Because I Could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson Analysis

           In the poem “Because I could not stop for Death,” the poet Emily Dickinson plays with the literary element of personification and imagery in order to assigned a normality to death that transcends beyond time and space to disintegrate the individual and their life into infinity or an absolute emptiness.

          Since the beginning of the poem, Dickinson opens up with “Because I could not stop for Death –,”  the narrator is forces to tried to find a way around or over death in order to accomplish something that death, like a villain, has turns into a personal vendetta against the narrator. Rather than to transform death into the protagonist, however, Dickinson cleverly transforms life and it's endless possibility into the main focus and a public issue that threads to overlook it's taboness and the decay of the life span. Because life has become the focus rather than death, the individual is forced to accepted death as a vital stage of life and it's worth to be limitless if one allowed life to be determined by death. Rather than waiting for death to take over her life with an illness or something , the narrator is trying to get away from it by accomplished as must as she can before her body is reduced to dust. In a way, death is preventing her from accomplishing things that would transcendent beyond him and the narrator's body, yet, she is forced to accommodate to his tune in order to keep dancing. Despite the fact that the narrator knows that she is going to die and death is in charge of setting the date and place, the narrator is consumed by an illogical compulsion that keeps motivating her to fight a lost battle against death in order to be produced and reach immortality. Because Dickinson was a poet who loves words and proses due to the extend numbers of texts that she wrote, one can assume that the narrator is trying to overcome death threw her verses, voice or words likewise. 

            When Dickinson states that “He kindly stopped for me –,” Dickinson personifications death as a gentleman who seen to be taking his time in order to court her and show compassion or kindness rather than the violence or chaos that one would have expect him to release. If Dickinson’s tone is sarcastic, however, one can assumed that she is suggesting that death hides behind a mask of passivity in order to paint his true intentions, sadism, hate  and uncontrollable violence against her and humanity. If Dickinson’s tone is serious, on the other hand, one can speculates that she is resigned that death is inevitable weather one tries to fight or hide from it. As a result, she is able to see that death as a judge have the manners and consideration to slow down to allowed the individual to enjoy their present if they resigned that dying is part of an evolution that would continue. The fact that the narrator is not running away from death and its chariot suggests that she is not afraid of death or she is so paralysed by the fear of the unknown that she can not move or think. Despite the fact that death wipe out everyone equally from existence rather than giving preferential treatment to a few which it is his fairness and  his nobility, there is an implication that death have take a sweet spot preferable against the narrator to caused unnecessary pain. Despite of that, Dickinson seen to encourages to accept death and comfort to it.

              When Dickinson further illustrates “The Carriage held but just Ourselves –/ And Immortality,” Dickinson is using the literary element of imagery in order to force herself and the audience to coexist and share the same physical space with death and immortality. The interesting thing about this image, however, is that Dickinson allows the audience to imagine where they would placed each character and the type of carriage that would be used to transported them. Because carriages evokes the image of the elites entertaining themselves with short trips on carriage begin pulled by horses around the plaza in order to show up the latest fashion, their status, or money, one can  assume that death wants the narrator and the audience to either appreciated their status or prestige before the journey ends or to enjoy a last moment of luxury before being transported to the other side. Because this individuals are traveling with death throughout  the earth, one can assumed that death, at some point, would get angry and killed them in order to claim their soul. Because their bodies would be too heavy to be carried to the other side and even an imposition that would limit the individual with the decay of the fresh, one would expect their souls to be owned by  immortality after they died rather than by death. The irony, however, it is that Immortality is personified as an adult or psychologist who seen to be observing silencely from the other side of the carriage in order to made a medical decision about the narrator and us. Because eternity for the individual would be the aim, one can assumed that immortality would decides whether or not our memories and contribution would be worthed or not after the decomposition of our body and name. In the other hand, immortality could be seating outside listen to the narrator and death’s conversation as he rides the carriage in order to prevent it to crash with another object or carriage until they reached eternity and its destination. Weather immortality is inside or outside of the carriage, it can be assumed that he is characterized as a voyer who it is enjoying the interaction threw his observation, but he is not contributing nothing to the other passengers despite the fact that he seen to also have the authority to imposed his wishes. In a way, immortality is driving the carriage as chaperone or scientific, yet death seen to owns it and provides the orders as to where and when the chariot would stop. 

         When Dickinson states “We slowly drove – He knew no haste.” This quote illustrates that they were taking their time in order to reach their destination. Dickinson illustrates the temporary disorientation from the narrator that she was in charge of the transgression of life. When she immediately fix it, however, Dickinson does not just correct the fact that death is in charge of the tempo of life, but he has the sadistic need to prolong the torture or pain in order to feel in control of the journey and the individual. Rather than finished with the agony of the individual fast, the narrator is tricked to believe that death have granted them some power and hope, yet the emotional invasion became more hopeless, inevitable and chaotic even if the narrator is not afraid of dying. The interesting thing about this line, however, is that Dickinson enforced the gender of death as a man rather than a women. The interesting implication about it is that God and death itself might supported a patriarchal system where women are not value or even prioritizes as much as men due to the fact that they have the authority and the key roles of power and command. 

        When Dickinson writes “And I put away/My labor and my leisure too,/ For his Civility –”(?), Dickinson might be sarcastically arguing that she or women has been forced to live as server of men and its social death, yet women would never submit to them seriously even if they pretend to give them a preferential and polite seat. In a way, Dickinson seen to be refusing this spot and seen to be revealing that the narrator have become aware of her own deadness and its independence. Despite of the fact that the narrator has become a social death figure due to her depression, the narrator is unchained from mundane matters that used to occupy her time such as work and pleasure. Because the narrator is consumed by a disattachement from the things that used to bring pleasure, independent or joy to her persona, in a way, the narrator have give up upon her mortality due to an overwhelming depression that confined her to a single place. A place where death have replaced the desire to remain attached to the ordinary things such as work and entertaining for an emptiness that does not provided the purpose to live with possibilities. As a consequence, the narrator have loss her faith. When Dickinson indicates that the narrator have give up her pleasure for his “civility,” one can assume that she is referring to death. In a way, Dickinson has replaced God, as a figure to serve and worship, with death as the  master or entity to be respect and required to served. When death becomes the master who distracted her from her ordinary assignments and own pleasure, however, the individual focus on  a pessimistic view where the world does not have meaning and it is not worth living for if one is going to die anyways. 

         When Dickinson further portrays the image “We passed the School, where Children Strove/ At Recess – in the Ring –,” the narrator seen to be watching threw the window a group of children playing in the field of a school. Despite the notion that one can assume that this children are  running around, there is a melancholic feeling attached to this scene. In a way, the narrator have been kidnapped or chained to this vehicle without the ability to escape or enjoy the scene which inevitably convert her into a prisoner. When Dickinson uses the word “strove” which it is defined as a “struggle or work hard despite of their situation”, there is an emphasis that there is a layer of suffer behind the innocence or playfulness of the future generations. When Dickinson illustrates that the children’s strove, there is a direct implication, that the children are working hard to overcome the struggles of their stage in order to escape from the ring. Because the ring could be reference to boxing or marriage, the children must learn to get away from the violence in order to find another way to vision their mortality and the world. On the other hand, the ring could symbolized the union of two individuals into married which indirectly could have implied that they are going to suffer during this contract or life if they do not take it too slowly or either compromise to find a neutral ground. On the other hand, Dickinson could be alluding with this image that life would  continue by the new generations who will have to find their own way even if they struggle, yet one must resign oneself that as time and the path continues, one must find joy and enjoyment in the little moments even if death is the ultimate destination.

When Dickinson writes “We passed the Field of Gazing Grain –/ We passed the Setting Sun –,” the narrator portrays a piece landscape that it is supposed to  provide peace and comfort, yet this image provided mix feelings that could symbolized either finality or a prosperity that would either expand over the individual’s spirit rather than the body/territory or remind him of the emptiness after death. In a way, one could perceived that Dickinson is not alluding that the narrator would be collecting the fruits that she planted while she was alive. Dickinson is neither arguing that life has passed the individual without producing a change that impacted him to become  better or worse individual. When Dickinson sets the characters in "the fields of gazing grain" with "the setting sun,"however, there is an implication that one needs to find comfort with  the end of the day or life, where the sun would set, in order to leave space for the night or its emptiness to take over. Dickinson might be alluding that one would have to pass over the other as a transition needed in order to appreciate life from death. The fact that Dickinson alludes to a field of gazing grain such as rice, in the other hand, could mean that the individual needs to risk and invent in a plantation that he does not know weather its crops would be strong enough to survived the plague or the environment itself. In a way, one could imagined  that the grains are individuals or planters who have become slave to a plantation mentality that have chained them  by own deadness. On the other hand, the gazing grain could be the heads of some passive individuals who remain social death watching others live to their potential, while they remain stuck observing the life of others shine. As the temperature become colder and we become older, we are more likely to dance closer to death. The repetition of  “we passed” might emphasis that there is a necessary to move and change, even, when the individual by nature are inclined to stillness and the desire to maintain everything the same and comfortable which it is associated to a deathness. 

When Dickinson writes “Or rather – He passed Us –,” could be interpret in two ways. In one hand, one can implied that the sun have set foot above the horizon and pass them to allowed the individual to take over their life before the time run out. On the other way, death and the sun  to become one to allowed the individual to enjoy the journey even if death might be turning the environment into a cold setting that it is trying to steals the brightness over and under the horizon.

When Dickinson states “The Dews drew quivering and Chill –/ For only Gossamer, my Gown –/ My Tippet – only Tulle –,” the narrator illustrates that the narrator is underdress for this journey. As a consequence, the cold is exposing her to the elements. Ironically, it is threw this cold that enforced deadness that the  narrator seen more alive rather than vulnerable. In a way,  the dew or the water drop that appeared in the plants or life itself in the morning, it is representing more life and fertility rather than the finality or deadness of the dew emphasis by  the night. 

           When Dickinson stages “We paused before a House that seemed/ A Swelling of the Ground –” (?).  This imagery paints the burial place where the speaker would be buried after she dies or the house where death himself would resides. In a way, it appears like death is indirectly waiting for the approved of the narrator and death in order to continue as a happy couple. Because the speaker seen to remain calm after she saw the place where she could end soon, one can assumed that she is not afraid for her life. Rather, the narrator is comfortable that that she would raise under the dust that saw her emerged. In a way, the gravesite would become witness or judge as to her existence and weather her life would be memorable despite of time and her physical death. 

When Dickinson paints “The Roof was scarcely visible –/ The Cornice – in the Ground,”  seen to illustrates this underground burial that would ultimately become the resting place for the narrator or us. The image, however, it is convert into a tomb that would not received either light rays or clarity as a consequence there is not sense of life or hope in the future. In a way, Dickinson could be illustrating that death have become dark or pure emptiness that would evolucionated the individual into another form or being that would remain alive and part of the ecosystem.

When Dickinson discusses that “Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet/ Feels shorter than the Day,” the narrator could be referring to the event where she lost her life and how recently she perceived it like the event just happen yesterday. In a way, time seen to be relative and insignificant for the narrator because time does not seen to forgive, yet one would have expect eternity to have already made a choice. Apparently, however, mortality has have made a choice even before the narrator have been pick up by death. In a way, Dickinson implies that the narrator have died, would die and it is dying with us as we read. Indirectly, Dickinson admits that it is through the vivid memories of her verses and words rather than time or her life sprang that she remain alives even if her carnal death happens a long time ago or tomorrow. 

       When Dickinson concludes with “I first surmised the Horses' Heads/ Were toward Eternity –”(?), there is a symbolic image used to emphasis that eternity and virility would be achieved to her verses rather than the immortality  that one would expect threw the reincarnation of the body or death itself. The interesting point that Dickinson illustrates is that there might be another parallel world or dimension that the individual would be able to move toward once they finished with this journey that would lead to eternity. The fact that it is the horse and not death that steals the ending of the journey as the protagonist might indicates that death might not ultimately be  the purpose of life. One is transported to the desire or hope of Dickinson that death would be a step needed in order to reach immortality, yet not necessary the end of the journey. Because the word “surmised” is something that it is true without having evidence to confirm it, one might assumed that eternity or immortality might not be guaranteed, yet the horses, at least, symbolizes a virile and wildness that would transported the individual and the carriage that it is life to an eternity where time would be irrelevant, pick-up or drop point are needed and one it is not certain of anything and everything. We, like the horses, would run wild on the field until the shadow find us.