Abigale Upham

Professor Ghosh
English 10
4 November 2010
The Ideology of Fending Off The Deathly Hallows
The poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas reflects the
narrators belief that a person should try to triumph over approaching death rather than slip
passively into its definite hallows. He does not focus on death as being completely terrible or
always avoidable. Rather he suggests that one should fight against death until true satisfaction in
life is sought because each person has only one chance to do so. He categorizes the negative
connotation of quitting with compliance with death and throughout the poem attempts to
persuade his father and the reader to not subject themselves to the consequences of either.
Thomas uses sensual imagery and extreme and exaggerated literary devices to stress his opinions
regarding death and how it should be dealt with. The narrators views are further accented by
specific structural methods within the poem.
Thomas paints multiple scenes of potential lives worth striving for to his readers to
strengthen his argument of why a person should rage against death (Thomas 3). Stanzas 2-4
include descriptive accounts of moments that should be experienced before a person lets death
take them over. In the third stanza Thomas writes, Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be
gay (14). The word blaze is much stronger than the synonymous words flame or flare. It
reaches a level of deeper impact within the reader. One can see the illumination, feel the warm
pulsing heat and hear the crackling fire of the meteor.
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This sensual image created by the blazing meteor acts as a strong symbol within the
poem. It is something massive, powerful, out of this world and rarely spotted by humans.
However, the moment that one is glimpsed is usually one of awe and wonder. The image we are
lead to by Thomass description radiates with these feelings. He opens the doors to emotions that
are scarce but embraced by using imagery to give examples of extravagant elements of life. It
can also be argued that many people will fight the natural pattern of sleep at night in order to
experience a meteor shower in the same way that Thomas advises his father to rage against death
in order to further fulfill life on earth. The message is that it may be difficult and counterintuitive
but the results are worth the struggle. His combination of symbolism and imagery is meant to
produce convincing reasons for one to spend as much time as possible alive. It brings up the
obvious but overlooked fact that life is our only chance to hear, see, and truly feel anything. He
plays into the age old phrase you dont know what you have until its gone to make it difficult
for the reader to consider submissively and unnecessarily drifting into death.
Thomas also uses imagery when describing situations that wild men have not yet
experienced in the line Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight (10). Words like
caught, sang,flight, and wild bring about an image of physical, joyous, fleeting moments
that a man has the chance of seizing. The image attempts to provoke a desire to live within the
reader and ultimately his father. When a person reads this line he or she can imagine an
extravagant scene and as a result have the urge to experience something akin to it. This inflicted
desire strengthens the authors argument by giving life substance and worth. Thomas is not
claiming that inevitable death is something that we can circumvent. Instead he is simply
asserting that death should only be succumbed to once utmost dreams have been fulfilled.
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Thomas dabbles among many other literary devices beyond imagery to further aid the
persuasion of his father and stress his point to the reader. The line Wild men caught and sang
the sun in flight has the appropriate elements of a hyperbole (10). As previously discussed this
line is meant to provoke a desire to live by leading ones imagination to create irresistible
experiences. Emotions are heightened by bringing extreme exaggeration to the line. This
heightened emotion strengthens persuasion by leaving the reader with dreams and goals. A
person who is inspired by dreams or captivated by goals is much less likely to passively fold
under looming death. Thomas believes there is more fight and rage in someone who has desires
and emotion. He brings about these desires through this extremely exaggerated yet inspiring line.
He attempts to leave the reader and his father desperate yet liberated by the need to accomplish
more than he or she has been able to thus far. The hyperbole helps to prove to the reader that life
has wild adventures beyond their naive understanding of it.
Personification is another influential device used by Thomas. One example is the line
Old age should burn and rage at close of day (2). Burning fervent passion and inflamed rage
are very much characteristics of a human being but are instead used to depict old age. Thomas
does this to deflect the argument raised against his own that implies old age is an acceptable
excuse for consenting to death. He gives the reader a different way of analyzing age by
redefining it through personification. Thomas does not accept societys general definition of the
weak and meager elderly. He does not allow for age to be an excuse for any person to quietly
hand themselves over to death. Instead he feels that impending limited time should motivate a
person to realize what they have not yet experienced. He then asks the reader to apply all that
they have left to continuing the pursuit of life. The use of personification shows that burning,
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raging and fighting against death should be among some of the most valued characteristics of the
elderly.
Other literary devices put into effect by Thomas are sarcasm and the paradox. Sarcasm is
strongest in the repeated phrase Do not go gentle into that good night (12 and18). The author
uses good night to signify death. However, his true views of death throughout the piece are
anything but good or positive. Riddling this reoccurring line with sarcasm helps to contrast
ideas of good and pleasant with the dark, prolonged, lonesome image of the night or, more
central to his argument, to death. Once again Thomas is not using sarcasm to convince the reader
that death is treacherous or escapable. He is relying on it to plead his belief that we should fight
against death by suggesting that slipping silently into it is not an escape into a good night
especially when there is much one can still attain and accomplish.
The paradox is found in the very last stanza of the poem in the line Curse, bless me now
with your fierce tears, I pray (18). Thomas uses the final stanza as an opportunity to securely
drive his theory into the mind of his reader and, more importantly, his father. Curse, bless
me. . . pairs the two opposites, curse and bless, side by side to bring out the sheer desperation in
the author as he clings to the final measures of his argument in persuading his father to
strengthen his will to live (18). At first the inconsistency of the two words may feel bizarre to the
reader. The pairing forces the reader to go back and consider the paradox in order to clearly
understand the line. This analyzation brings us to see that the curse of his fathers anger would
be considered a blessing for the narrator. An expression of anger would prove that the father has
the will to muster up emotion which would further prove that he has the ability to rebel against
death. To the narrator any measure of detected emotion is a sign of strength.
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We see that the narrator is begging his father at this point and his desperation is profound.
In this way the paradox opens yet another argument of persuasion. It calls for us to rage and fight
against death for others as well as for ourselves. There is a slight accusation of selfishness toward
the father hidden in Thomass paradox when the he asks for a curse to befall himself. Here the
paradox challenges us to a broader realization of the world and the effect we have within it. He
uses this epiphany to condemn lingering reasons for apathetically proceeding towards the call of
death.
Thomas also relies heavily on the structure and sound of his poem to convey his message
of persuasion. The enjambment . . .They/ Do not go gentle into the night serves two roles
(5-6). The first and more obvious function, is to allow the line to explain that they, the wise
men, do not lie passive and let death sweep them up. It depicts raging and fighting against death
as actual and plausible actions of men and therefore also on option for his father. The second
function of the enjambment is to act as a command. By removing they from the line Do not
go gentle into the night it makes it possible to read it as an order (6). Here the poem does not
use a persuasive pleading tone but a serious stern one. Thomas is no longer formulating
arguments and reasons as to why one should rage against death but reverts to using blunt
commands to suggest that his expertise and opinion on the subject should be enough to urge his
father into escaping the clutches of death.
Caesura plays one of the most basic but prudent tools in accenting Thomass argument
within the poem. He strategically uses semicolons and comas throughout his piece to achieve
breaks, pauses, and interruptions. Enjambement is very active in the line And you, my father,
there on the sad height, (17). The punctuation allows the poem to be significantly lengthened in
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the same way that the narrator wishes people to do with their lives. The intentional dragging out
of the poem strongly corresponds to Thomass message of persuasion that life is worth fighting
for to be able to experience it to its full extent.
A final and important aspect of structure within the poem is repetition. Thomas uses the
line Do not go gentle into that good night four times within the piece (1 6 12 and 19). The
multiple recurrences of this line push his overall ideology that one should rage against death as
opposed to taking an indifferent stance towards it. This particular repetition becomes the authors
aphorism or words of wisdom. It enforces his moral belief that a person should not give up on
life once signs of death begin to penetrate his or her world.
The vast spectrum of devices used in his poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good
Night truly allow the reader to enter Thomass mind. Imagery, literary devices, and functions of
structure all give the reader the opportunity to explore Thomass conscious and evaluate life from
his desperate perspective. Through a psychological critic of his point of view the reader is able to
fully grasp the many angles and edges that the devices that are strategically utilized. These
elements work together to create a persuasive argument forced upon the reader that influences he
or she to triumph over death for themselves and for those around them.
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Works Cited
Gardner, Janet E., Beverly Lawn, Jack Ridl, and Peter Schakel. Literature: A Portable Anthology.
2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009.
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