The Main Notions Portrayed In A Valediction Forbidding Mourning By John Donne
John Donne in “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” references to men pertaining to a higher class and status is suggested. The body versus the soul is mentioned but admitting the soul has the long lasting life and in control of the body while it lives. It seems death cannot be accepted nor rejected but is recognized it as a strict law of life. There is no sadness or grief due after death but the love that two lovers may have had is eternally protected and guided by the souls. While the men are dying they are given a chance to contemplate on decision made in life as if it would be their last chance to repent and seek forgiveness from a higher power. Even know the souls seems more valuable and lasting, the body is a form of communication and capable of reacting unlike the soul that is invisible.
Love is emphasized as a privilege that the souls attain and specifically compared to gold resembling perfection. The compass seems to work as a mirror image to the owners’ intentions as if it allows souls to find and chase one another. Sonnet 10 is neither against of for death. It seems as if the majority of corpses are described as sleeping bodies but the souls are not visible nor treated the same as them. The souls were sacred and very delicate and sincere. The soul apparently is send to another realm perhaps relating to the after life where it cannot be found unless from a lovers intention to find it.
Death is portrayed as inevitable especially in war and health where turmoil is caused by evil. Sonnet 14 begins with references to the holy spirit, Catholicism in a positive perspective. There is a fear of temptation and sin and it seems one must have will power to go against it. A sacrifice is made for the freedom of an individual in exchange for freedom of sin valued which could mean many were afraid of being eternally dammed. Perhaps severe consequences were already made in real life to sinners therefore believing the after life is far worse.
Religion was deeply embedded and emphasized to good faith and fair treatment. In Sonnet 17 it describes the grief of John Donne himself. Although he justifies his wife’s death as a duty she owed to her children. This would have been common, men among the entire population would believe women’s purpose were to be caretakers and bear children. He is in deep sorrow and so lonely that he turns to religion as a way to seek answers of why his wife deserved to die but does not allow himself to come to terms with it. He realizes that good and evil are spread evenly in the world and have greater power than human kind.
