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Historical-Biographical

Andrew Marvell was the son of an Anglican priest. He was therefore raised in a very pious atmosphere. The Thirty-nine Articles that define the Anglican faith includes the concept of presdestination. Predestination means that God has chosen at the beginning of time, or "predestined", the souls that will go to Heaven and those that will go to Hell. Marvell's portrayal of sinful, ill soul is supported by the doctrine of predestination. As a Christian in the seventeenth century, Marvell believed in sin, an idea which he includes in his poem. He does however characterize both the body and soul and sinful, when traditionally, the body is sinful, but the soul is holy. Marvell also does not portray death as an end, but more as a respite. As Marvell lived during the Puritan Revolution, which ended in the religiously restrictive reign of Cromwell, his poem is somewhat bold. He places the body and the soul on equal ground; Neither is good, and neither is bad. They are conflicting opposites. His poem has no moral, and although it displays his religious beliefs, it does not appear to conform to the Puritan ideals.

Archetypal

The archetypal theme Andrew Marvell uses in his poem "A Dialogue between the Soul and Body" is that of life and death. The Soul waits for death, and sees recovering from an illness as being "Shipwrackt" (30). This metaphor immediately provokes the image of the sea, which symbolizes death and infinity. Marvell also likens the way the Soul uses the Body to the way in which "Aritects do square and hew Green Trees that in the Forest grew" (44). Trees represent life, and the color green can stand for both hope and death and decay. The Body is hopeful and wishes to live. The Soul, meanwhile, looks forward to the peace of death.

 

Metaphysical Poetry

Andrew Marvell is one of the most famous metaphysical poets. Metaphysical poetry deals with teh relationship between spirit and matter or the ultimate nature of reality. Metaphysical poems often include ordinary sppech mixed with puns, paradoxes, and conceits. Paradoxical metaphors, which are strange comparisons used to shock the reader, are also common (source D). In "A Dialogue between the Soul and Body, the comparisons Marvell makes between a port and death and recovery and shipwrecks are paradoxical metaphors. Metaphysical poems also often included exalation of wit, which Marvell does in this poem in line 41, and terminology drawn from science or law. The poem is also often presented as an argument. Also the ideas from Renaissance Neo-Platonism in love poetry show the relationship between the body and soul. Neo-Platonism "argues that since the physical world is merely an imperfect imitation of the divine archetype, the poet representing the world is imitating an imitation, and thus creating something that stood at lead two removes from the truth" (Source D). The poet is them seen as attempting to imitate the live archetype, not the world. In "A Dialogue between the Soul and Body", Marvell attempts to show the relationship between the soul and body as a negative, hurtful relationship.