I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain, By Emily Dickinson

Death is a common theme in literature. It is the end of the line on the human train of life. People have different views on death, with some fearing it and some embracing it as a passage to something else. Death can be interpreted in ways other than just loss of physical life, including loss of a loved one or even loss of sanity. Both Emily Dickinson’s poem “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” and Ambrose Bierce’s story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” deal with the theme of death, albeit in different ways. However, they are both losing what they hold dearest to them. These two pieces of work by Dickinson and Bierce are similar in that they convey the theme of the death or something they care about.

“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” is one of

Emily Dickinson's most famous poems. It “is a poem in which Dickinson attempts to render into formal poetic language the experience of a mind facing its own collapse” (Thomason 137). In this situation, she is going insane very quickly in the poem when she says
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading - treading - till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through - (Dickinson 1 - 4)
Then in the next stanza, she shows her fear for what is happening to her. The drums are an additional representation of her going crazy. In the third stanza, she is baffled by what is happening, but can still feel it. In the last line, her brain dies (Thomason 137). The funeral in the poem represents the death of her brain’s reason. It puts together what she feels physically and what she feels happening in her head (138). With this combination, the poem looks in the brain of the narrator, which is what Dickinson has the best understanding of (Panesar par. 8). The poem could also be interpreted as loss of belief in a god; the funeral represents the death of faith. Believing in god is all about trust, and when “the Plank in Reason, Broke”, she fell into a state of not trusting anything (Thomason 139). In terms of the poem’s literary structure, it is written in iambic trimeter. This meter is used to enforce the series of events that happen that lead to her loss of mental reason (140). Dickinson also uses hyphens a lot to reference things that were not said. These things make the poem as a whole more mysterious (Panesar par. 3).
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is one of Ambrose Bierce’s most notable pieces of work.

In this story, the protagonist “lapses into a delusionary dream in which he escapes death after the weight of his body snaps the hangman’s rope” (Cummings par. 16). Farquhar’s dream is very short, but in his head it is hours in length. This dream is him getting away from the reality of the situation. In his dream, he delved into the inner part of his personality. At the end of his dream, he is rewarded with the ultimate vision of a female. Bierce says it is his wife, however it could just be the epitome of female beauty (Powers 280). In addition, “this shift enables Bierce to take the reader inside Farquhar’s mind to demonstrate how emotional upheaval alters not only how the mind interprets reality but also the way it perceives the passage of time” (Cummings par. 11). In this way he switches the point of view that the story is told from. The unknown part of Farquhar’s personality that Bierce shows the reader is represented by the Owl. This part is shown at a bridge named after an owl, so it goes together (Powers 279). A more real part of Farquhar’s personality is shown in his life, which is his devotion to the south. As a plantation owner, Farquhar has many slaves of his own. In this situation, Farquhar is all tied up himself. The final dream of his existence is getting out of the situation because being all tied up is scary (Cummings par. 17). Farquhar is also a satirical character,

and Bierce pokes fun at his love for war. He makes fun of his desire to achieve victory for his actions and to be recognized for what he did (Wilson 167). In his head, he wanted to be a great soldier in the army. He enjoys his day dreams about escaping when he actually gets involved in army affairs, “however, through his telling of the story and his portrayal of Farquhar, Bierce seems to suggest that such fantasies and self-deception are cowardly and often have negative consequences” (163). Because he was not in the confederate army, he needed another way to express his opinion; this is why he was so easily persuaded (Powers 279). Bierce also uses figurative language to show how Farquhar is thinking. The “narrator's language is melodramatic” (Wilson 164). This use of figurative language shows how Farquhar is losing his sense of reality (164).
Both “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” share a similar theme of death.

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” contains a theme of cheating death. Bierce shows that the end of his life cannot be evaded. He shows insight on what someone might be thinking at the end of their life. There is also a theme of deception. Bierce makes the reader “want to believe that Farquhar has managed to avoid death and achieve the glory he so wanted to attain, ignores clue throughout the narrative that Farquhar is hallucinating” (Wilson 163). Finally, there is a theme of slavery. Black things are mentioned, such as black bodies of trees and circle of black on the Farquhar’s neck where the rope was. Slavery is also mentioned due to the fact that Farquhar is a plantation owner (Cummings par. 18). Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” has the theme of death as well. This poem, like others of hers, shows how the senses are magnified before death. This death is probably not a physical death but a mental death (Panesar par. 4). This is shown when she has a loss “of order and clarity: (‘a plank in Reason, broke’(17))” (par. 3). She is pretty much going crazy at the end of the poem when her brain dies (par. 3). This common theme in literature is apparent in both of these pieces of literature, making them

similar.
It is obvious that both “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” deal with the theme of death. However, they deal with it in different ways respectively. These different ways of expressing the theme of death and how broad the theme of death is makes it possible to right so much literature about it. Both of these pieces do an excellent job of conveying their meaning of death and leaving some of it to be inferred by the reader.