Duyfhuizen's anaylis of Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"
...by his proposal. Let’s say they were young and in love. They may be finding themselves in a rare unsupervised setting, at a time when it was not considered proper for single women to be alone with a man. This type of scenario supports the carpe diem theme throughout the poem. This may be the only opportunity they will have. He speaks of love often, which leads me to believe this was more than just a ‘pick up’ line. “My vegetable love should grow”, “Love you ten years before the flood”, “To walk and pass our long love’s day”. certainly he could have constructed an equally compelling argument without such references to love. To love someone “…Ten years before the flood… /Till the conversion of the Jews” is quite a commitment. Why then, again, should they not marry? This brings about the question of what the roadblock in their relationship was? She may well have been arranged to marry someone else. Her father would certainly have more to say about who may come courting. It could have been a Romeo and Juliet situation; he may not be up to the high standards of her family. Could he have been married? One would assume not, although, had he been, it would lend credence to the sense of reckless abandon in which case she may well be very offended by such an advance. In the second stance love turns to lust and the underlying tone becomes more ominous. “…then worms shall try/ That long preserved virginity.” He alludes that if she sacrifices this chance, she may well die a virgin. “The grave’s a fine and private place./ but none, I think do there embrace.” Could this mean she in fact is not as young as one may have thought initially? By 18 she would have been considered an old maid, could she be past proper marrying age for the time and as such would she have nothing then to lose? If so, this becomes a most unsavory proposition, quite possibly a flat out insult. Where she so old, poor or ugly that she likely would never have another chance to engage i...