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

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,

“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