a discussion of a conversation between soul and body
in the poem "a dialogue between the soul and body" by andrew marvell, an argument is presented between the incorporeal and material world; additionally, the relationships between the various powers of the mind are examined. Within the dialogue, the soul represents the cognizant force which wishes to leave the confines and subsequent conventions and barbarisms of a material host, while the body is dis**************************** to suffer the emotional traumas which the soul causes it to undergo, wishing rather to exist in a more natural state.
the first speaker, the soul, begins it's lamentation by comparing the body to a dungeon which binds the soul in as many ways as possible. While the bones of the body are likened to restraining bolts, the feet interestingly becoming fetters themselves, while in reality fetters are controlling chains used to secure feet together so that the prisoner can not run away; the soul carries this idea of chains to the hands, referring to them as manacles. This set of thoughts shows that the soul thinks the devices which usually constrain the body are in fact made out of the body itself. Next, the soul complains about the senses which typically aid the body in daily functions, stating that eyes blind and ears deafen the soul by distracting it from ethereal thoughts with spectacles and sounds from the outside world. The soul then returns to the previous concept of chains, saying that it is "hung up" in nerves, arteries, and veins, the very things which keep the body alive. This torture continues as the soul realizes that more parts of the body are against it, with the head being too preoccupied with the material world to care about the concerns of the soul and the heart merely existing to pump blood instead of becoming enraptured with the stirring passions felt by the soul.
the body responds to the complaints of the soul by asking for delivery, from enslavement according to the body's perspective, and by calling the soul a tyrant. This dictatorship causes the body to walk erect, propelling it into danger from falling with every step it takes when it would rather lie dormant; furthermore, the overlord called the soul animates the body, moving it around and keeping it warm as the body complains that a common fever could do the same thing, and, hence, there is no difference between sickness and the emotions of the soul. The body then disparages that the soul can not always move the body and force it to actively engage with the real world, so therefore it gives the body self-awareness along with the awful knowledge that the body will someday die; the body, while it is alive, can never rest as long as it is possessed by the soul or "ill spirit", likening the inhabitation of the soul in the body to magical possession.
this magical possession of which the body complains leads the soul to establish a similar grievance that the same kind of magic imprisons it within the body, forcing it to suffer with the body as it grieves. As the body complains, the soul is coerced into feeling the pains the body feels; this is unusual, for the soul is incorporeal and should not feel any physical strife, yet it does due to its intimate association with the body. The body then uses the soul's care to preserve itself from the pain, which in turn weakens and eventually destroys the soul; not only must the trapped soul be tortured as the body is racked by disease, but it must also endure the restoration of the body throughout the cure. The soul is angered at the healing and feels that the sickness of the body will lead it to the port of death, thus freeing the soul from material constraints, but instead finds itself shipwrecked, forlorn and alone, into health, which is beneficial to the body but detrimental to the soul.
the body then seizes upon the concept of malady and protests that medicine could never cure the ailments that the soul teaches to the body. Although the body recognizes physical pains and accepts them, it does not wish to deal with the mental anguish that the soul forces it to endure. The body, as it exists within the physical realm, relates hope to a tearing cramp that incapacitates it after which follows shudder after uncontrollable shudder of fear. Love becomes a pestilence which heats the body too much, and hate stealthily eats away at the body like an ulcer. Even joy, a typically good feeling, turns into an insanity that confuses the body, and the insanity of sorrow enrages the body. These feelings are forced upon the body for it to experience, while the soul does not allow it to forget the unpleasant memories. The body sees the soul as a cruel prankster which nurtures it, allowing the body to have a full spectrum of urges and the ability to act upon them, yet imposing it with a conscience, thereby hampering typically easy decisions about natural bodily functions. The body finishes the argument by stating that the soul molds the body into things which it either is not or should not naturally be; much like architects who interfere with the natural life of a living, unexperienced tree to fashion it into unnatural dwellings in which to house themselves, so does the soul attempt to alter the body without respect or regard to it's life, wishes, and desires.
while "a dialogue between the soul and body" initially appears as a swapping of complaints between a physical and a spiritual entity, it is important to note that the sentient soul and the dispassionate body are simply restating the same argument from their respective perspectives. Although the soul and the body desire freedom from each other, they fail to realize that they need each other to exist and in their complementation form one vital being. In letting them debate against one another, marvell has shown the inexorable link between body and soul and proves that there should exist a true dialogue between them rather than a constant debate which would serve to obstruct the joining of body and soul into a complete, organized, and passionate creature.
the dialogue form
the dialogue is a form of poetry which is not often used. However, marvell did write several: a dialogue between the resolved soul and created pleasure; clorinda and damon; a****************s and thestylis are other examples, the first like this one, a moral debate; the other two, pastoral poems with some religious significance. It is best to see this dialogue as being like a first class cricket match. Both sides get two innings, alternately. At the end, we have to declare the match drawn. Marvell, though clearly favouring the soul, does not give either side the match-winning argument.
soul says
the soul opens the batting with a powerful complaint: It is not only being imprisoned in the body, but tortured by it. The image of the soul being imprisoned is typically platonic. Its move is to escape through the death of the body. Marvell plays with several parts of this extended conceit: ‘blinded with an eye’ makes a nice paradox. The organs of sense blind (and bind) the soul to heaven, keeping it bound to sense impressions. Blinding was a common form of torture, as was constant sound. The worst part is ‘a vain head’, meaning stuffed with idle, fruitless thoughts, and a ‘double heart’, because divided.
body replies
the body is not too well pleased with this onslaught, and accuses the soul of driving it around, when all it wants is a quiet life. It even has to get up and walk upright! (‘mine own precipice i go’). The soul makes it restless with its own restlessness. It feels possessed by ‘this ill spirit’.
soul’s response
the soul's response is to enlarge on the ‘double heart’. It has its own grief through being trapped in the body and has to bear the body's grief as well. We might say in modern terms, the soul here is both the psychology and the spirituality of human existence: The psychology derives from the body; the spirituality, from its heavenly origins. Left to itself, it would escape the body by letting it die; but the body's concern is to keep itself alive, and the soul is forced to help it do that. Again, marvell makes the most of this paradox in his imagery: ‘shipwrackt into health again’; ‘whats worse, the cure’.
body concludes
the body is allowed its second innings. It lists the psychological suffering the soul forces on it through hope, fear, love, hatred and so on. The list goes on through the whole stanza. It climaxes with the paradox:
what but a soul could have the wit
to build me up for sin so fit?
only the soul has given it the consciousness of sin. Left to itself, it would live like the animals in instinctive, undifferentiated being. The final image is one that marvell was to take up several times in his ‘mower’ poems: The body is like an undifferentiated tree growing naturally; the soul like an architect (or topiary gardener, as we might say), which trims and prunes it into all kinds of outlandish and unnatural shapes.
the key question
the final question is a real dilemma, then: Marvell has been working slowly towards it. Do human beings live ‘as nature intended’, however shapeless that life might be morally or intellectually? Or do we raise ourselves through, allowing our ‘souls’ or spirits to restrain and shape our lives according to some overall design? Marvell does not push through to the soul's early conclusion: Its wish for death as escape. He recognises life is something that has to be accepted, however problematic it is