It is estimated that nearly a third of the bulk of Emily Dickinson's poetry deals with the theme of death. Throughout her life she was obsessed with death. Her poems as well as her letters to her friends bear the testimony of her death obsession. Death appeared in various forms to Dickinson. Sometimes death is a courtly lover to her; sometimes it is a dreadful assassin. She treats death, sometimes, a rapist and as sometimes the only free agent in nature. Sometimes she treats death as a cheat caller.
Thomas Wellborn Ford has grouped Dickinson's death poems into four categories:
1) Poems dealing with death and immortality
2) Poems dealing with the physical aspects of death
3) Poems which personify death and
4) Poems with an elegiac note
The poem "Because I Could not Stop for Death" deals with the theme of death and immortality. The poet imagines her own death and her journey from home to the grave. The circumstances of death involve two characters- the dying person and Death It is a mystical belief that Death causes the end of a person taking the soul away from this world to the next world. So, when Death visits the poet and drives its chariot, the chariot bears three characters- Death itself, the dead person and the soul of the dead.
Dickinson is a mystic who believes in the immortality of soul. The immortality of soul is achieved through the death of physical self. Subsequently, one day Death came to the poet's door riding in his chariot. The poet was busy in her household activities and Death, the visitor and lover of the poet, waited until she had finished her work. At last, they- the poet, Death and Immortality drove away. As Death is a gateway to eternity, it carries away the soul of the poet to the eternal world.
Now Death puts the poet in her bridal chamber made with an actual mansion and the swelling mound of a tomb. Death departs and the poet reviews the trip from the vantage of eternity. The poet now awakens from Death's sleep and by this time many centuries have passed away since she was put into the grave. Though the journey took place centuries ago, it seems to her that the journey took place only yesterday. So, centuries in worldly life seem to be shorter than a single day in the eternal world.
Thus, the poem focuses on the view of Dickinson of death. Sometimes she presents the awesome character of death and sometimes it is a real friend and lover to her that will carry her away to eternity. It is now obvious that the poet is obsessed with death. But this obsession is not a sign of unhealthy mind. Rather, her obsession treats Death as a 'hyphen' between. man's life and his desire for immortality.
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