Charles Dickinson Ambiguity

Carillo, Elazje Carene Pytch A. September 13, 2013
III-2 AB/BSE Literature American Literature
Opening the Window Pane of Ambiguity in Dickinson’s “The Mystery of Pain” ______________________________________________________________________________ The Mystery of Pain Pain has an element of blank; It cannot recollect When it began, or if there was A time when it was not. It has no future but itself, Its infinite realms contain Its past, enlightened to perceive New periods of pain.

The ambiguity seen in this poem is the use of Affective Ambivalence/
The word ‘enlightenment’ shows the ambiguity in the poem through the use of irony. Enlightenment is insight which enlarges our intellectual or spiritual understanding or enhances our knowledge. The enlightenment which pain brings is the realization that the future holds more and still more pain. Being enlightened means to be uplifted to expect a better outcome but this was contradicted by being uplifted through knowing that there is more pain to come in the