You are interested in exploring how the connections between the texts have enhanced our understanding of the values and contexts of each text.
A multiplicity of dynamic connection exist between the poetry of John Donne and Margaret Edson’s play W;t. Both these texts display their individuality despite the symbiotic relationship they share. It is this relationship that allows the texts to lend each other new life, stemming from the exploration of the human condition expressed through different contexts. While four hundred years separate these texts this communication allows them to explore the simple human truths, of dealing with life death, suffering and identity.
John Donne’s poems were written in a time of great religious turmoil and it is this that brought him to question the notions of religion. This questioning is ever-present in both the works of Donne and Edson. In particular the Petrarchen Sonnet If Poysonous Minerals explores this very idea. Initially Donne establishes a reflective tone through the use of rhetorical questions such as “if serpents envious Cannot be damn’d; Alas; Why should I bee?” to directly question god and the nature of religious beliefs. This tone is continued through the octave until the persona reaches change in mood which is reflected in the Volta; “But who am I?” Vivian on the other hand is a character that is from a world that places greater value on science rather than religion. And can be seen reflected throughout her secular attitude, “My only defence is the acquisition of vocabulary”. Similarly the one continual act of the play reflects the dynamic structure of the petrachen sonnet. However both authors conclude that this questioning is unfulfilling and that a change in mood allows the character to move on to expectance.
Hym To God, My God, In My Sickness, is a poem by Donne that directly addresses three central ideas related to sickness, death and eternal life. These ideas were addressed and questioned in Donne’s...