“The skull lies only a little beneath the skin. In light of this view, consider ways in which writers explore the awareness of death. In your answer compare one poetry text and one drama text.”

In the Jacobean and Georgian eras, death plagued the streets due to disease and poverty. Both Webster and Blake reflect this reality in their work, highlighting the comparable views of death and the afterlife. Critic S. J. Brooke outlined the end of life to be a maze of death and madness, illustrative of the cautious and questionable beliefs and explorations of both writers. With such beliefs inherently explored through the ideas of death being a natural part of life, the inextricable connection of death and religion, leading both writers to explore the existence of an afterlife.

It can be argued that in both The White Devil and Songs of Innocence and Experience, death explored as is a natural part of life, a symbol of the transience of life. In William Blakes poetry, death is defined as a natural event in the cyclical process of life, often seen as a relief from …(short extract)