Death, A Personified Representation Of Death

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Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ (The Canterbury Tales 2012) and Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus both contain the theme of death, a personified representation of death and death itself. Chaucer and Marlowe have provided works which use the notion of good and evil as well as the well-known Seven Deadly Sins as a way to corrupt characters souls, leading to their deaths. Marlowe has also used the Faustian Pact as a way to lead characters to damnation. This has been achieved through the use of language and structure, imagery and macabre. These elements will be discussed in relation to my own creative writing work, specifically the Faustian pact in the working title ‘Hell on Earth. ‘Spiritual death can indeed become the cause of physical death and eternal damnation’ (Matsuda 1992). Both Chaucer’s and Marlowe’s work contain the notion of death, however death is represented differently within each piece of work. Death is first mentioned in in the opening of ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ and is represented by a personified form of death. The opening of the tale proves that death is imminent and that ‘he’ (death) can take a life at any time. The thief who takes the lives of young people is death personified. This representation of death firsts appears in the beginning of the tale as he had killed a man due to his drunkenness. It is then explained: ‘He [death] hath a thousand slain this pestilence; And, master, ere you come in his presence, Me thinketh that it were full necessary; For to beware of such an adversarie, Be ready for to meet him evermore; Thus taughte me my dame; I say no more.’ (Chaucer 2012: 5776). In both ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ and Doctor Faustus, the Seven Deadly Sins are used to corrupt certain characters which eventu... ... middle of paper ... ...ing your soul for someone else can be argued as something good, however making a deal with death can be seen as not. The element of macabre is also used as the story when consequences of the deal start, these consequences being horrifying hallucinations. This pact eventually corrupts the protagonist which leads to his death and damnation. The theme of death is portrayed in both Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ and Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Whether it be death itself, or a personified representation of it. Allegory characters such as the Seven Deadly Sins have been used, as well as the notion good and evil, as a way to corrupt characters which lead to their deaths. Chaucer and Marlowe have achieved this by using elements such as language and structure, imagery and macabre. These elements and themes have been used in my own creative writing work.

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