What Is Emily Dickinson's View Of Death

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830. Her grandfather was the founder of Amherst College. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a lawyer who served as the treasurer of the college and also held various political offices. Her mother was just a regular stay at home mother. Her education was strongly influenced by Puritan religious beliefs, but did not accept the teachings of the Unitarian church attended by her family and remained agnostic throughout her life. She began writing verses at an early age, practicing by rewriting poems she found in books, magazines, and newspapers. During a trip to Philadelphia in the early 1850s, Dickinson fell in love with a married minister, the Reverend Charles Wadsworth. Her disappointment in
He cannot just come and take her, but a third party, Immortality, must come along and chaperon their ride, to make sure that Death does not do anything improper. Also, Death cannot rush, but has to drive slowly, because he is not simply in the business of grabbing souls; he has taste and sensibility.”(Kenneth) Because of Dickinson's religious belief in immortal life, the significance of Death itself is diminished. It is as powerless in this situation as the person who is being carried away and “as trapped by manners as the dying are by biology.”(Kenneth)Dickinson uses the personification of Death as a metaphor throughout the poem. Here, Death is a gentleman; It would have been scandalous for a young, unmarried 19th century woman to take a carriage ride alone with a strange gentleman. In this instance, a chaperon named Immortality rides with them. This is another example of personification.” Though the poem's speaker offers no description of Immortality, one might imagine an ageless-looking little woman in a gray dress.”(Marie) Death is not frightening, or even intimidating, reaper, but rather a courteous and gentle guide, leading her to eternity. The speaker feels no fear when Death picks her up in his carriage; she just sees it as an act of kindness, as she was too busy to find time for him. It is this kindness, this individual attention to her it is emphasized in the first stanza that the carriage holds just the two of them, doubly so because of the internal rhyme in “held” and “ourselves”—that leads the speaker to so easily give up on her life and what it contained. This is explicitly stated, as it is “For His Civility” that she puts away her “labor” and her “leisure,” which is Dickinson using metonymy to represent another alliterative word her