Death Works as a Living Character in Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the themes in Emily Dickinson’s poetry to examine how death works as a character in her poetry. Emily Dickinson’s poems Behind Me Dips Eternity, Death is a Supple Suitor, Death is Like the Insect, I heard a Fly buzz - when I died, I know He exists, Said Death to Passion and This World is not Conclusion are chosen to analyse in order to carry out the research. This paper revolves around the hypothesis that in Emily Dickinson’s poetry death works as a living character. The selected poems are analysed on a qualitative basis, whereas textual analysis with close reading is used to find out Death description along with a discussion. The results show that in Emily Dickinson’s poetry death works as a character that works as an agent in different forms who will unite her with God; in fact, she is not obsessed with death but is obsessed with God. Death is just a character that will help her unite her with Him. In her poetry, Death has been used as a symbol of compassion. Besides, Death has been personified as a kind of compassion. Throughout Emily Dickenson’s poetry, Death is analysed as a connectivity from the mortal world to the immortal. In this study, the qualitative approach is used to analyse Emily Dickenson’s poetry in depth.