Jingar 1

Nikhita Jingar
Mrs. Mann
AP English Literature and Composition Block 1
29 September 2014
Letting Her Repent
Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali mathematician, once commented, Every difficulty
slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on. In the poem The Apparition by
John Donne, an apparition is disturbing a woman who, once, caused him difficulties in his life.
The apparition is seeking revenge on a woman who has presumably cheated him, yet he is
willing to offer her a second chance in order to redeem herself so that he and she can be peaceful
in the future. Although the speaker, the apparition, feels spiteful toward the woman, his time
spent on haunting her proves that he is still somewhat attached to her.
Throughout the course of the poem, we feel the speakers spite toward this woman who
is, or was, potentially cheating on him. He calls her many degrading names, such as murdress,
feignd vestal and poor aspen wretch. Donnes emphasis on these names, by separating them
with commas, creates a tone of spite. These three names posses a negative connotation revealing
how the speaker feels. The word murdress, specifically, shows that, figuratively, through her
cheating on him, a part of him died. Therefore, he wants to achieve revenge on her as he says,
And that thou thinkst thee freeThen shall my ghost come to thy bed. Adding on to the
speakers spite, Donne utilizes end rhymes to imply that the apparitions haunting became a
rhythmic activity, as in it continued night after night, inevitably. Figuratively, the end rhymes
serve as an indicator that the end will always have the same predictable ending, most likely the
end of the womans night with her being frightened by the apparition. This repetitive work is

Jingar 2
solely for the apparitions specific goal of allowing the woman to repent for herself after finally
feeling frightened for too long.
Although he wants her to fear him, this feeling creates an attachment to the result. He is
completely involved in making her repent that this want seems to become his existence. He
wants her to go through a hard time so that he can feel equal with what she did to him. He says,
Ihad rather thou shouldst painfully repent, / Than by my threatnings rest still innocent. He
will not tell her what she did because he wants her to be able to repent for her actions by herself.
Though, he will help her painfully repent through his haunting. Because of this severe want, he
has become attached with seeing her suffer and tremble. The setting as well, serves to show the
apparitions attachment to the woman. He most likely constantly haunts her in her bedroom
every night. His attachment to her is very evident in the fact that he is able to predict how she
will react to feeling his presence and how she will interact with the new man she is then with.
The apparition comments, Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him think / Thou callst for more, /
And in false sleep will from thee shrink. This repetition goes along with his feelings of spite as
he wants her to be unhappy with whoever she is with and wants her to feel the same feelings her
felt as when she betrayed him, yet he is still able to give her another chance to redeem herself. At
the end of the poem, he says that since my love is spent, / Ihad rather thou shouldst painfully
repent. He brings his own feelings full circle as he expresses anger yet also forgiveness but is,
in turn, using his anger to stimulate forgiveness from her. His action of scaring her is only to help
her to eventually repent for her own misdoings.
The apparition feels a strong sense of spite toward the woman who previously betrayed
him. Despite this spite, he is still willing to let her repent for herself, yet he wont let her off
without a bit of punishment. His feelings of spite, however, are only initiated by his want of her
repentance.