Emily Dickinson's 'Because I could not stop for Death'
Added on 2021-06-16
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Running head: Critical Analysis of the poem “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”Because I could not stop for Death-Emily DickinsonName of the StudentName of the UniversityAuthor Note
1Critical Analysis of the poem “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”Because I could not stop for Death-Emily Dickinson“Because I could Not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson, is a allegorical poem,which can be seen as a screenplay, which narrates the story of a lady being courted,kidnapped and finally murdered by a chivalrous gentleman. The lady in the poem, referred toas ‘I’, is a timid fictitious character, which draws several similarities with the character of“The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake, as both are characterized as naïve, chatty,cheerful innocent people, unaware of the evil that exists in the world (Paglia p96; Dickinsonand Howe; Blake).“Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; the carriage held butjust ourselves and immortality” (Dickinson p110). The poet uses the rhythm and the rhymesto sketch the childish confidence in the benevolence of all life-forms of the character “I”.Thus, the character is unable to see through the ‘ruse’ of civilly (good manners) shown by thegentleman (Death). The character of ‘death’ can be understood as a common villainousarchetype of the nineteenth century American literature and folklore, as a trickster, seducer ora confidence man. And the pleasant journey eventually ends with a horrific ending (Paglia).The poem starts with a mysterious gentleman who ‘kindly stopped’ for the lady, togive her a lift, as she seemed to be too busy with her busy life. This might have a disturbingsymbolism, which showed that the reluctance of the lady to ‘stop’ was easily overcome dueto the influence of this mysterious gentleman, which might point out to the grim truth thatdeath can come at moments least expected. The ‘kind’ behavior can be understood as acommon pun of the early nineteenth century, as also seen in Hamlet I.ii.65, and it points outtowards the relation of mankind with mortality (Shakespeare). The last two lines of the firststanza shows that the lady is being lured away from her home with the promise of
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