Death’s Duell is the final sermon delivered by Donne as the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, at a time when he was gravely ill. The address is viewed as his own death sermon since he died shortly after and seemed like a dying man on the pulpit. The sermon consists of themes of death and dying and the idea of the afterlife and spiritual rebirth. It references the life of Jesus Christ because he went through the horror of physical death but also the gift of resurrection.
During the sermon, Donne was suffering from a terminal illness which inspired most of his poems and addresses. He dwells on the ghastliness of physical decay of the body after the spirit leaves the physical world. As such, he addresses both the power and cruelty in death as it is a reality of life that is omnipresent. While the sermon is dark in nature when illustrating the descent into death, it offers hope of salvation and redemption. Delivered on the first Friday of Lent, it focuses on the life and death of Jesus Christ, as he is the hope of resurrection.
Donne is searching for answers regarding forgiveness and the afterlife because he is facing his own mortality. By accepting the process of physical death, the sermon allows him to think about the concept of rebirth. The fear of damnation prompts him to question whether he will reach heaven or not. To him, the continuation of the soul can be through eternal damnation or revival. He refers to death as a common enemy that intends to hurt and the goal is to battle it in the physical and the spiritual world.
