The main character of “Because I could not stop for Death” is the unnamed speaker, who is a woman passing into the afterlife. She indicates that she was too caught up in living her life to pause or “stop for Death” (1), and so she accepted the opportunity to ride in the carriage with Death. As a show of courtesy to him, she put away her “labor” (7) and “leisure” (7), which were likely what prevented her from stopping for Death in the first place.

Though written from her point of view, the poem provides few physical details about the speaker other than her dress, a “Gown” (15) and “Tippet” (16), both characteristic of women’s clothing in nineteenth-century New England. These garments, made respectively from “Gossamer” (15) and “Tulle” (16), have in common a net-like quality, contributing to the “quivering and Chill” (14) the speaker experienced once the sun went down. That the speaker was...