Emily Dickinson's Attitude Towards Death

Emily Dickinson's fascination with death is reflected in some 500-600 poems out of about 1789 works, which constitute her literary output. The poet describes death from different perspectives, demonstrating her varied and complex emotions about it. For Dickinson, life is constantly shadowed by death, and that is why she makes death a recurrent theme of her poetry ("Biography"). She asserts death as an integral part of life that affects the living and remains one of the greatest mysteries she wishes to solve for herself and her readers.

In the poem "Because I Could not Stop for Death," Dickinson treats Death as a friend or, at least, acquaintance rather than an enemy. She portrays Death as a gentleman, underscoring his kindness and civility. The speaker, accompanied by Death, indulges in vivid and pleasant reminiscences. Her garment seems more appropriate for a wedding than a funeral, and symbolizes a new beginning: "For only gossamer my gown, / My tipper only tulle" (lines 15-16). The speaker views the grave as a house, which indicates that she is comfortable about dying. In the poem "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain," Dickinson explores the limits of one's earthly existence by describing what one might feel and think at the verge of dying. This passage from life to death does not feel like painless, as the tolling of the church bells: "As all the Heavens were a Bell, / And Being, but an Ear," (13-14). Lowering of the casket into the ground causes pain in the speaker as well as the reader. The fearful tone and language of the poem can be indicative of the speaker's loss of religious faith, and she plunges into the depth of doubts and skepticism about death. Many times Emily Dickinson emphasizes that death is not the final destination, but just a stop on a journey called "existence." This standpoint is evident in "I Had no Time to Hate," where the speaker seems to give advice for the living from the grave, making them realize the futility of hatred and the importance of love: "The little Toil of Love -- / I thought / Be large enough for Me" (10-12).

In her poems, Emily Dickinson embraces, questions, struggles with death, exploring it from various viewpoints (Preest). She tries to penetrate into the world, which is beyond our understanding and reach, remaining an outside observer who is able to record her considerations and emotions in succulent verbal morsels. She is focused on death, because it is inevitable and unexplored and gives a substantial jolt to her imagination.

Emily Dickinson seems to be writing about death from an advisory position. In the poem "I Had no Time to Hate", the persona seems to be advising the living that there is little time to hate, lamenting the brevity of life: "And Life was not so/ Ample I" (4-5). In this poem, she writes about a particularly intriguing character of death. She writes about how death cuts the plans of people short. She succinctly mentions this in the line: "The Grave would hinder me" (line 3). From her writings, it is clear that she seeks to make her messages persuasive to the living people by making her persona a person who has already experienced death.

It is emergent that Emily Dickinson depicts an ambivalent attitude towards death. Her attitude conflicts from poem to poem. In "Because I could Not Stop for Death", for instance, death is depicted in a friendly light: "He stopped for me" (2). The tone of the poem does not depict death with the horror with which people often associate it. Rather, death is seen as a friendly person who has the quality of "civility". The journey that death takes the persona through seems an everlasting pleasant experience. In stark contrast, the poem "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" describes death as a horrifying experience (Melani). The imagery that the fly confers upon the poem is that death leads to decay. The persona describes a state of decay where the solitude is broken only by the sound of a fly. The last two stanzas further deepen the senses of hopelessness and horror that are associated with death: "And the windows failed, and then/ I could not see to see". The words "failed" and "I could not see" symbolize intense hopelessness. Emily, thus is seen as presenting two conflicting views on death: one is that death is a relief and a desirable thing for any human being; the other is that death is a horrific experience about which there is nothing to smile.

Emily also endeavors to show an inexorable connection between death and immortality. In many of her poems, she does not accept death as finality. Rather, her work depicts death as a gateway to another form of existence, one through which all human beings must pass. In "Because I Could Not Stop for Death", the persona