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Emily Dickinson Societal Norms

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Societal Norms, History, and Emily Dickinson In the year 1863, American citizens were fighting for many things; soldiers were drafted into the Civil War, women were combating the pressure coming from societal norms, and people were battling sickness and disease with little to no medical treatment. Alas, several individuals found their peace in the Christian religion, focusing on that specific comfort rather than the problems the world was facing. Many people in this era were religious or were resorting to religion due to the massive heartache the war was creating. The 19th century also brought many authors to the surface, albeit most were male. Female poets in this time were often overshadowed by the males literary works. Emily Dickinson was one of many authors who were not as well-known …show more content…

Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” was unconventional and unlike other 19th century poems, especially one’s written by women; this particular poem exemplifies her Christian background, while the issues surrounding the war, society, and medical stagnation influenced her writing. Dickinson’s poem is formatted in the traditional Elizabethan sonnet of love and creates a graceful flow (Winters 288). The complexity of Dickinson’s poem is formed by an ironic theme, …show more content…

She grew up in a religious home, learning about Christian morality and theology. This specific poem reflects her spiritual background,creating a deeper meaning to the words she chose to emphasize. Ralph Marcellino explains that “the word ‘immortality’ is often….practically synonymous with, or a euphemism for, ‘death’ (102). Dickinson’s definition of immortality alternatively had various meanings, the most likely one being the explanation of eternal life for the body and soul. Within her poem, she follows two main Christian concepts: at death the soul travels to heaven, and the soul is

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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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The writer is pained by this and is begging his father to not give in and instead fight death. Also, Dickinson states, “Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me.” (Dickinson, ll. 1-2) This quote is another example of both of the themes relating since the writer is talking about how death comes and goes. The author states that death visits her into the

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Whitman and Dickinson share the theme of death in their work, while Whitman decides to speak of death in a more realistic point of view, Dickinson speaks of the theme in a more conceptual one. In Whitman’s poems, he likes to have a more empathic view of individuals and their ways of living. For example, in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, the poet talks about not just of himself, but all human beings, and of how mankind works into the world and the life of it. Even though the poem mostly talks about life and the happiness of it, Whitman describes also that life itself has its ending, and that is the theme of death. For Dickinson, she is the complete opposite of happiness.

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Death is an unknown, no one has ever died and come back to tell the tale, instead people have to imagine and come up with what they think it will be like. The poets, Emily Dickinson and William Cullen Bryant, both had very different perspectives when it came to writing about death. In Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”, the speaker emphasizes that one joins nature and should not be afraid because they will be with everyone else as equals when they die. This is different from Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop for Death”, where the speaker takes a ride in a carriage with death for eternity. Whether or not these authors believed that their poems were actual representations of what happens when one dies, the poems both describe unique ideas of what

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Despite living in a patriarchal society, Emily Dickinson defied normalcy and showed her

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Many children use nightlights when they go to bed in order to limit the darkness surrounding them; the darkness impairs vision, leaving them with an overwhelming feeling of vulnerability. Adults face this dilemma at times too; it is an instinct that has evolved with the human race. However, darkness is not only a reality, but it is also a symbol of fear as well. Emily Dickinson’s “419” and Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night” use darkness and night as symbols of hope and desolation respectively, as revealed through the poets’ use of imagery, point of view, and structure, to disclose that darkness can either envelop or be overcome.

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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 writers add in seemingly random details such as capitalizations and dashes, one should pay attention. Emily Dickenson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light” is simply about light passing over the landscape, but no poem is only about what it seems. Dickenson uses caesura, juxtaposition, personification, and other literary devices to convey a dark, negative tone about the light throughout the poem.

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If she wasn’t writing about death then she was writing about religion. She wanted to be able to express herself in a way that would not offend some people while including something she loved and her beliefs. 1840-1850 is known as Religious Revivalism or the Second Awakening. “This was a time when there was religious problems going around in the United States” (The Second Great Awakening). Dickinson wanted to find a way she could express her religion during this time.

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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 poem “Because I could not stop for death” by Emily Dickinson, death is described as a person, and the narrator is communicating her journey with death in the afterlife. During the journey the speaker describes death as a person to accompany her during this journey. Using symbolism to show three locations that are important part of our lives. The speaker also uses imagery to show why death isn 't’ so scary.

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“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson is a poem about death being personified in an odd and imaginative way. The poet has a personal encounter with Death, who is male and drives a horse-carriage. They go on a mysterious journey through time and from life to death to an afterlife. The poem begins with its first line being the title, but Emily Dickinson’s poems were written without a title and only numbered when published, after she died in 1886.

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In Dickinson’s poem, death is not as terrifying as it is believed to be by most people. She sees death as a beautiful thing, a new chapter, rather than the last chapter. In contrast, Donne personifies death as a bully who turns out not to be so tough. Death is often thought of as dark and frightening, but Dickinson describes death as a journey, and not just a single event that concludes a life.

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In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Emily Dickinson uses imagery and symbols to establish the cycle of life and uses examples to establish the inevitability of death. This poem describes the speaker’s journey to the afterlife with death. Dickinson uses distinct images, such as a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson artfully uses symbols such as a child, a field of grain, and a sunset to establish the cycle of life and its different stages. Dickinson utilizes the example of the busyness of the speaker and the death of the sun to establish the inevitability of death.

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Emily Dickinson lived during a time when many would become very well acquainted with death. As such it would become a specter that was feared as it could make an appearance at any time. So looking at Dickinson 's work it seems rather interesting that taken as a collection there seems to be the tale of one character that comes to view death in a multitude of different ways throughout their life. First is the feared figure that leaves them restless, then death comes as something numbing but leaves the living to celebrate the life of the one that has passed, life as a story that is completed and finished upon death, and finally coming to see death as kind figure that takes one to a new home. this finally view is what paints death as something that is not to be feared but rather as something natural, it is the next

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