"A Dialogue Between Soul and Body" By Andrew Marvell Group: Rowan and Hannah
What the Poem is Saying
Soul:
Body:
Asks a rhetorical question: Who will free the soul from the prison of the body, the skeleton of the body is holding the soul captive.
"With bolts of bones, that fetter'd stands
In feet, and manacled in hands" (3-4)
All the body parts are useless to the soul because they belong to the physical world, they are just another barrier to the soul
"Here blinded with an eye, and there
Deaf with the drumming of an ear" (5-6)
Beyond just being imprisoned the soul is being tortured in the body, it has to deal with the vain head and double heart
"Tortur'd, besides each other part,
In a vain head, and double heart" (9-10
Starts by asking same question but flipping the positions
"O who shall me deliver whole
From bonds of this tyrannic soul?" (11-12)
The body argues that the soul pointlessly brought it to life, which is useless because the body belongs to the mortal world so it will inevitably die, questions if the spirit has good intentions, possess implies evil intentions
"Has made me live to let me die.
A body that could never rest,
Since this ill spirit it possest" (19-21)
The soul believes there must be a supernatural, magic force that is forcing it to occupy the body, and to suffer
"Where whatsoever it complain,
I feel, that cannot feel, the pain" (23-24)
The soul, which by itself can't feel anything, is forced to suffer the physical pains of the mortal world that the body occupies
The should forces the body to feel emotions which cause it physical pain, such as hope, fear, love, hatred, joy, madness, and sorrow,
What makes it even worse is that the body can not forget these feelings they are forever seared into its memory
The soul has enough wit to convince the body to commit mistakes and sin. It has groomed the body to fall into sin and wickedness, out of its own spite for being trapped in the prison of the body
How the Poem is Conveying the Message
The poem is an argument between the Soul and Body debating which entity is suffering the worst, it is broken down into 4 stanzas , the first 3 consist of 3 lines and the fourth has 14 lines
Form: Dialogue both the Soul and Body get to speak and voice their opinions, both sides get two chances to voice their opinions, with neither one clearly winning the argument at the end
Simile: Used to reinforce soul's position that the body is a prison where it is being tortured
"A soul hung up, as 'twere, in chains
Of nerves, and arteries, and veins(8-9)
This vivid imagery lets the reader visualize the pain the soul is forced to endure
Iambic Tetrameter rhymed couplets
Metaphor: Compares the body's diseases and cures to ship lost at sea
"Constrain'd not only to endure
Diseases, but, what's worse, the cure;
And ready oft the port to gain,
Am shipwreck'd into health again" (27-30).
The cure is worse than the disease because it means that the body will continue to live and imprison the soul. It is like a ship being lost at sea and whenever it seas a port it blown out to be lost at sea again
Metaphor: Architects cut down trees to make things of them, the soul molds the body from its natural form into a human by giving it a conscious and life, which includes the capability of sining
"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" (37-40).
How the Style Helps Convey the Message
The dialogue allows the reader to understand the complaints from both sides, it is not a one sided argument
The vivid imagery and the use of similes and metaphor makes the argument more emotional and vivid, easier for the reader to relate to and understand the agony that both sides are experiencing
Marvell clearly sides more empathetically with the soul, he describes the soul as a thing that is normally pure and without pain, but is forced to suffer in the mortal/physical world.
Lots of paradoxes
2 contradicting opinions: paradox, because they both need each other to become better