Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides some information about background of the study, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study and definition of terms. In the background of the study, I explain about the necessity of analyzing the topic and the reason for choosing the topic. Objectives of the study explain the aim of this study. The problems that will be analyzed in this thesis are stated in the problem formulation. Benefits of the study explain to whom this study will be beneficial. The last part of this chapter is the definition of some terms related to this topic.

A. Background of the Study

Death is a common thing in human life. Sooner or later everyone will be dead. For some people death bears dark mystery and therefore is feared. People are still in big question on what happen to them after they die. The most obvious thing is that death will do them apart from the world they lived on, or from people they loved. On the other hand, many believe that death is not something to be terrified. Furthermore, it is viewed as a part of natural cycle and an unavoidable phenomenon to all living beings. These two points of view are developed in all human beings around the world. People who belong to certain group might see death as something terrifying. Other people who belong to other group might see the opposite of it. The forming of this point of view depends on many things such as education, religion or beliefs, situation in the family and social relationship. Emily Dickinson as a human being also has a point of view on death. She has a special point of view on death. It is reflected on her poems which most of them use death as the main theme. As we know that the forming of a point of view depends on many things. The forming of Emily’s point of view on death is influenced by many things that she has experienced. Emily Dickinson used poems to communicate her thoughts to her friends. Of course in communicating her thoughts Emily Dickinson used her own language which may be different from other poets. Guth and Rico say that “Poetry can be enjoyed and appreciated by everyone. Sometimes with poetry we even can have communication. Poems demand our attention. They use a language richer in meaning than ordinary talk. As we read and study poems, we become more sensitive to the poet’s language” 472 The poet’s experience of life and the way point of view influence their works of art. “As we read, we are already attuned to the poet’s way of looking at the world”Guth and Rico 793. Therefore, experience held an important role for the poets because through experience the poets want to share their opinion or communicate their feelings. “Reading a poet like Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, or Gwendolyn Brooks, we treasure the poet’s personal voice. We recognize it with pleasure, the way we welcome a cherished faced” Guth and Rico 793. “Emily Dickinson 1830-1886 is an outstanding example of a poet with a distinctive voice – a voice that seemed willfully strange to her contemporar ies but that gradually came to be cherished by lovers of poetry everywhere” Guth and Rico 795. I would like to know how Emily Dickinson sees death through her works. In order to do so, it would be helpful to see her life background. Emily Dickinson withdrew herself and lived in a big house. Understandably she became a solitary person. However, this way of life enabled her to focus on her works more deeply. When one hears about ‘death’ he will always think about something that is not alive or it is the end of everything. However, Dickinson sees death in a different way. She seemed to be fascinated with death. Many of Emily Dickinson’s 1775 poems deal with her belief concerning the process of death, the rituals surrounding death and the questions of immortality. In fact she often uses death as the theme for her poems. It is because of her experiences of her life that happened during her lifetime. These experiences let her write poems about death. Pickard in Emily Dickinson: An Introduction and Interpretation says that “Certainly one of Emily Dickinson’s unique contributions to America literature is her poetic insight into her nature of death. Closely related to her knowledge of pain and longing for eternal life, this understanding of death was demonstrate d in more than five hundred lyrics” 101.

B. Objectives of the Study