Cold in the earth is not a display of grief but an exploration of the psychology of loss. How does Bronte convey this message?
3. ‘Cold in the earth is not a display of grief but an exploration of the psychology of loss.’ How does Bronte convey this message?
‘Cold in the earth’ is an exploration of Bronte’s psychological journey, which is full of struggles and pain as she copes with her lover’s death. It is also an account of how Bronte attempts to reconcile herself to the truth, although she appears to be unsuccessful in doing so at the end. She is trapped in her own psychological maze of loss, constantly alternating between thoughts to remember or forget her lover. We could see her psychological flow in the poem: Firstly, her memories of Bronte with her lover is frozen along with the ‘deep snow piled above’ her lover’s corpse. Secondly, she is in the dilemma of forgetting her beloved and these memories or not. Then, she represses her wish to die and leave this world (‘Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten down to the tomb already more than mine’). Fourthly, she cannot let go of her love for him, and she doubts upon the thought of forgetting that ‘divinest anguish’, whether she can move on with her love without such thoughts of memories(‘How could I see the empty world again?’). At last, no conclusion is reached. Bronte is as confused and torn as before. In this way, we see that the whole psychological of loss is run in a circular path.
