Dickinson and Hollywood, by Cara

Emily Dickinson, with the use of rhythm, repetition, character development, and point of view, in her poem “340,” creates ideas of death believed and used in Hollywood today. Dickinson believed death was the end of all life, and the dead went into the ground to rest without consciousness of the living world.

The poem “340” uses both rhythm and the repetition to reveal fearfulness and mysticism of death. Dickinson writes, “And when they all were seated,/A Service, like a Drum-/Kept beating-beating-beating-till I thought/ My mind was going numb-” (2568). The drum-like rhythm is a metaphor for the beating of a heart associated with the fear and the hopeless uncertainty Dickinson feels about death. The repetition of the word “and” throughout the poem and particularly in the last stanza reveals the main character's holding on to life for as long as possible during his or her burial. “And then the Reason, broke,/And I dropped down, and down-/And hit a World, at every plunge,/And Finished knowing-then-”(2568). The word “and” is often used as a conjunction, connecting one idea to another. Similarly, Dickinson in poem “340” uses “and” to connect the two realities of the dead and the living, which temporarily gives the dead a connection to the living until the end of the poem. Similar to Dickinson, Hollywood attatches fear and hopelessness to death, and gives the dead a connection to the living through ghost stories, and the idea of ghosts having unfinished business.

Dickinson's character development and point of view reveal her beliefs about death. She writes, “And then I heard them lift a Box/And creak across my Soul/With those same Boots of Lead, again,/Then space began to toll,/(Dickinson 2568). Dickinson's poem "340" is written in the first person perspective of the main character, a dead person, in a casket during his or her funeral. About the fate of the dead, Dickinson writes, "And then a Plank in Reason, broke,/And i dropped down, and down-/And hit a World, at every plunge, / And Finished knowing-then-"(2568) Dickinson believes the souls of the dead are conscious after their death until they are buried and then go into the ground to rest for all eternity. A popular belief in movies about death parallel Dickinson's belief of the dead resting in the ground without the experience of an afterlife.

Dickinson in her poem, "340" uses rhythm and repetition to express her fear of death and the dead's desire to hold onto life. Hollywood similarly connects death with fear and uses ghosts to express the dead's last bits of connection to life. Dickinson uses character development and point of view to show her personal beliefs about death, which are shadowed in modern day movies as the dead resting in the ground and ceasing to exist.

Works Cited:

Dickinson, Emily. "340." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym, New York:Norton. 2007. 2568.