A feminist voice in ‘Because I could not stop for Death’ by Emily Dickinson
Although Dickinson’s state in the poem seemed fixated on death, what if there was something deeper beneath the surface in her work? What if there was a feminist voice throughout the literature? This paper deals with the gender role and feminism described in the above mentioned poem of Emily Dickinson.
Personifying the death as a ‘man’, a gender based characterization, the poem started with depicting a woman’s date with death. Thus, death becomes a superior masculine suitor “He”:
Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
Whether it takes the form of a handsome suitor, death is never welcomed by any mortal. Denying the basic human instinct, this poem figuratively showed an unmarried woman going on a date with the man-like death. Subverting the cult of true womanhood, Dickinson sent 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. Scholars argued that here death is also the other name of marriage, where the man and wife take a heavily romantic (carriage) and immortal journey to the eternity.
Proceeding through a rich imagery, Death’s passenger does not seem as concerned with their destination. Rather the passenger was much relieved putting away her “labor and leisure” and passing through serenity of children playing, wheat growing and the sun setting. In the poem, Dickinson commented directly on the roles and experiences of women in a patriarchal society. In 19th
Century, men were supposed to be the only social elite who were logically humble and polite and were in control. They were the greatest of all men who were hard working. On the other hand, women were supposed to be lazy and busy in household works. The poem gave women the liberty to enjoy the serenity of eternity through a new dimension of universal clock (setting sun).
From the fourteenth line, the poem took another turn where the stereotypical gender role were back again:
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
The passenger was under-dressed for the journey wearing a thin gown which could not even stop her from being chilled. According to feminist scholars, these lines proves that she was not on her will on the journey, she did not choose this journey with the death. Rather the death (man) was taking her to the grave (house) where there were no corners and it was with a low suffocating roof. Scholars argued that by these lines, poet wanted to point towards the consequence of unequal marriage where the woman feels suffocated, lost and submissive.
Since then ‘tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
According to scholars, these lines contain an excellent example of exaggeration or overstatement that is not meant to be taken literally. In these final lines, Dickinson has attempted to describe what no living human can know: that moment the meaning of “forever” becomes clear. Oddly enough, there is no bolt of lightning or clap of thunder. Dickinson uses the word “surmised,” meaning that the woman guesses, through intuition, the answer to the riddle of human existence. She looks at the heads of the horses and sees that they are pointed “toward Eternity,” and suddenly she remembers that Immortality has been sitting beside her all along.
In the final lines, Dickinson tried to express that we think about the quantity of life but what is about the quality of life? What happens when we are no longer alive? We become free, we become strong. So, worldly patriarchal norms, stereotypical practices and submissiveness cannot suppress a woman when she realizes that the death (freedom) was always sitting beside her to fly and feel forever.
Alongside with this poems elaboration by feminist scholars, Emily Dickinson’s personal life and literary life also contribute to the explanation of this poem from feminist perspective. Her poetries reflect a unique female creative voices which expresses that woman’s issues with in-depth push are certainly to be manifested in literatures. Dickinson explores woman’s viewpoint in her poems questioning and challenging society’s cultural and religious definitions that repress woman.
Like her other poetries, Dickinson intentionally created a confused yet strong female voice who finds out her eternity at the end; who starts understanding the meaning of freedom in her afterlife. By creating a large variety of personas in her poetry, she was able to create roles that sought empowerment in life. She has always chosen a viable option that allowed her to withdraw from such a male dominated society. She made the confines of her home, her shelter from society, only allowing a select few to remain in her personal life.
Through subverting the 19th
Century gender role and inverting the desire for eternal freedom, Dickinson explores the metaphorical man-like death’s trajectory in her poetry. Thus, she created a strong feminist voice in her poetry. The feminist voice became more clearer in her another poem, “It was not death, for I stood up”.
Works Cited
Hughes. G. R. (1986). Subverting the cult of domesticity: Emily Dickinson’s critique of women’s work. Legacy. Vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 17-28
Nameirakpam, R. D. (2011). The woman’s voice: a study of the poems of Emily Dickinson. North-Eastern Hill University.
Steiner, D. (1981). Emily Dickinson: Image patterns and the female imagination. Legacy. Vol. 6, No. 1 (1981), pp. 57-71
