DEATH IN LITERARY PIECES

Death in Literary Pieces

Death in Literary Pieces

Introduction

After reading “I died for Beauty-but was scarce,” “I Heard a Fly Buzz” and “A Rose for Emily”, one could not help but notice that each piece of literature all have a common theme of death. Death plays a major part of each of the literary works. Emily Dickinson's poems were often written with the theme of death due to the many horrible life experiences she had encountered. She wrote of death often and was not afraid of it. In Faulkner's story, “A Rose for Emily”, he writes about how death can make one do some very disturbing things with corpses. The main characters in these poems and this story all have approached the subject of death in their own unique ways yet have in common the different effects death can have on a person. Approaching one's death can be a time to reflect upon our accomplishments and failures in life or a time to think of what lies ahead after death, meaning heaven and tranquility or maybe even hell. Then there are those of us who when we experience the death of a loved one go completely out of our minds.

Analysis

“I died for Beauty-but was scarce” is a poem written by Emily Dickinson interpreted to be about a man and a woman talking about their lives on earth after they have passed on. So throughout this poem the dead are conversing. In the first line of the poem “I died for Beauty-but was scarce. the speaker, one can assume, is someone who did not fit well into society so was never really noticed and did not have close bonds with others. This can be determined by the use of the word “scarce”. Nobody really noticed her when she was living. The second line, “Adjusted in the tomb means she did get used to death. Perhaps this was because of the loneliness she felt when she was living. The second character in the poem is a man. He is “One who died for Truth was lain (Fetterley, Judith, 1996).

The use of the word “lain” is much less cruel than the word “adjusted. This meaning he died for a better reason than she. However, they are next to each other which can mean in death we are all forgiven and are equal in the eyes of God. Things like how much money you had, whether you were kind or mean, or who you knew do not matter in death. The two characters in the poem then begin to speak about the way they died. The man speaks softly and says, “Why I failed”? It is interesting how he uses the word “failed” instead of “died.” This poem may suggest that neither the man nor the woman were successful in their lives attempting their accomplishments. She answers “For Beauty” (Ottlinger, Claudia, 1996) and then she indicates and “And I-for Truth” (Johnson, Thomas, ...