Abstract: Emily Dickinson is rich in legendary like her romantic poems. She used to be unknown, but became famous after her death. Because of her unique use of capital letter and dash, she is regarded as poet who is rebellious or revolutionary. Death seems to be one of her favorite subjects. The objective of this paper is to study the death instinct in her poetry and its importance by using psychoanalytical theory of instinct and psychological defense mechanism as main tools. Firstly, I will give an introduction, which includes the introduction of Emily Dickinson, the theory and literature review. In chapter one, by talking some “dark shadows” in Dickinson’s poems, death instinct can be detailed. Dickinson denied herself and called herself “nobody”. Also she fettered herself like a cocoon. She even struggled in her inner part and wanted to put out the light of life. Then second chapter will pay attention to the other side of the death instinct—eros. To satisfy the death instinct, poet went to the opposite way. With the sprout of eros, poet sublimated the death instinct and made it easy be accepted. Sherry Turkle said in TED that, "If you don’t know how to be alone, you will be lonely". Dickinson was a real poet who knew how to be alone. Through her solitary life, she changed the anxiety, pain, fidget that death instinct gave her into great thoughts. Last we can conclude that death instinct was not only a desire reflected by poems, but also an important factor to realize poet’s pursuit in poetry. |
