Tuesday, June 16, 2015

What is the good night in "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas?

In this poem, the good night is symbolic of death.  The speaker is addressing  "[his] father" in the poem, as we see in the last stanza, imploring him to fight against death (line 16).  The narrator says, again and again, "Do not go gentle into that good night," meaning that his father should not go quietly or peacefully, without a fight, to death (1, 6, 12, 18).  Instead, he should "Rage, rage against the dying...

In this poem, the good night is symbolic of death.  The speaker is addressing  "[his] father" in the poem, as we see in the last stanza, imploring him to fight against death (line 16).  The narrator says, again and again, "Do not go gentle into that good night," meaning that his father should not go quietly or peacefully, without a fight, to death (1, 6, 12, 18).  Instead, he should "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (3, 9, 15, 19); the speaker demands that his father fight passionately against the end of life.  In order to convince his father that this is the right thing to do, he gives numerous examples of all different kinds of men and explains that each of them fights death, for his own reasons.  The men may have different reasons for raging against death, but the important part is that they all do it.  The narrator seems to hope that by presenting his father with all of this proof that others fight to stay alive, his father will do the same.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Is Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre a feminist novel?

Feminism advocates that social, political, and all other rights should be equal between men and women. Bronte's Jane Eyre discusses many...