An Analysis of Emily Dickinson's Poem 670
Have you ever been scared by your own shadow? Or have you ever been walking home at night, and nothing unusual is happening, but you can't shake this feeling that some mass murderer is following close behind, waiting to strike? Maybe you are crazy. More likely, though, you become scared by thinking of old tales or stories, like all the people who have gone into the woods and mysteriously vanished without a trace. I knew one girl who saw The Blair Witch Project and had to sleep with all the lights and the TV on that night, and still to this day won't go traipsing into the woods.
Emily Dickinson dealt a lot with the notion of us being more scared of ourselves than of our surroundings. This was from one of her more serious stages, unlike "Do" and "Autumn Rhapsody" (see the parodies here). "The Brain has Corridors-surpassing / Material Place-" Not too many people would rather meet a ghost than be within their own minds, but Dickinson challenges that notion, throwing out the idea that the thought or anticipation of a terrible event is much worse than the actual thing, like people who are afraid of needles. Most people, if you talk to them, will say they dread going to get a shot. Of course, if you approach them right as they come out of the doctor's office, they'll say it wasn't bad at all. Of course, they may be lying to save face. (A good way to tell is to look at their arm: if it looks okay, then they're telling the truth; if it has turned seven shades of blue and has swollen to the size of their neck, then they just got a tetanus shot and are bluffing about it not hurting.)
But who is "I"? Who is "ourself"? The question in itself seems quite simple, but is it? It's an interesting point that she raises, specifically within the phrase, "Ourself behind ourself, concealed-" Do we really know ourselves? How can we be behind ourselves? How many vague, rhetorical questions can I ask? Too many, obviously. Anyway, after some thought, I decided that Dickinson here is probably referring to the part of ourselves that we'd rather not know, or maybe a part of ourselves that we don't know just because we can't see it.
In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” for example, Hawthorne describes how, “perhaps the palefaced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them”(2). This directly contrasts the “light” faces of the members of the congregation with the darkness of the minister’s veil. By stating that the minister was just as afraid of the people as the people were of him, Hawthorne indicates that the people fear the minister due to the abrupt reveal of his mysterious sin, but the minister also somewhat fears the people and the secrets they hold deep within their hearts. The people of the town are supposedly pure and innocent, yet it is clear that many of the citizens carry the burden of their own evils. Although the minister boldly comes forward with his own sin, he still feels the pain of the loneliness, scorn, and spite that has come with his statement. Hawthorne represents the discomfort the guilty townspeople feel when in the presence of Mr. Hooper when he describes how they were, “conscious of lighter spirits the moment they lost sight of the black veil” (3). Once again, this use of light and dark imagery supports Hawthorne’s argument that people, even those who claim to be pure and innocent, are capable of sin. The townspeople in Mr. Hooper’s community feel the burden of their own sins when they come in
People become scared in their own minds because of paranoia and their own imagination. For instance, say you’re home alone and don’t have any animals and you hear a noise--your first emotion is most likely fear. Although you didn’t go check what made the sound or why it was made, you get scared and stay in one area until someone gets home or you call someone, it’s human nature. We make ourselves scared when there (usually) isn’t anything to be scared about. On the other hand, we purposely make ourselves scared sometimes by going to haunted houses, watching thriller movies, reading scary books, or watching horror shows.
Fear is an idea that almost everyone deals with in a lifetime. Terror is a shared emotion, but is provoked in different ways, such as spiders or clowns. A common fear is a fear of being alone physically or emotionally. Isolation in thought tends to grow this fear since original thoughts are difficult to explain if no one else has ever come to the same conclusions. Dr. Theodore Dalrymple in Romancing opiates deals with the same issue. Seeing life in a new perspective can lead to fear of self-validation, madness from being alone in one’s own ideas, and feeling ignored.
“When you say 'fear of the unknown', that is the definition of fear; fear is the unknown, fear is what you do not know, and it's genetically within us so that we feel safe. We feel scared of the woods because we're not familiar with it, and that keeps you safe.” – M. Night Shyamalan
Lang, H.J. “How Ambiguous is Hawthorne?” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Timmerman, John H. "Hawthorne's THE MINISTER's BLACK VEIL." Explicator 41.3 (1983): 29. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
...e parable “Minister’s Black Veil” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, symbols were often used to represent many themes that are still relevant in society and religion now. Hidden sin, guilt, and the shame attached to sin in Puritan beliefs are amongst some of the themes symbolized in the story. Known for playing with the dark side of human nature, in this parable, Hawthorne writes in an intentionally ambivalent tone that leaves endless speculation of Hooper’s actions. This parable is important to today’s life because it teaches the readers to not shudder away from darkness and sin that we often pretend do not exist. It also emphasizes that, in death, everything that is owned and use to cover up transgressions will be stripped and all pretense will be no longer. The themes represented in “Minister’s Black Veil” are timeless and will always be a big problem in society.
However, there is another issue that is related to the influence of the religion in the short story and that is that some writers and critics believe that the Mr. Hooper has turned into the antichrist. E. Earle Stibitz argues that the story is one of a man of God turned antichrist (183). There is an explicit meaning of the veil as a symbol of a crime that Mr. Hooper had committed and this is referred to the young woman whose funeral, he conducts because, he might kill her and because of the sin he wears the veil. In this part specifically, he became too think that he fails God beliefs and here is where the antichrist idea became to light. On the other hand William Bysshe said that the parable of the black veil is the story of betrayal, of a man of God turned antichrist (392). There is an enough fundament of why some of these writers conclude that this story is related to the antichrist. The question is if Hawthorne tries to give this implicit idea of the antichrist or he was trying to give a different notion.
We’re getting close to October and all the scary movie lovers and thrill-seekers gather around and prepare to be scared. However, have we ever thought of why most of us enjoy being scared? The article, “Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?” written by Allegra Ringo explores the science behind supernatural and physical thrills. The reality of something supernatural or somewhat human like but not exactly tears us apart and leaves us wanting more. Most people enjoy the possibilities of a greater form after life and death. All around the world most people are intrigued by ghosts, demons, spirits, hybrids of humans and such, monsters, and even non humans. The answer to the previous question is because of the hype of it all. When
Reading a poem by Emily Dickinson can often lead the reader to a rather introspective state. Dickinson writes at length about the drastically transformative effect a book may have upon its’ reader. Alternating between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, Dickinson masterfully uses the ballad meter to tell a story about the ecstasy brought by reading. In poem number 1587, she writes about the changes wrought upon the reader by a book and the liberty literature brings.
Emily Dickinson is one of the great visionary poets of nineteenth century America. In her lifetime, she composed more poems than most modern Americans will even read in their lifetimes. Dickinson is still praised today, and she continues to be taught in schools, read for pleasure, and studied for research and criticism. Since she stayed inside her house for most of her life, and many of her poems were not discovered until after her death, Dickinson was uninvolved in the publication process of her poetry. This means that every Dickinson poem in print today is just a guess—an assumption of what the author wanted on the page. As a result, Dickinson maintains an aura of mystery as a writer. However, this mystery is often overshadowed by a more prevalent notion of Dickinson as an eccentric recluse or a madwoman. Of course, it is difficult to give one label to Dickinson and expect that label to summarize her entire life. Certainly she was a complex woman who could not accurately be described with one sentence or phrase. Her poems are unique and quite interestingly composed—just looking at them on the page is pleasurable—and it may very well prove useful to examine the author when reading her poems. Understanding Dickinson may lead to a better interpretation of the poems, a better appreciation of her life’s work. What is not useful, however, is reading her poems while looking back at the one sentence summary of Dickinson’s life.
This poem begins, similarly to many of Dickinson’s poems, with a paradox in the first line, “I’m Nobody!” She uses this paradox to claim that if one is a nobody, then this reveals that one is a somebody, that one exists and has an independent identity, even if that personal identity is defined by an absence of social identity. This claim that one is nobody may suggest that one is disregarded by others, or similarly to Dickinson in her personal life viewed herself an outcast and chose to hardly ever leave her house. In reality, it is very likely that most people would not view her as an “outcast” and eventually her negative perception of herself would change. Therefore, Dickinson was too hard on herself and the speaker in this poems similarly is likely too hard on themselves as well. Ironically, if the speaker feels that she is “Nobody” because others ignore her or have negative perceptions of her, then her poem is a way of defying that kind of treatment—a way of making sure that she is indeed noticed. The meaning of the saying by itself “I am Nobody,” calls herself to our attention. The second half of the first line of the paradox then asks, “Who are you?” Although, the speaker maybe ignored or humble, or both, she seems to not unfriendly or have issues socializing. She immediately reaches out to the unknown persons referred to in the poem as “you,” a reference perhaps to the reader. It is as if the speaker were trying to establish a dialogue with another
Emily Dickinson was born on December 10th, 1830. She grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. When she was middle age, she didn’t come out of her house very often; she didn’t even attend her father’s funeral. It was said to be that she was depressed, she had epilepsy, agoraphobia, or social anxiety. She only communicated with her family through letters. In 1884 she fell ill due to kidney failure. Sight is what is produced from your eyes, and what is to vision means to see with your heart. In Before I got my eye put out and We Grow Accustomed to the Dark both have an underlying meaning. Some may perceive it to be literal, and some may see it to be something deeper. These poems both have a deeper meaning, she could have had an accident, lost her vision, and her sight to appreciate being able to see would be a bit understated. Some don’t appreciate what we have until they’ve lost it.
Literary Analysis of Emily Dickinson's Poetry. Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous authors in American history, and a good amount of that can be attributed to her uniqueness in writing. In Emily Dickinson's poem 'Because I could not stop for Death,' she characterizes her overarching theme of Death differently than it is usually described through the poetic devices of irony, imagery, symbolism, and word choice. Emily Dickinson likes to use many different forms of poetic devices and Emily's use of irony in poems is one of the reasons they stand out in American poetry. In her poem 'Because I could not stop for Death,' she refers to 'Death' in a good way.
Hopelessness is an intense emotion every person feels at one point in their life, a feeling closely interlinked with depression and suicide. In the poems “It was not Death, for I stood up,” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” by Emily Dickinson and “No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, the theme of the poems is hopelessness, but the authors approach the theme differently in each poem.