Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell

Question 4: With detailed attention to particular poems consider Marvell’s representation of Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.

Among the numerous subjects that Andrew Marvell addresses in his poems, some of his most important, influential and controversial works are based on significant political figures of his time. Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax, both figures whom Marvell was personally associated with, were at the very centre of the public political stage during a time of dramatic and extensive national upheaval. Cromwell and Fairfax had contrasting behavioral reactions to England’s crises investing the two great men with symbolic status, functioning largely as representative examples in Marvell’s poems. In spite of Marvell’s habitual air of detachment however, it is certainly plausible that his objective analysis of the moral and political problems posed by Cromwell and Fairfax forced upon him an assessment of his own position. The critical controversy over exactly what this position might have been is still unresolved, and extensively pondered by critics and readers alike. In default of any independent evidence as to Marvell’s political orientation in this period, inferences can only be drawn from his poems. What critics such as Patterson conclude is that Marvell’s ambition was to honour influential figures like Cromwell and Fairfax, with a determination to portray them accurately and to present the situational truth as he saw it. The focus of this discussion will be to look at the numerous literary techniques that Marvell uses to represent Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax such as his significant use of drawing on classical literature. Through discussing Marvell’s portrayals of these two great historical figures using this technique, this essay will highlight that despite such detailed and extensive representations of Cromwell and Fairfax, Marvell’s political orientations ultimately remain unknown due to the multiple, often...

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