death of imagination

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain- Emily Dickinson

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading - treading - till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum -

Kept beating - beating - till I thought

My mind was going numb -

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,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down -

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing - then -

In the poem “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” Emily Dickinson describes the process of succumbing to reality and reason and the negative effect that can have on a person. At the very beginning of the poem, the speaker describes a “funeral, in my brain,” suggesting that something within the speaker is changing or vanishing. Dickinson ten uses the word “treading” twice to describe the “mourners” inside the speakers head, representative of the state of the authors mind. This repetition as well as the word “treading” which, given the solemn tone created by the funeral setting, creates an image of repeated heavy footsteps, couple together to suggest a repetitive, constant wearing down of the speakers mind. Immediately after, “sense [breaks] through,” implying that the wearing down of the mind caused the sense to break through. By discussing sense breaking through immediately after describing a change in the mind by using the image of a funeral, the “sense” that is discussed is contrasted with the original state of the mind before the “funeral” occurred. “Sense” can carry the connotation of common sense and recognition of the outside world and reality. Therefore, the original state of the mind that is contrasted with that “sense” would be a state of creativity, fantasy, and imagination. Dickinson is describing the wearing down of the speaker’s creativity until reality conquers the speaker’s imagination.

Dickinson describes this victory of reality as a tragedy, beginning with the first stanza of the poem. By describing the affair as a “funeral” and something that would bring “mourners,” Dickinson immediately establishes that this event is a depressing one, not one to be celebrated. This mood continues in the third stanza with the phrase “I heard them lift a Box/And creak across my Soul.” Given the funeral setting, the creaking noise coupled with the word “Box” immediately brings to mind the image of a coffin, suggesting that because of the destruction of her imagination, her "Soul," which is her life beyond pure biological survival, has been lead to die as well. Dickinson creates this scene to show that because of the vanishing of the imagination, the speaker can no longer be himself/herself but instead is controlled by the “sense” that broke through. This is supported by the phrase in the second stanza “my mind was going numb.” Considering the mind is the part of the human that defines the individual and sets one human apart from the other, the numbing of the mind shows the disappearance of individual creation and defeat at the hands of the reality and common sense that is uniform for all humans.

The fourth stanza changes to a more direct description of the consequences of the ruin of the speaker’s imagination. The speaker is described as being “wrecked.” The word “wrecked” brings in a physical connotation, suggesting that the negative effects of the destruction of the imagination are serious to the point that they have created a physical manifestation, which is possible as the mental state is important in maintaining physical health. The process of the destruction of the individual which started with the end of the speaker’s imagination is completed in the last stanza. The speaker describes being “dropped down and down” and then mentions a “plunge” which causes her to “[finish] knowing.” The word “plunge” brings up imagery of water and drowning, which leads to the idea of death when coupled with the word “finished” in the next line. The speaker also notes that the cause of this death is the breaking of a “Plank in Reason” once again reiterating the idea that it is reality and reason that have killed the speakers imagination and in doing so have killed the speakers individuality. The speaker also describes the now-gone imagination as positive and its disappearance as a misfortune in the phrase “finished knowing.” This phrase is used to describe what happened to the speaker at the plunge, when reality finally completely won the battle against the speaker. However, considering it was the individuality that was vanquished and the reality that won over the mind of the speaker, “finished knowing” implies that it was when the speaker had his/her imagination that the speaker truly knew the world and when reality finally took over, the speaker stopped “knowing.”

By describing this destructive end to the speaker whose imagination had been destroyed by reality, Dickinson illustrates the importance of imagination and creativity to humans. She shows that without creativity we are unable to keep our “Soul,” what defines an individual as that individual. Reality can help our body survive, but without our imagination, just as the speaker, we too will lose our true self.

wife and lover

Winesburg, Ohio- Paper Pills, Death- Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson visits Doctor Reefy’s love life twice in Winesburg, Ohio. He first explores Doctor Reefy’s relationship with his wife in the story “Paper Pills.” Later on in the book, in the story “Death,” Anderson describes the love affair Doctor Reefy had with Elizabeth even before he had met his wife. Each relationship is unique with its own beginning and consequence, yet both are significant events in the life of Doctor Reefy and the two girls he was in love with. But what exactly did these relationships mean to each of them?

For the tall dark girl, Doctor Reefy’s wife, her relationship with the doctor seemed to be an escape. Their first meeting itself was the result of an attempt to escape a mistake. She was “in the family way and had become frightened,” leading her to visit Doctor Reefy to find a solution to her unplanned pregnancy. Afterwards, however, it was not his treatment, but Doctor Reefy himself that seemed to be the girl’s escape. From her relationship with her two suitors, the white-handed boy and the black-haired boy, it seemed that she was frightened of purity. The white-handed boy who spoke of virginity scared her, almost as if the perfection he was obsessed with was too much for her to bear. However, she more readily accepted the black-haired boy, symbolic of darkness and secrets, despite the fact that he at times did the very things that she feared the white-handed boy would do, like biting her. Having endured the consequence of such a decision, Doctor Reefy provided her with the escape to purity without the perfection that the white-handed boy forced on her. Although Doctor Reefy was surrounded by white and purity (white horse, white beard), he still possessed the lovable grotesqueness that allowed the tall girl to fall in love with him. He was compared to the “sweetness of the twisted apples.” He was imperfect, like the twisted apple, but that was exactly what caused the addicting sweetness that kept her with him. Because she was able to find in Doctor Reefy this sweetness that perfectly matched her, he was able to become her refuge.

Like Doctor Reefy’s wife, Elizabeth also sought out Doctor Reefy as an escape, but an escape from the loneliness of marriage. Doctor Reefy and Elizabeth “were a good deal alike.” It was precisely because of this that Elizabeth found herself able to communicate so easily with Doctor Reefy. Compared to her husband Tom who barely knew what she was thinking, being able to have someone that could simply understand her was a respite from her normal world and brought her even closer to Doctor Reefy. However, one of the main differences between Doctor Reefy’s relationship with his wife and with Elizabeth was one of the main reasons for the success of the former and failure of the latter. Elizabeth was already married. This caused her entire relationship with Doctor Reefy to become a secretive affair. She was unable to freely build the communication between the two of them. Instead she was only able use the snatches of understanding Doctor Reefy gave her to keep her going during her normal life with her husband. The love that brought Doctor Reefy and his wife together is what drove him and Elizabeth apart. Knowing that they were in love made their relationship forbidden and therefore robbed the relationship of the free exchange it had. At the same time, Doctor Reefy still served the purpose he was meant to in Elizabeth’s life. He was not a refuge to her, but a release. As Anderson describes, it was a “release that after all came to her but twice in her life, in the moments when her lovers Death and Doctor Reefy held her in their arms.”

hands

Winesburg, Ohio- Hands- Sherwood Anderson

Hands are everywhere in our lives. We use them for almost everything that we do. Eating food, opening a book, typing a blog. We wouldn't be able to function properly without the use of our hands. It’s exactly because our hands are so involved in what we do on a daily basis that they say so much about us and who we are. In “Hands,” Sherwood Anderson uses hands and the secrets that hands can reveal in order to develop characters.

In building the basic impression of his character Wing Biddlebaum, Anderson uses Biddlebaum’s hands to reveal his personality. He describes Biddlebaum’s hand as being “expressive” and “forever active” in order to describe Biddlebaum himself. However, it is not a description of Biddlebaum’s outer appearance and actions, but the action of his mind. His mind, like his hands, is forever active, and because this action and energy growing and developing in his brain overflows but isn't transferred into movement of his body as a whole, his hands become his outlet of expression, illuminating a part of him that cannot otherwise be physically seen. However, this expression is not limited to his personality, but also includes more short term forms of expressions such as emotions. Anderson notes that as he waits for George Willard, Biddlebaum’s hands are “nervous,” once again a display of the mind inside. Biddlebaum, very aware of the unique expression of his hands (to the point of scaring him later on in his life), uses his hands as a method of communication. Through touch he “[carries] a dream into the young minds” of his school children. Through the motions of his hands he’s able to communicate his state of mind.

Because of his heavy reliance on his hands to communicate what he’s thinking, his hands become even more representative of him as a person as compared to other people. Anderson once again uses this to explore Biddlebaum’s character. He describes the hands’ motions as “the beating of the wings of an imprisoned bird.” Like the bird, Biddlebaum is trapped, not by a physical cage, but rather the opinions of those around him. This cage of fear was one placed on him by the parents of his schoolchildren that accused him of inappropriate behavior. However, Biddlebaum does not only resemble the bird in the fact that he is imprisoned. He also takes on the characteristic of the bird’s beating wings. The bird does not just quietly accept its fate, but struggles against the cage, trapped nonetheless. Biddlebaum is the same. His thoughts and ever active mind keep his hands just as expressive as always and he longs to break free of his cage, but in the end the fear prevails and constrains his actions.

For Biddlebaum, George Willard is his escape. His cage of fear is removed, if only momentarily, and allows him to fly free. Anderson describes the incident saying, “Wing Biddlebaum became wholly inspired. For once he forgot the hands.” Through his hands he finds confidence again and, as he himself is inspired, is able to convey the inspiration of the Willard. However, only moments later the cage comes crashing down, the opinions of other once again trapping Biddlebaum. Just as the actions of the hands were misunderstood, causing them to be restrained, the mind behind the hands was also misunderstood. The cage that restricts Wing Biddlebaum comes crashing down not only on his hands, but also on his mind. The active mind of Biddlebaum and the thoughts that could inspire the world are trapped with his hands.

past and present

Frankenstein- Mary Shelley

Tintern Abbey- William Wordsworth

After Frankenstein promises his creature that he will create a female creature to accompany him, Frankenstein sets off on a trip with his best friend Henry Clerval. As they travel, they cross through majestic landscapes and breathtaking scenery, yet, while Clerval rejoices in the beauty, Frankenstein finds himself focusing on the gravity of the task he has agreed to complete for the creature. It is in this situation that Shelley inserts a section of Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” using the reflective voice of Frankenstein (Ch. 18). “Tintern Abbey” itself is built upon the foundation of a comparison between past experiences and how the same experience changes with time. In the quote that Shelley uses in Frankenstein, Wordsworth says, “Their colors, their forms, were then to him an appetite; a feeling, and a love, that had no need of a remoter charm.” He compares how his younger self views that same scenery to how his present self sees it, describing the former experience as more innocent, filled with pure joy, as compared to the “sad music of humanity” that tinges the experience of his present self.

Frankenstein finds himself in a similar situation, though in Frankenstein, the short experpt of the poem brings together comparisons between Frankenstein’s experience during his travels with Clerval and the reactions of Clerval, representative of Frankenstein’s younger self. Frankenstein describes Clerval as being “alive” and “joyful” at the opportunity to see such awe-inspiring scenes. Frankenstein even uses the phrase “transported to Fairyland” in order to describe the perfect world that Clerval resided in, much like the younger version of Wordsworth in “Tintern Abbey.” He was only able to enjoy the experience so simply, only taking in the beauty and joy, because the world he knew at that time was nothing short of perfect. Everything had a positive twist; negative feeling had no place in his experience. Just as Wordsworth said, in that perfect world, there was “no need of a remoter charm.”

This was directly compared to Frankenstein’s view of the experience, as he describes himself saying, “I [was] haunted by a curse that shut up every avenue to enjoyment.” Like the older Wordsworth, Frankenstein is unable to see the landscape as flawless in its beauty because he has become too familiar with the less perfect side of life. These views that he has become familiar with, particularly as a result of his association and interactions with the creature, have given Frankenstein an added perspective that changes how he interprets and reacts to the scenery in front of him, giving him an entirely different experience despite the fact that he is looking at the same thing that Clerval sees. However, he does not see the scenery as ugly because of his new perspective. He himself says, “Even I, depressed in mind, and my spirits continually agitated by gloomy feelings, even I was pleased.” He was still able to recognize the beauty of the scenery, just as the older Wordsworth was still able to enjoy the view of Tintern Abbey five years after his original visit. However, once again like the older Wordsworth, his perspective was changed to include a more diverse range of emotions that extended beyond happiness and enjoyment.

Shelley uses this poem to compare the experiences of Clerval and Frankenstein but also uses is it as a path to explore Frankenstein’s understanding of the world around him and to illustrate the dramatic changes that have overcome him as a result of his ambition and creation of life from inanimate objects.