Exploring Violence and Death: A Comparison of Poe and Dickinson Works

This essay provides a comparative analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" and Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," focusing on their respective themes and the methods employed to convey them. "The Black Cat" explores themes of transformation, justice, judgment, freedom, confinement, and violence, portraying a descent into darkness driven by the narrator's perverse impulses. In contrast, Dickinson's poem personifies death as a gentle escort, exploring themes of mortality, immortality, and spirituality, presenting death as a peaceful transition to eternity. The essay highlights Poe's use of an unreliable narrator to depict horror and violence, while Dickinson employs personification and a calm acceptance of death to convey her themes. Ultimately, the essay contrasts Poe's focus on the darker aspects of human nature with Dickinson's exploration of life, death, and the afterlife.

Running head: COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Compare and Contrast
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1COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Whether it is in the form of a poetry, short story and drama; Literature is a form of
entertainment that had been around from ages, entertaining people all round the globe. They
are usually written by different poets and authors in order to convey their amazing
imaginations, deepest feelings and desires. Each and everyone for sure have been exposed to
a literature genre in their life at some or the other point. This paper will elaborate on two of
such genre- “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”
by Emily Dickinson. It will shed light on both the genre, comparing them in terms of their
themes and the way they deliver those themes.
The “The Black Cat” is a horror classic by Edgar Allan Poe. That offers a ominous
portrait of the home (Gregersdotter, Hallen & Hoglund, 2015). The main themes of the story
are transformation, justice and judgment, freedom and confinement, and violence. The
unnamed narrator of the story offers the readers a parade of violent actions. Eye gouging,
axing and hanging are some of the gruesome highlights in the story. Until the end, when
someone is murdered, the complete accounts of the violence are pivoted on the black cat, the
Pluto, who transformed from a pampered pet to a oppressive beast. The story is one of the
well-known claustrophobic tales of marital life that went wrong. It offers a clear
transformation from freedom to confinement. However, it is also to be noted that the
unnamed writer is writing sitting in a prison cell. Through this it can be sure that judgment
and justice, both are there in his mind. This story questions upon the ideas of justice and
judgment and reflects the turbulent and fraught state of the justice system prevailing in US, at
the time of Poe, when the rights for children, women, animals, African Americans, convicted
murderers and mentally ill were fiercely contested issues (Rogers, 2017). However, the
themes of this story revolves around the context that sin is a part of human nature and hence,
every man is attracted towards the actions of doing crime and wrong deeds. The author

2COMPARE AND CONTRAST
through this story also describes that doing things that are wrong is usually out of control of
human being. He therefore, blames his actions and doings on the spirit of perverseness.
On the other hand, in the poem, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, Dickinson
explains her endurance to her death. Through this poem, she personifies her death as a gentle
man or her groom, who comes to take her away on an enjoyable ride. Therefore, she
personifies it as something unavoidable and which comes to her in a very uncontrollable
manner. However, the two complete opposite themes of morality and immorality occupies
this poem. Dickinson in this poem has explored the idea of a perpetual life (Berke et al.,
2015). According to her, there is life after death. The theme of this poem is related to human
life and its relation to death and eternity. The poetess here has described death as a gentle and
pleasant experience, with eternity as the ultimate reward. She is not at all scared of her death
and she seems to accept it with open hand. Furthermore, the theme of spirituality can also be
identified in the poem. The speaker of the poem is a ghost and this means that Dickinson had
to trust or believe in life after death. Dickinson belongs to a Christian family; still she leaves
a specific religious reference out of the poem.
Hence, it is to be concluded that there are several themes on which the story “The
Black Cat” is revolving around, but the major theme of the story is violence. In this story, Poe
has used the device of an unnamed or unreliable narrator for weaving a short tale of violence
and horror, which has stemmed from the craven urge of the narrator to destroy his pets and
family. On the other hand, death is a recurrent concern of the poetry- Because I Could Not
Stop for Death. It is probably the death that is the major theme in the poem. The poem is
centered on the attitude of the poet towards her death. With the same, it is also found that the
theme immortality and spirituality too have their traces in the poem. This is why the poetess
is calm about her death. According to her, death is not the end; it in fact is just a step closer to
the eternity.

3COMPARE AND CONTRAST
References:
Berke, A., Bleil, R., Cofer, J., & Davis, D. (2015). Writing the Nation: A Concise
Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present. University System of Georgia,
University Press of North Georgia.
Gregersdotter, K., Hållén, N., & Höglund, J. (2015). A History of Animal Horror Cinema.
In Animal Horror Cinema (pp. 19-36). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Rogers, C. (2017). Literary Practice as High-Stakes Action: Narrative Medicine in the School
of English. Ex-Centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and
Media, (1), 9-20.