Abstract
The elegiac poems of Emily Dickinson provide what is perhaps the clearest depiction of the conflicting emotions inherent to the death-conscious nineteenth century. In one such poem, Dickinson’s oxymoronic phrase, “Dark Parade,” encapsulates the spirit of a social movement that was born of a desire to comfort the grief-stricken and to beautify the horrific. Throughout Dickinson’s corpus of elegiac poetry, the speaker echoes these sentiments and crafts an insightful portrait, juxtaposing the stark horror of death with the ethereal beauty of ceremony. As Dickinson’s elegies are traced over time, the poems develop as microcosmic representations of a grieving nation, as the speaker resacralizes the corruption of the death scene in the domestic realm. Particularly through her death-bed narratives, the poet exemplifies the paradox that was the 1800s-death scene, the “Dark Parade.” Carefully placed together, the two simple words create an image—couched within the ostentatious display of ritual and deeply embedded in the v disconsolate setting of mourning. In doing so, Dickinson’s speaker captures the essence of the nineteenth-century Victorian “cult of death.”
Date of publication
Spring 5-5-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/574
Committee members
Dr. Ann Beebe, chair; Dr. Anett Jessop, member; Dr. Catherine Ross, member
Degree
Master of Arts in English
Recommended Citation
DeGrasse, Carol M., "“THAT DARK PARADE”: EMILY DICKINSON AND THE VICTORIAN "CULT OF DEATH”" (2017). English Department Theses. Paper 13.
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/574
Included in
American Literature Commons, Cultural History Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, United States History Commons