Death Be Not Proud Literary Devices

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Her inner conflict began with a recitation of Death Be Not Proud by Donne; her recitation of this poem is also a self-reflection. The poem discusses how death claims all rich and poor alike. The poem ends with this hopeful reminder that in the end death will die. After that is a monologue in which we see Vivian’s mind, as war with her body. Her body is going bald, and insisting on “barfing her brains out”(Edson, 32), but her mind is sharp. Vivian contemplates the Anglo-Saxon turn that her laugue has taken, and the reaction her colleagues would have to her death. Yet once again Vivian seems to miss the most important part of the poem Professor Ashford had said in the beginning of the play about this poem “Nothing but a breath- a comma- separates life from life everlasting” (Edson, 14). It is this that Sykes uses to point out “The individual need not approach it (death) with inflated drama. Rather a quiet confidence is in order” (Sykes, 4). The problem that Sykes points out is that Vivian is not able to see the simple truth yet; she is still too wrapped up in the wit of it.
The second major internal conflict that Vivian has comes on page 48 after she has been admitted to the hospital and put in isolation for severe fever and neutropenia. This is her last entrance into the hospital, and once she …show more content…
The first is the costuming. The entire play, Vivian is in full hospital regalia, hospital gown, an I.V. bag, and most effective a bald head. The set is sparse in fact many productions only use a hospital bed and nothing else. The truly incredible thing is the lighting. Normally the back wall of the set is made of different off set layers of white cloth. At the end of the play everything else goes dark, except for the back lights. It burns through the white cloth with an intense white light. In that moment Vivian drops her gown and walk into the light, to
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