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Analysis Of Emily Dickinson's Exploration Of Death

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Emily Dickinson’s exploration of death and consciousness in “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” reveals her skepticism about eternal life and God. Much of Emily Dickinson’s work focuses on the finality of consciousness in death and her relationship with God. Her poems ponder what it means to move from physical awareness to one that is purely metaphysical. “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” highlight her unique view on the transfer of consciousness between life and death by reflecting on the mind during or after passing. Dickinson’s understanding of death was limited to her own experience which left her, like many others, questioning. Most won’t have a firsthand encounter …show more content…

The relationship God has with his creations seems to perplex Dickinson. Hughes describes her views of Christian spirituality as “[alternating] between loving communion and intense alienation, inspiring elation and traumatic despair” highlighting the contrasting sides of God which Dickinson envisions (287). The Bible depicts God both as wrathful and as love itself. She struggles with knowing that God would allow her to experience such anguish in life and in death, but also be a kind savior. God has duality, much like Death the carriage driver. It is easy, then, to picture Death as a foil to God. Through God, Christians find salvation and therefore eternity, like the speaker was lead to eternity by Death. Humans are made to be in his image, an image that “transcends time and speech” (Harrison 41). The narrator and Death share their ride with “Immortality,” something the speaker and God would both have in common following her ascension to Heaven, further illustrating her contemplation of humans mirroring God. She does not mistrust God, but rather cannot visualize the sheer vastness of the eternity he shares with his followers. With no sense of the true nature of eternal life, Dickinson was left to speculate and doubt on her

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Throughout the poem, Dickinson describes Death as a male that keeps coming for her while she is trying to escape him. In the first two lines, she uses personification, giving Death human characteristics. “Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me,” emphasizing death as a male and how he has stopped for her at this point. In lines 9-12, Dickinson uses imagery to create a picture for the reader to emphasize what she and Death are witnessing as they are passing through the area. Imagery is used throughout the poem to illustrate what she is seeing such as children at recess and passing the Fields of Gazing Grain and watching the Sun Set as they take a walk.

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However, her family held a strong Christian faith, pressuring her to be an outspoken and committed Christian. Despite her veneration for the Bible, she refused to be what they wanted her to be. Dickinson was her own distinctive individual, with a mind of her own. She believed that people were sinful and most humans were going to hell as she could never accept the ‘doctrine of original sin’ (Modern American Poetry 1). For Dickinson, ‘God, is alienated from His creation’ (Knapp 127).

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When Dickinson was young she thought of death as a kind, peaceful gentleman. She elaborates on this idea in her poem “Because I could not Stop for Death”, “Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me/ We slowly drove - He knew no haste,” Emily Dickinson uses the personification of Death in a way that bears resemblance to a classy, peaceful gentleman who is willing to slowly guide and patiently wait for a lady. Her wording also gives the connotation that she is young and in love with this gentle Death. This idea abruptly turns into hatred when she loses her parents.

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In the opening stanza the speaker states being too busy for death. Thus, death “kindly” takes the time to stop for her since she has no time to do it for herself. Death stops to pick up the speaker and take her on a ride in his horse-drawn carriage in the form of a suitor along with “immorality” being their chaperon. This “civility” that Death exhibits leads the speaker on giving up what made her busy as Dickinson states “And I had put away / My labor and my leisure too (6-7).

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