Emily Dickinson Impact On Society
Death and society have been considered as one of the major themes in nineteenth-century english literature across the poets of the world. Different societies have view death differently; some view death as a destroyer some as a solacer and rescuer (Tiwari & Khanday, 2017), but few as much as Emily Dickinson will focus on using death as her principal subject to reflect on issues of the society (Wright, 2017). In her poems, she sensitively and imaginatively describes the various emotional responses that the society presents and react at the face of death (Gallagher, 2007). This paper will focus on exploring the reference of different societies in Emily Dickinson’s death poem, how the society has contributed to her love of using death as a primary
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subject matter in her poems and how Emily Dickinson aims to challenge the notion of the perception of the society with her imaginative and dramatise subject matter about death.
As a key resemblance of the ‘Romantics’ of the 19th century; a society that view death as the only rescuer that could free human from social problems caused by people, sickness and diseases as well as natural disaster. Emily Dickinson carries the ‘escapist notion’ tendency where she views the occurrence of death as a termination of one’s life in a chaotic world and the beginning of a new life in eternity (Faur, 2012). Her poem “I Heard a fly buzz when I died”, is the best example in terms of finding an escape route through death. According to her poem, death is depicted as the start of an eternal life in as she dramatises the act of dying, and the mystical vision of the events that occurs immediately after someone dies. The poem presents a dying person, who is going to leave this world to enter the world of immortality and eternity, but is interrupted by the buzzing sound of a fly. The setting of the poem funeral portrays the typical nineteenth-century death scene, with the a crowd of people studying the dying countenance for signs of the soul’s fate beyond death.
“The eyes besides - had wrung them dry-
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power,’
The putrefaction (Yan, 2010) follows by the idea of ‘paradise’ in this poem has place Dickinson within the realm of Yogic Philosophy. A society that believe that death is not a separate realm, it is accessible to human if they quiet their mind, go within and seek out.
“The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air—
Between the Heaves of Storm—“
The poem pays a lot of reference to the society she lives in. The first stanza of the poem brings out a speaker who says that she gets the buzz after death but is not able to give any accounts of the activities that occurred after the buzz. In lines 7 and 8 of the poem, Dickinson uses the phrase “that last Onset” to imply the last stages of a person’s dying process. She brings out an imagery of mourners who were in the room at the time of death as representatives of a particular society. Possibly, the mourners are representatives of American Protestants who believed that their kin will be welcome by the “King” in the next life. From the scene, it is apparent that there is a major relationship between poems written by Dickinson and the society since most situations are synonymous with the American Christians (Nasaru et al., 2013).
In the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death", Dickinson reveals a number of connection and reference between death and the society she lives in. In the third stanza, Dickinson describes the different stages of life that she undergo before experiencing physical death.
“We passed the school where children played
At wrestling in a ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.”
She uses a speaker who describes the process of passing through the universe made of living beings to a new world of eternity. This is a symbol of life after death and relates to how the society views death (DeGrasse, 2017). She also describes how they pass through a school that has a children strove. This shows a description of life in the world and its timelessness in relation to the society’s beliefs on life and death (Dickinson, 1933). Such is the belief that the society she describes has on death, thereby creating a succinct relationship. She highlights death in a sentimentalised way that creates civility and allows death to wait for her to complete all her activities. When she describes death in a manner that creates personification and depicts it as patient and respectful to the society (Charteris-Black, 2016), It could be a reference towards the busy society where people have no time to ‘die’ and ‘death’ would have to wait. By looking at the society’s belief in the idea of life after death, she sees death as someone who will wait for her to finish her activities before taking her away.
Emily Dickinson’s lifelong attention was occupied by death therefore the society is a contributing factor of the rampant death theme in her poems. Nineteenth century of New England is a town where young people has a high mortality rate. Since young, she was troubled from the death of those who were close to her; for example her best friend, cousin, father and mother as well as her supposed lover. These deaths impacted her so much and has shaken her from within that she chose to live her remaining life confined to her bedroom. She wrote,
“The dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could raise my heart from one, another has come”,
This explains why Emily Dickinson’s has her own perspective about death because she has mystically experienced death in losing her near and dear ones.
Moreover, her increased obsession with the topic of death is reflected by her isolation that made her see death as the only companion. The society has affected how she viewed the world and death in a way that she never feared dying.
Notably, the idea of timelessness in eternal life comes out through the fact that the poem’s speaker passes a place when the setting sun rather than a place when the setting sun passes in the following stanza in “Because I Could Not Stopped for Death”:
We passed the Setting Sun -
Or rather - He passed us -
In a confined society, Emily Dickinson believes that the state of mind of the society and different religion has brought along different perspective towards death and the life after death. Dickinson poems give the society a new attitude and vision towards death by adapting a fresh implication of death. Dickinson gives the audience a new realm to create their own elucidations about death depending on their respective societies and religion. Although not appreciated throughout her lifetime, her poem continues to impress and influence society after her
deceased.
In her poem “I felt a funeral, in my brain”, the poet expresses her fearlessness of death.
“As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitaty, here-“
The poet imagines her funeral is going on inside her brain. She dramatised the whole episode of funeral for the reader to symbolises that the fact that death is a cosmic truth, of which one should not be afraid, once the mind accepts the death as an inevitable truth, death would not be frightful anymore. It’s dreadfulness is just the creation of our minds.
In summary, looking at Dickinson’s style of poetry and her life, it is clear that the society played a key role in making her write about death. Based on her isolation from the society, Dickinson became so obsessed with death that she considered it a major factor that the society feared to talk about. In any normal societal setting, most individuals prefer to interact with other people such as friends and family members. However, for the case of Dickinson, she presents a character who communicates beyond their grave, an indication that life after death exists (Alqaryouti & Sadeq, 2017). She lived alone and never wanted to communicate with anyone, unless through letters, which she only sent to a few people. From the poems analysed, the idea of death and its relationship with the society has been exclusively discussed.
subject matter in her poems and how Emily Dickinson aims to challenge the notion of the perception of the society with her imaginative and dramatise subject matter about death.
As a key resemblance of the ‘Romantics’ of the 19th century; a society that view death as the only rescuer that could free human from social problems caused by people, sickness and diseases as well as natural disaster. Emily Dickinson carries the ‘escapist notion’ tendency where she views the occurrence of death as a termination of one’s life in a chaotic world and the beginning of a new life in eternity (Faur, 2012). Her poem “I Heard a fly buzz when I died”, is the best example in terms of finding an escape route through death. According to her poem, death is depicted as the start of an eternal life in as she dramatises the act of dying, and the mystical vision of the events that occurs immediately after someone dies. The poem presents a dying person, who is going to leave this world to enter the world of immortality and eternity, but is interrupted by the buzzing sound of a fly. The setting of the poem funeral portrays the typical nineteenth-century death scene, with the a crowd of people studying the dying countenance for signs of the soul’s fate beyond death.
“The eyes besides - had wrung them dry-
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power,’
The putrefaction (Yan, 2010) follows by the idea of ‘paradise’ in this poem has place Dickinson within the realm of Yogic Philosophy. A society that believe that death is not a separate realm, it is accessible to human if they quiet their mind, go within and seek out.
“The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air—
Between the Heaves of Storm—“
The poem pays a lot of reference to the society she lives in. The first stanza of the poem brings out a speaker who says that she gets the buzz after death but is not able to give any accounts of the activities that occurred after the buzz. In lines 7 and 8 of the poem, Dickinson uses the phrase “that last Onset” to imply the last stages of a person’s dying process. She brings out an imagery of mourners who were in the room at the time of death as representatives of a particular society. Possibly, the mourners are representatives of American Protestants who believed that their kin will be welcome by the “King” in the next life. From the scene, it is apparent that there is a major relationship between poems written by Dickinson and the society since most situations are synonymous with the American Christians (Nasaru et al., 2013).
In the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death", Dickinson reveals a number of connection and reference between death and the society she lives in. In the third stanza, Dickinson describes the different stages of life that she undergo before experiencing physical death.
“We passed the school where children played
At wrestling in a ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.”
She uses a speaker who describes the process of passing through the universe made of living beings to a new world of eternity. This is a symbol of life after death and relates to how the society views death (DeGrasse, 2017). She also describes how they pass through a school that has a children strove. This shows a description of life in the world and its timelessness in relation to the society’s beliefs on life and death (Dickinson, 1933). Such is the belief that the society she describes has on death, thereby creating a succinct relationship. She highlights death in a sentimentalised way that creates civility and allows death to wait for her to complete all her activities. When she describes death in a manner that creates personification and depicts it as patient and respectful to the society (Charteris-Black, 2016), It could be a reference towards the busy society where people have no time to ‘die’ and ‘death’ would have to wait. By looking at the society’s belief in the idea of life after death, she sees death as someone who will wait for her to finish her activities before taking her away.
Emily Dickinson’s lifelong attention was occupied by death therefore the society is a contributing factor of the rampant death theme in her poems. Nineteenth century of New England is a town where young people has a high mortality rate. Since young, she was troubled from the death of those who were close to her; for example her best friend, cousin, father and mother as well as her supposed lover. These deaths impacted her so much and has shaken her from within that she chose to live her remaining life confined to her bedroom. She wrote,
“The dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could raise my heart from one, another has come”,
This explains why Emily Dickinson’s has her own perspective about death because she has mystically experienced death in losing her near and dear ones.
Moreover, her increased obsession with the topic of death is reflected by her isolation that made her see death as the only companion. The society has affected how she viewed the world and death in a way that she never feared dying.
Notably, the idea of timelessness in eternal life comes out through the fact that the poem’s speaker passes a place when the setting sun rather than a place when the setting sun passes in the following stanza in “Because I Could Not Stopped for Death”:
We passed the Setting Sun -
Or rather - He passed us -
In a confined society, Emily Dickinson believes that the state of mind of the society and different religion has brought along different perspective towards death and the life after death. Dickinson poems give the society a new attitude and vision towards death by adapting a fresh implication of death. Dickinson gives the audience a new realm to create their own elucidations about death depending on their respective societies and religion. Although not appreciated throughout her lifetime, her poem continues to impress and influence society after her
deceased.
In her poem “I felt a funeral, in my brain”, the poet expresses her fearlessness of death.
“As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitaty, here-“
The poet imagines her funeral is going on inside her brain. She dramatised the whole episode of funeral for the reader to symbolises that the fact that death is a cosmic truth, of which one should not be afraid, once the mind accepts the death as an inevitable truth, death would not be frightful anymore. It’s dreadfulness is just the creation of our minds.
In summary, looking at Dickinson’s style of poetry and her life, it is clear that the society played a key role in making her write about death. Based on her isolation from the society, Dickinson became so obsessed with death that she considered it a major factor that the society feared to talk about. In any normal societal setting, most individuals prefer to interact with other people such as friends and family members. However, for the case of Dickinson, she presents a character who communicates beyond their grave, an indication that life after death exists (Alqaryouti & Sadeq, 2017). She lived alone and never wanted to communicate with anyone, unless through letters, which she only sent to a few people. From the poems analysed, the idea of death and its relationship with the society has been exclusively discussed.