Death and Impermanence, Essay Example

The short story, I Used to Live Here Once, by Jean Rhys, and the poem, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night, by Dylan Thomas, are both about death and the impermanence of life. Death is examined from two different perspectives by two distinctive writers. In Thomas’s poem, death has not yet occurred and he fights against it. In Rhys’s short story, death has already occurred and the narrator simply accepts it. Though both writers explore death and the transience of life, their views, personalities, and experiences have shaped their perceptions on this subject matter.

A Different Perspective on the Same Condition

The poem Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night is a passionate piecewhich begs the reader to resist death and fight to remain alive.Life is represented by light and death is represented by the dark, or more specifically, the night. Through each tercet, Thomas describes different types of men and how their contributions are miniscule and temporary in the final face of death. Men who are wise, good, wild, and grave, all die eventually and will be forgotten. Yet death is not to be accepted and they all desperately cling to life. Thomas makes sure the reader understands the unfairness of this losing battle. The poem was written for Thomas’s terminally ill father, and in the last quatrain, Thomas implores him to remain alive. Even though death is inevitable, life is precious and worth the fight.

The short story I Used to Live Here Oncepresents a more reflective and detached perspective on death. The full impact of the story is not revealed until the very end, when the narrator realizes she is no longer alive. The narrator is a female who is exploring the place where she used to live and in anobjective, yet cheerful manner, notices the differences. After crossing the stream, she observes how the land has not been kept up and has grown wild. She also notices changes in her old house and that there is a strange automobile in the yard. She sees two children playing under a mango tree and tries to talk to them, but they do not acknowledge her. She realizes that she is dead after directly speaking to the boy, who, despite the warm weather, becomes cold due to her proximity.

One reason that the works have such different attitudes on death is due to the time of its occurrence. Thomas writes from the perspective of someone who is still living, so there is much anger and fear. Rhys writes from the perspective of someone who has already passed on and after she realizes her situation, her best option is acceptance.

Structural Differences

Thomas’s poem is a well-structured villanelle, composed of four tercets and a final quatrain. The poem’s organization serves as a strong foundation to support the raw emotion which Thomas is expressing. The poem is told from a first-person perspective and allows the reader to experience his struggles, fears, and anger.

Rhys’s work, while just as powerful, is composed in the form of a short story. It is not structured and possesses more of an airy quality of exploration. Though the reader is guided through the narrator’s experience, the third person perspective helps to strengthen the disconnection from life which the narrator is experiencing. The detachedand relaxed pace allows the reader to ponder the narrator’s thoughts and feelings as opposed to being caught up in emotion. However, the reader is jolted out of the calming atmosphere when the narrator realizes that she is no longer alive. Even then, there is no sense of fighting or rage, as described by Thomas. Rhys’s story ends in a quiet acceptance as opposed to an enragedquestioning.

Views on Death Shaped by Life

The differences in the delivery are also due to the manner in which the writers lived their lives.The disconnection in Rhys’s story mirrors how she often felt in her own life. Rhys was a white minority growing up in Dominica and often felt excluded from both her peers and society. When she was 16, she moved to England and her feelings as an outsider intensified. Though Rhys was saddened and hurt, she learned to accept alienation from an early age. The children ignoring the narrator was a situation to which Rhys had become accustomed.

Thomas may have thought of himself as a rebel and an outsider; his life was intense and emotional. He lived the life of a poet, who died due to alcohol abuse. And though he chose to live on the outskirts of society, he did not grow up with the constant stress of not being accepted. Thomas was close with his family growing up, and his father was a deep source of inspiration for his poetry. The poem expresses is fear of losing his father to the night.

Nature as a Metaphor

Both writers use nature to illustrate their feelings about death. Thomas describes how contributions made by each man are eradicated through the overpowering forces of nature.The wise man’s words did not endure because their words were not “lightening.” The deeds of good men are irrelevant in the end, as their deeds are washed away by waves of the ocean. Ultimately, the light in each man is extinguished by nature, or death.There is a hopeless rage associated with Thomas’s interpretation of death.

In contrast, Rhys’sassociation with nature is more impersonal and her narrator calmly notices the differences from her memories to the current state of her old home. She is aware that the road isnot paved but takes happiness in the blue sky, even though it appeared “glassy.” Though nature has triumphed over her world and she sees her former home has become wild and unkempt, she does not express feelings of fear or anger. Her perception has changed but she is still content with her presence.

Rhys also uses nature in the form of weather to illustrate the decrease in temperature as she approaches the children. The sunlight, she describes as “hot,” yet as she stares the boy in the eyes, he comments on the sudden coldness. At this point, the narrator becomes aware of her death and accepts her situation.

Another natural reference Rhys uses, are the stones in the river to illustrate the crossing from life to death. After passing over the round and unsteady stone, and then the pointy stone, the narrator is able to stand on a safe stone while she gets her bearings. At this point, the narrator observes the next stone is not safe, as the water flows, causing it to be slippery. This reflection represents the narrator’s decision on whether to stay with life or to accept death. Even though she is not aware of her condition, she realizes that after she crosses the unsafe stone, the path to the other side of the stream will be easier. The narrator accepts her pathway and death, and the reader can be sure that even though she is surprised by her current condition and may feel sadness, her acceptance allows her to move on without excessive pain.

Conclusion

Both writers guide the reader through their thoughts and feeling about death and the temporary state of life. Rhys approached death with quiet acceptance.Herperspective differs from Thomas who, even though he acknowledges the finality of the situation, refuses to admit defeat. Rhys’s free-flowing short story serves as a gentle guide about the afterlife, and even though situation may be unpleasant, it is simply the way it is. The structured villanelle is a grounding mechanism which allows Thomas’s anguish and rage to fly off the page and into the hearts of the readers. Though both methods of delivery are very different, the reader is left with the full impact of death and the fact that life is temporary.

References

Dylan Thomas: Do not go gentle into that good night. (2008, November 06). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/dylan-thomas/pages/do-not-go-gentle.shtml

Lonsdale, T. (1997). Displacing the heroine: Location in Jean Rhys’s short stories “let them call it jazz”, mannequin”, and “I used to live here once”. Journal of the Short Story in English, 29, Retrieved from http://jsse.revues.org/130

Rhys, J. (1987). I used to live here once. In The Collected Short Stories: Jean Rhys (pp. 187-188). New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Thomas, D. (2013). Do not go gentle into that good night. Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175907