Note the Gothic conventions, themes, and elements in the Gothic works of Emily Dickinson, specifically her poems “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I heard a fly buzz—when I died.” Then, note the Gothic conventions, themes, and elements of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Draw comparisons between the Gothic elements in the works of each writer. Write two or three paragraphs about what these works have in common and how these differ as works of the Gothic genre.

Death is one of the foremost themes in Dickinson’s poetry. No two poems have exactly the same understanding of death, however. Death is sometimes gentle, sometimes menacing, sometimes simply inevitable. In “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –,” Dickinson investigates the physical process of dying. In “Because I could not stop for Death –,“ she personifies death, and presents the process of dying as simply the realization that there is eternal life.

In “Behind Me dips – Eternity,” death is the normal state, life is but an interruption. In “My life had stood – a Loaded Gun –,” the existence of death allows for the existence of life. In “Some – Work for Immortality –,” death is the moment where the speaker can cash their check of good behavior for their eternal rewards. All of these varied pictures of death, however, do not truly contradict each other. Death is the ultimate unknowable, and so Dickinson circles around it, painting portraits of each of its many facets, as a way to come as close to knowing it as she can.