The unconscious refers to experiences that are beyond one's control and that happen without one being aware of them. Among those suffering from mental illness, many people feel disconnected from themselves and begin to experience a deep sense of loneliness and anxiety. During the descent into madness, one is quickly overwhelmed by the irrationality of the unconscious. Similarly, the concept of the chaos of the unconscious and the horror of descending madness is prominent in the poem I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain, by Emily Dickinson. The poem travels through the speaker's mind as the speaker experiences a metaphorical funeral for his sanity. At first, the speaker feels the weight and pain of his impending mental collapse. Shortly after the funeral begins, the speaker becomes numb to feelings of grief and terror. Ultimately, her last piece of normality and solidity breaks beneath her, releasing her into a new world of madness. Gothic literature of this period focused on the supernatural, madness, and death, and became essential in showing people that there was a way to explore the dark and irrational. Dickinson highlights aspects of dark romanticism and Gothic literature, including madness and hysteria. In the poem I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain, Emily Dickinson follows the speaker's plunge into madness and the terrors of mental destruction as reason turns to illusion, ultimately highlighting the loss of self that comes from mental madness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Dickinson uses a metaphor of grieving physical people who embody the speaker's impending collapse in the first two stanzas to illustrate the never-ending pain and suffering that comes from the never-ending weight of impending mental collapse. In the second line of the first stanza, the speaker begins to set the scene of the physical funeral and describes the people in her mind: “And the mourners to and fro / They kept walking – walking – as long as it seemed.” The “mourners” going back and forth in her brain show the physical weight of people, representing the pain that weighs on her. The capital letters personify the illusion of the mourners in his mind and emphasize how they are the only other substantial being in his imagination. The mourners also represent the events that lead to the speaker's collapse. These events are continuous in the speaker's mind, similar to how they repeatedly "walk" back and forth within the stanza. Plus, repeating the path further shows how unhappy she is and how she feels like she's stuck in an endless loop. Hyphens between words slow down the pace and increase the pain the speaker feels. Later in the poem, in the sixth line of the second stanza, the speaker begins describing a metaphorical drum to emphasize the mental toll the service is taking on his sanity: “A service, like a drum - / Kept beating - beating - until I thought / My mind was going numb -”. The simile of the service as a drum shows how there are no words or other sensations in its mental funeral, only the sensations of a repetitive drum. Continuing, similar to the step of the mourners in the first verse, the repeated beating of the drums conveys the awakened sadness in his mind as he begins to feel his mind becoming numb. The word "Drum" is written in capital letters to personify him, showing his physical power and its infinite impact on his mental state. Within this stanza the word “mind” is changed from the previous use of the word brain, making ita more intellectual experience. The brain is visible and tangible, while the mind is invisible and focuses on feeling and imagination. Her numb mind shows that she is insensitive to her feelings, her conscience, and her ability to recognize herself and the outside world. In conclusion, the use of physical mourners and repetition helps convey the boundless pain and suffering that comes from the unmanageable weight of mental madness. Furthermore, by using the personification of silence in the fourth stanza, Dickinson emphasizes the feelings of alienation and detachment from oneself as the individual becomes numb to feelings of pain and terror. At the beginning of the fourth stanza, the poem changes and begins to describe mental sensations rather than physical experiences as one's body can no longer control one's senses: "As all the heavens were a bell, / And being, but an ear." To show his brain moving towards death, "Heavens" is capitalized to personify this, further demonstrating a sense of hysteria. Overwhelmed by her inevitable mental madness, the speaker is reduced to nothing and becomes bereft of everything "except one ear." The word "being" describes a human being, the being, being only one ear shows how it becomes a passive receiver of noise, not being able to control what it hears, similar to how it is not able to control what it it happens to his sanity. In this way, Dickinson actually creates a feeling of panic and helplessness. The words "Bell" and "Ear" are capitalized to personify them. The capitalization of “Ear” suggests that she has become the ear and therefore has no control over her senses. The "Bell" is personified as a separate being, calling to her, creating a more religious experience than earlier in the stanza. Continuing into the fourth stanza, the speaker begins to understand her isolation and feel the heavy burden of silence: “And I, and the silence, some strange race, / Broken, lonely, here.” Silence is described as a feeling of emptiness, where his mind is an empty world filled only by sound. The word “Silence” is capitalized because it is personified as a physical being that surrounds her and does not allow her to speak. The “strange race” exemplifies how she has become alienated and no longer feels human, feeling separated from any sense of normality that might have once existed. Her descent into irrationality separates her from others, making her a member of "a strange race". His alienation is indicated by the oppressive silence. His use of “broken” and “lonely” shows how the speaker is aware of his own mental state and of being alone and broken. Ultimately, the use of the personification of silence illustrates the feelings of isolation and detachment from oneself as one becomes paralyzed to the feelings around them. Subsequently, Dickinson personifies a broken plank as her last fragment of rationality in the final stanza to show the destruction of sanity and stability that results in the madness and terror that usurps the individual. The speaker begins to describe her physical loss of sanity as she is released into the worlds of delirium and reads, “And then a plank in reason, broke, / And I fell, and down.” According to Dickinson's lexicon, reason represents logic, rational thought and mental construction. Reason has the connotation of rationality and intelligence, so when the axis, or the thing that supports his reason or sanity, breaks in his mind, he loses his normality. “Falling” downwards, the speaker underlines how it is a fall into oblivion and a loss of consciousness. His fall shows his further isolation and the repetition of the fall explains how his fall does not. 2019.