Emily Dickinson is an innovative 19th-century American poet who leads a solitary life in Amherst, Massachusetts. Born into a prestigious family, she relies on her financial independence to dedicate her time to reading and writing rather than marrying. She composes around 1,800 poems in private, exploring philosophical subjects like death and suffering. Despite her social isolation, she maintains intense, selective relationships with family members and corresponds through her highly original, unconventional poetry.

The speaker is the elusive, unnamed narrator of the poem "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain." Lacking a specified gender or concrete identity, the speaker acts as a philosophical explorer attempting to imagine the end of their own consciousness. They endure an assault of heavy footsteps and beating drums, feeling their reason break as they fall through multiple cognitive worlds.

The mourners are a group of unnamed figures attending the funeral inside the speaker's brain. They wear boots of lead and move with a rhythmic, heavy treading that resembles the toil of factory workers or chained prisoners. Their relentless stomping and creaking across the speaker's soul push the speaker toward mental numbness and a breakdown of reason.

Silence is a personified abstraction that exists in the chaotic space outside the speaker's constructed reality. When the speaker fails to commune with the heavenly bell, Silence becomes their sole companion. Together, they exist as outcasts, entirely cut off from the noise of the funeral and the divine.

Lavinia Dickinson is Emily Dickinson's younger sister who lives alongside her in the family home. After Emily passes away, Lavinia finds a locked box containing the vast collection of unpublished poems her sister wrote on envelopes and scraps of paper.

Susan Dickinson is married to Emily's older brother, Austin. She is a close friend and confidant to Emily, participating in her highly selective social circle in Amherst. Despite her closeness to the poet, Susan declines to help publish the poems after Lavinia discovers them.

Austin Dickinson is Emily's older brother and a member of the prestigious Dickinson family in Amherst. He marries Emily's close friend Susan, but later engages in an affair with the writer Mabel Loomis Todd, complicating the family dynamics surrounding the publication of Emily's work.

Mabel Loomis Todd is a writer who becomes involved with the Dickinson family through an affair with Austin. When Susan declines to manage Emily's discovered writings, Todd takes on the task of transcribing and editing over 600 poems, heavily altering their punctuation and capitalization to fit traditional standards.

Martha Dickinson Bianchi is the daughter of Austin and Susan Dickinson. As Emily's niece, she spends significant time with her aunt and later writes a memoir portraying Emily as playful and humorous. She argues her aunt was intensely focused on philosophical questions rather than simply being a recluse.

The Brain is a personified organ belonging to the speaker. It serves as the primary setting for the elaborate funeral ceremony and represents the immense power of intellectual imagination and philosophical contemplation.

The Soul is a personified aspect of the speaker's existence. It is reduced to the physical flooring of the funeral space, enduring the heavy, creaking footsteps of the mourners as they carry the coffin.

The Funeral is a sentient event that occupies the speaker's mind. It acts as a cognitive framework for the speaker's attempt to understand the end of consciousness, complete with beating drums and a tolling bell.

Reason is conceptualized as a literal wooden plank that supports the speaker's built environment. When it snaps, it triggers the speaker's sudden fall through multiple cognitive worlds.

The Ear is a personified, isolated body part that represents the entirety of human existence when exposed to the overwhelming sound of heaven's bell. It symbolizes the passive, subordinate role of humanity, whose only purpose is to strain and listen for an incomprehensible divine message.