman by her parents. "Though parents
grudge, and you, we are met" means that even though the woman and her
parents would protest it the act is already done in the flea, so it is too late
now (line 14). The woman is accustomed to killing fleas, but the speaker does
not want her to kill this one because killing the flea would also be killing
the man, the woman, and the "temple" in which their bond was made
(line 13). This is what the speaker means when he talks about "self-murder"
(line 17). Suicide is seen as one of the greatest sins in Christianity because
one takes the power of God into his or her own hands to decide his or her own
fate. This is why he calls the action of killing the flea "sacrilege"
(line 18).
The
woman in the third stanza kills the flea despite the man's warnings against
killing it. The man describes the killing as "Cruel and sudden" when
she uses her fingernail to kill the flea (lines 19 and 20). He describes the
flea or the act of sex as being "in blood of innocence" (line 20).
The flea is innocent and not "guilty" of any high crimes because the
flea's action is just part of God's natural causes (line 21). There can be no
dishonor in anything as natural as the flea. The flea only took "that drop
which it sucked from thee" (line 22). The speaker shows the lady's concern
with being a weak person if she has sex with him, but she "Find'st not thy
self nor me the weaker now; / 'Tis true; then learn how false fears be"
(lines 24 and 25). The speaker is relating how after the flea takes both of
their bloods into its body where it mixes to become one, neither one of them is
degraded nor "weaker" in any way (line 24). He tells the woman that
in the aftermath of sex, she will realize "how false [her] fears be"
(line 25). Throughout the poem, the speaker is protesting against the fact that
there is any harm in having sex with him.
The
final couplet brings a summary to the entire subject when he says, "Just
so much honor, when thou yield'st to me, / Will waste as this flea's death took
life from thee" (lines 26 and 27). This argument is set up in a playful
way, but the way he uses the subject matter makes the argument convincing. The
woman's honor will not be lost if she has sex with him. He makes her see that
sex is just a natural process given by God. The flea who takes their blood and
sex are just processes of nature. The argument is ridiculous because no one
will look at a flea's blood sucking and equate it with the same importance as
having sex. The speaker, however, makes a very strong case for why the act of
sex holds no greater importance than the flea taking blood. When the flea is
killed, the lady is held accountable by the speaker for such a dishonorable
task. The flea contained her life, the speaker's life, and their new life
together in the flea. The speaker shows the woman that there are "three
sins in killing three" (line18). The lady is not honorable because she
killed the flea, but she would have retained her honor if she let the flea
live. If she would have entertained the idea of sex with the speaker, then she
would have not lost her honor by killing the proposition for sex. The poem,
more importantly, relates how the woman's judgment is corrupted by the society
she lives in which has her believe in the severe consequences involved with the
act of sex. The man shows the woman that it is simply a part of the circle of
nature, and she need not to worry so much because the worrying will bring about
greater problems for her.
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