How do the studied poets and Shakespeare use literary techniques to show how people respond to forces in the world over which they have no control?
Forces that we have no control over are things that we as humans cannot interfere with. The poems that we have studied and the play by Shakespeare, Hamlet, all involve forces that the characters cannot change or that are out of their control. They all address the aftermath of a tragic event because they are all written as a result of a real-life, incident that occurred to each author.
In the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas, he writes about the force as being something to be fought with, something that humans can defeat and something whose actions can be avoided. In “A song in a storm” by Rudyard Kipling, he portrays the uncontrollable force as being so much greater than humans; “The game is more than the player of the game, And the ship is more than the crew!” he shows the force as something that humans have absolutely no control over. In Ben Jonson’s poem “On my first Sonne” he laments his son’s death and repeatedly refers to the force’s actions as justifiable and unavoidable.
Metaphors are regularly used throughout the poems and help to show how each character reacts towards these forces and the extents of their attitudes towards what has happened to them. Something I noticed that all poems had in common was that death was the main force that they had no control over. A metaphor used in Dylan Thomas’ poem is “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight”. I believe that this metaphor means that the men close to death in the poem begin to see things that they haven’t seen before and they begin to see with closed eyes. This metaphor helps to portray the supernatural force around them that cannot be understood, like death. Death is a force that everyone encounters and can’t avoid, it’s something that certain people have been very close to. This metaphor helps to show the extreme of being encounter by this force called death, you begin to see what you and others have never seen before.
A metaphor used in Rudyard Kipling’s “A song in a storm” is the line “The game is more than the player of the game, and the ship is more than the crew!”. This metaphor is very effective in showing the nature of life as being a journey on sea and humans as the players of what the force sees is a game. This line presents the force, which in this case is death again, as a controller of this game called life, it can bring people out of the game whenever it wants to and chooses when to give or take opportunities away. This metaphor explores how humans relate to these forces and are brought together by this journey we are all on. This line takes away the weight of the seriousness of life and shows the start and end of this journey as being so insignificant. This metaphor is very effective in its context and really emphasises how the characters in this poem relate to this uncontrollable force.
In the last poem “On my first Sonne” Ben Jonson expresses his sorrow towards the death of his son and with a specific metaphor, “Exacted by thy fate on the just day” shows his reverence to this force, which again is death. This metaphor really shows that there is a mutual respect towards this force and that the character’s attitude towards it is not to fight it or try to change “fate” but to just accept that death had to take his son and fate chose the right day. In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, he uses several metaphors and one of them is in Hamlet’s soliloquy when he says “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, this metaphor helps to show that this uncontrollable force doesn’t just place obstacles or fortunes in people’s lives, it fires at them with slings and arrows. These weapons were to be used from a long distance with emphasizes how insignificant Hamlet was to that force, so much that the force could easily fire hardships at him which he refers to as outrageous. This adjective describes Hamlet’s attitude towards this force as unsatisfied and angry which is why throughout his whole soliloquy he contemplates the notion of suicide. This metaphor is extremely effective in revealing how Hamlet felt annoyed with this force and found it unfair.
Another literary technique that is used is personification, this helps to give the uncontrollable force, human-like features that will allow it to relate to the characters in the poems and the play. A use of personification in the poem “Do not gentle into that good night” is when Dylan Thomas says “Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay”. This personification shows the fragile acts of men as something separate from them, perhaps suggesting that they are blameless as their acts are separated more and more as they get closer to this force called death. The line mentions that the men’s deeds might have danced in green bays and this to me means that the men’s acts are somewhere else in a better and nicer place without blame while they are in this storm. This implies that when any human comes close to death, their acts and deeds, good or bad, mean nothing and cannot help you to escape death. From the title of the poem, I can see that Dylan Thomas uses these types of personification to show their attitudes towards death as being rebellious and that they should not give up easily and succumb to the unavoidable force called Death.
In Rudyard Kipling’s “A song in a Storm”, he uses personification several times throughout the poem but one that stood out to me was the line “Then welcome fate’s discourtesy”, this line is very clear and effective in showing that the crew, which would be us humans, see fate as a person and whose actions are rude and that fate is inconsiderate. The crew ‘welcome’ fate’s rudeness because they have that respect for it but still realise that it is very inconsiderate by intervening at the worst times or at times which the characters are not prepared, just like in Hamlet when he is surrounded by the forces of loss, death, grief. This gives death a human persona which can relate to all of us humans. This personification shows how the characters in the poem believe that they have absolutely no control over death and that again, they are very insignificant to this force. Most of the poems all explore the belief that they are insignificant to their own forces.
In the poem “On my First Sonne”, Jonson gives death a human face by saying “Seven years tho’ wert lent to me, and I thee pay,” This line shows how the character in the poem feels that his son wasn’t truly his and was just lent to him perhaps for his good deeds but was now taken away from him. This shows the overwhelming power of this force that has taken back this reward and now makes the father pay the price. I believe that the price that the father pays is the grief and sorrow that he feels as a result of this loss. This personification helps to present the force that gives and takes life as a very selfish but just character. The characters have a very weak opposition to this force, if any, and have a great amount of respect towards it. Similarly to Rudyard Kipling’s poem, in which the characters are insignificant to these forces, The character in Jonson’s poem realises that he can do absolutely nothing about his loss because of the power that this force has and now has to take everything in and accept that death has overpowered him.
Finally, in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, he uses a lot of personification and constantly gives it humanistic features when he uses personification like “For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,” and refers to death’s actions as being forceful and severe. This gives death as very fierce image and character which Hamlet believes is true. The whips and scorns of time show how even time can hurt you with whips which were used for slaves or prisoners. This connotation helps to emphasise how Hamlet believes that time and death are the prison keepers and that we are the inmates of this prison called life. This personification, I believe is very useful to describe how death is a force that cares about no one and will always cause us pain no matter how hard we try to fight against it, which is a very different approach to the rest of the other texts.
To conclude, I believe that each of the poets and authors have explored their ideas of forces over which we have no control through similar methods like metaphors and personification but each have their different opinions about those forces and have presented them in their characters of their poems and play. Dylan Thomas has a fierce approach, Rudyard Kipling has an understanding approach, Ben Jonson has a very sorrowful and respecting look towards the force in his poem and Shakespeare presents a very confused and troubled opinion of the several forces that encounter the character Hamlet. All of these texts contain similar themes like death, loss, lament, sorrow, fear, respect and are each effectively supported by the literary devices that each poet and author use.
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