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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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