Emily Dickinson's Mystery - Essay Example

First Last Dr. TeacherFirst TeacherLast 13 June Biographical essay – Emily Dickinson Regarded asa resolutely reclusive and private person, Emily Dickinson fulfilled the human need to express herself through her poetry. The absence of active social interaction did not become a handicap for her. Rather, her intelligence and sensitivity helped her observe relationships and write about diverse range of issues. Though not very comfortable with her relationship with her parents, she spent most of her time at home. She did, however, cultivate strong bonds with a select group of friends and family and communicated with them mostly through her letters and references in her poems. Born in 1830 into a well established family in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily has been one of the most enigmatic and studied literary figures in the English language. As a poet, she is found to be lyrical, innovative for her time and demonstrated a strong sense of knowledge based on her education and readings. The seeds of Emily’s discomfort with social interaction may have been sown early in her life where she spent a lonely childhood at an emotional distance from her parents. This is also reflected in her early poetry where she refers to herself as “the slightest in her house”, “starved like a gnat” and “locked up in prose” (Leiter 4). Emily’s father, Edward Dickinson, was a noted political figure in Massachusetts. Though popular in the community, he was a strict father and family man (Pollak and Noble 27-28). She had an unusual relationship with her father. Though she admired him, she did not feel close to him and felt that her liveliness was suppressed in his presence (Pollak and Noble 28). Emily could also not relate with her mother, Emily Norcross. Emily never felt she could speak to her mother when troubled and later scholars have characterized Norcross as an emotionally unbalanced person, not lucid in her communication and of average intelligence (Leiter 4). A positive angle to this situation, however, was that Emily became more independent in her thinking and analysis of life (Leiter 6) which appeared as a hallmark of her poetry in later years. Her personal reclusiveness, as she grew up into an adult, was not a barrier to her expression which she found by writing a large collection of letters and close to 1800 poems (“Emily Dickinson”). Her separation from the external world possibly heightened her sense of observation and sensitivity to her surroundings (Pollak and Noble 109). She wrote on diverse topics such as money, religion, and individuality in her work which reflected the developing ethos and values of the American society of her time. In addition, her viewpoint as a woman also provided a feminist dimension to this reflection (Pollak and Noble 108-109). However, for a noted poet as Emily Dickinson, it comes as no less than a surprise that her works were never published in her time except for a few poems in the local Springfield Republican. Scholars have argued whether the decision to not print her large collection of poems was a characteristic of her private nature or that of her mistrust of the printing conventions of the time. For example, White (85-87, 89) argues that she was wary of the editorial corrections made to her innovative style of writing to conform to word and poetic usage of the time as well as the mistakes made in print. White goes on to point out that she was considering publication of her works when she wrote to her long time friend, T.W. Higginson, asking him whether “her verse was alive”. She also painstakingly collected and organized her writings in fascicles which, when later discovered by her family, were printed few years later with extensive editing after her death in 1886. The unedited version of her poetry was published much later in 1955 by Thomas H. Johnson. A sizeable portion of her intense poetry and letters were reserved for the small circle of people she developed relationships with. Some of it was in oblique references such as using the title “Master” in her poetry which was said to be directed to Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom she met in 1855 and developed a strong liking to, while some researches argue that this high pedestal in her expression was reserved for Samuel Bowles, the editor of The Springfield Republican (Leiter 14) who published her few poems. She also developed a binding friendship with Susan Gilbert who later married Emily’s brother, Austin. Though not considered leanings towards lesbianism in the strict sense, her letters to Susan were very romantic for the time (Leiter 11). Emily also had an enduring relationship with T.W. Higginson whom she famously wrote to in 1862 asking whether her poetry samples were good enough to be called “alive” (Pollak and Noble 13). They started writing to each other and he was so impressed with her intellect that he wanted to meet her which she declined to do so making excuses. They did meet in 1870 and the encounter was so intense that Higginson later wrote to his wife saying “I never was with any one who drained my nerve power so much. Without touching her, she drew from me.” (Pollak and Noble 15). He often commented on her poems that she sent to him through her letters and “edited” them even though Emily said she couldn’t take the “surgery” (“Emily Dickinson”). Despite this literary disagreement their friendship continued till the end of her life. Higginson was later to collect, edit and publish her collection of poetry after her death. Her most caring, passionate and selfless writing was perhaps reserved for Judge Otis Lord with whom she had her only recorded love affair when she was in her late forties (Pollak and Noble 49-50) Her poetry after 1865 shows that she felt liberated mentally in the physical isolation of her home. During this period, Emily stopped her rare excursions outside her home and any form of social life and retreated into the confines of her home (Pollak and Noble 24). For example, she characterized her solitude as “magic Prison” and elsewhere she wrote “A Prison gets to be a friend” (Pollak and Noble 25). However, contrary to what one might believe, she did not break off contact with the outside world complete and her period of seclusion saw a flurry of letters written to people she connected with outside the boundary of her home (Leiter 18). As she retreated further and further into her isolation, her writing became more melancholy (Pollak and Noble 25). The period between 1858 and 1866 saw Emily write prolifically and covered topics like relationships, death, and God (“Emily Dickinson”). She was evidently affected by the Civil War as most of her work was produced during 1861 and 1865 and dealt with issues like death, transient nature of life, pain and sorrow, and the relationship between demands of the society and those of self (Leiter 16). Years after her death in 1886 till today, there is still debate on who the real Emily Dickinson was. Her powerful, rich, and emotive writing, the absence of all facts related to her life and writing, and her decisions to stay aloof in the usual sense of the word have all added to the mystery that continues to unravel. She was never to seek fame and never published. Her life, perhaps, is best described in her own words, “If fame belonged to me, I could not escape her. If she did not, the longest day would pass me on the chase—and the approbation of my Dog, would forsake me—then—My Barefoot-Rank is better” (Pollak and Noble 54-55). Works Cited White, Fred D. Approaching Emily Dickinson: critical currents and cross currents since 1960. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2008. Pollak, Vivian R., and Marianne Noble. “A brief biography”. A historical guide to Emily Dickinson. Ed. Vivian R. Pollak. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004. 13-66. Print. Leiter, Sharon. Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2007. "Emily Dickinson." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Paraphrase Information PARAGRAPH 2: This paper: The seeds of Emily’s discomfort with social interaction may have been sown early in her life where she spent a lonely childhood at an emotional distance from her parents. This is also reflected in her early poetry where she refers to herself as “the slightest in her house”, “starved like a gnat” and “locked up in prose” (Leiter 4). Source: The passage suggests that the toddler, probably receiving more lavish affection than she got at home, with the advent of a new baby, was thriving with her substitute mother. Aunt Lavinia missed her acutely when she returned home and remembered that “whenever any thing went wrong she would come to me.” If we are to judge from a statement the poet made when she was 40, such comfort was not generally available to her from her own mother. In 1870 Dickinson would tell Higginson, “I never had a mother . . . ,” adding, “I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you’re troubled.” Many have cited this statement as evidence of an early mother-daughter estrangement. Biographers have tended to see Mrs. Dickinson as an emotionally inadequate parent, inarticulate and nonintellectual, and a weak feminine role model to whom the poet was never greatly attached. “My Mother does not care for thought,” Emily wrote to Higginson in her early 30s. Images of deprivation in Dickinson’s childhood poems, in which she paints herself as “the slightest in the house,” a desperate little being who is “locked up in prose” and “starved like a gnat” have contributed to the belief that Emily Dickinson had a “blighted childhood.” This paper: Emily’s father, Edward Dickinson, was a noted political figure in Massachusetts. Though popular in the community, he was a strict father and family man (Pollak and Noble 27-28). Source: …After further service to the state, in 1852 he was elected by a narrow margin to the United States Congress, where he was a one-term Whig in the House of Representatives…. But this model of civic virtue was less comfortable with his children, who found him stern and regimented. This paper: Emily had an unusual relationship with her father. Though she admired him, she did not feel close to him and felt that her liveliness was suppressed in his presence (Pollak and Noble 28). Source: In a December 1851 letter to her brother, who was teaching school in Boston, Emily wrote, [these days, w]hen I know of anything funny, I am just as apt to cry, far more so than to laugh, for I know who loves jokes best [Austin], and who is not here to enjoy them. We dont have many jokes tho’ now, it is pretty much all sobriety, and we do not have much poetry, father having made up his mind that its pretty much all real life. Fathers real life and mine sometimes come into collision, but as yet, escape unhurt! (L 65) This paper: Emily could also not relate with her mother, Emily Norcross. Emily never felt she could speak to her mother when troubled and later scholars have characterized Norcross as an emotionally unbalanced person, not lucid in her communication and of average intelligence (Leiter 4). Source: If we are to judge from a statement the poet made when she was 40, such comfort was not generally available to her from her own mother. In 1870 Dickinson would tell Higginson, “I never had a mother . . . ,” adding, “I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you’re troubled.” Many have cited this statement as evidence of an early mother-daughter estrangement. Biographers have tended to see Mrs. Dickinson as an emotionally inadequate parent, inarticulate and nonintellectual, and a weak feminine role model to whom the poet was never greatly attached. This paper: A positive angle to this situation, however, was that Emily became more independent in her thinking and analysis of life (Leiter 6) which appeared as a hallmark of her poetry in later years. Source: Probably, the young Emily, a “good child [who] gave little trouble” (Sewall, II, 325) did feel constrained about running to her mother with her worries, a factor, Habegger suggests, that may have been an impetus toward psychological independence. PARAGRAPH 3 This paper: Her personal reclusiveness, as she grew up into an adult, was not a barrier to her expression which she found by writing a large collection of letters and close to 1800 poems (“Emily Dickinson”). Source: The Johnson text of the 1,775 extant poems is now the standard one. This paper: Her separation from the external world possibly heightened her sense of observation and sensitivity to her surroundings (Pollak and Noble 109). Source: …Dickinson’s poetry becomes not only the powerful expression of her personal sensibility but also a centrally important representation of her society and her culture. This paper: Her use of diverse topics such as money, religion, and individuality in her work reflected the developing ethos and values of the American society of her time. In addition, her viewpoint as a woman also provided a feminist dimension to this reflection (Pollak and Noble 108-109). Source: There is the pervasive yet almost unnoticed use of economic imagery—of stocks and options and properties and ownerships—that weaves Dickinson’s work into the volatile and increasingly defining American commitment to money (“Myself can read the Telegrams” reports Dickinson as following “The Stock’s advance and retrograde / And what the Markets say” [ J 1089 / Fr 1049], to take one example.) The vicissitudes of her own family fortunes—her father’s financial reversals and then recovery—is of course a matter of biographical record (and altogether common in a period with little financial regulation). Still another avenue toward a historical Dickinsonian poetics is her position in the gendered distributions of her society, as, for example, through the representations in her work (and indeed in her life) of modesty—including the obscurities and obfuscations of her “slant” poetic truths—which so powerfully defined femininity in her period.7 There is, as well, Dickinson’s continued and intensive engagement with contemporary religious culture, then undergoing volatile and explosive transformation. Finally, there is the exploration of Dickinson’s notions of selfhood in relation to models emerging in nineteenth century America, with enormous consequences for American political, social, economic, and cultural life. PARAGRAPH 4 This paper: For example, White (85-87, 89) argues that she was wary of the editorial corrections made to her innovative style of writing to conform to word and poetic usage of the time as well as the mistakes made in print. White goes on to point out that she was considering publication of her works when she wrote to her long time friend, T.W. Higginson, asking him whether “her verse was alive”. Source: [General idea taken from all pages referenced but particularly following sections] Emily Dickinson asserted that she “did not print”. She had chosen her words carefully. “Print” unlike “publish” conjures up images of conventions of typography, not just conventions of literary taste, and she concluded that those conventions would not and could not accommodate her conception of how a poem should appear before readers’ eyes……Martha Nell Smith elaborating on a point made by Franklin in The Editing of Emily Dickinson, reminds us that any translate of a text into mass reproducibility is a product by editorial opinion, a fact that Dckinson seemed painfully aware of…..This would be consistent that Dickinson had publication in mind when she first contacted T.W. Higginson in 1862 to ask him whether he thought her verse was alive.…Dickinson’s voicing her displeasure to Higginson at the way the printed version of her “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” in the Springfield Weekly Republican, “robbed of me – defeated too of the third line by the punctuation”. The editors had inserted a question mark where one conventionally belonged, but Dickinson had deliberately left it out. PARAGRAPH 5 This paper: Some of it was in oblique references such as using the title “Master” in her poetry which was said to be directed to Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom she met in 1855 and developed a strong liking to, while some researches argue that this high pedestal in her expression was reserved for Samuel Bowles, the editor of The Springfield Republican (Leiter 14) who published her few poems. Source: Although some critics have speculated that “Master” was a fantasy, the quality of the emotion expressed in these letters is strongly suggestive of a searing, genuine experience. Scholars continue to speculate as to the identity of the beloved. While Habegger believes that Charles Wadsworth is the most likely candidate for Master, Sewall argues that Master can only have been the crusading editor of The Springfield Republican, the abolitionist and supporter of women’s rights, SAMUEL BOWLES. This paper: She also developed a binding friendship with Susan Gilbert who later married Emily’s brother, Austin. Though not considered leanings towards lesbianism in the strict sense, her letters to Susan were very romantic for the time (Leiter 11). Source: As Polly Longsworth notes, “Emily was quite literally in love with her” and what she sent her “were unmistakably love letters, more persistently and lyrically romantic than what she was writing to other friends, although they did not far exceed the 19th-century tolerance for intimacy between unmarried females” (Austin and Sue, 92–93). The letters indicate how desolate Emily felt without her, though she may have been exaggerating when she expressed fears for her own sanity because of the intensity of her love. We don’t know how Sue responded to this intensity, but in the spring of 1853, she became engaged to Austin. Emily’s romantic obsession with Susan was conducted safely through the mails, and appears to have remained within the realm of fantasy. It would be misleading to think of Dickinson as a lesbian, in the sense in which the word is used today, to denote not only sexual practice but also an identity. No such identity was possible for Dickinson (Pollak, Anxiety of Gender, 40). There was never any question of her stepping outside the family and social boundaries that defined her daily life and provided her economic security. Nor would she be disloyal to Austin. This paper: Emily also had an enduring relationship with T.W. Higginson whom she famously wrote to in 1862 asking whether her poetry samples were good enough to be called “alive” (Pollak and Noble 14). Source: Dickinson sent him four poems and a letter of her own. It began: “Mr Higginson, Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?” This paper: They started writing to each other and he was so impressed with her intellect that he wanted to meet her which she declined to do so making excuses. They did meet in 1870 and the encounter was so intense that Higginson later wrote to his wife saying “I never was with any one who drained my nerve power so much. Without touching her, she drew from me.” (Pollak and Noble 15). Source: Dickinson continued the correspondence, telling him less about her life but alluding to previous losses that heightened her nervousness about his safety. “Perhaps Death—gave me awe for friends,” she wrote, “striking sharp and early, for I held them since—in a brittle love—of more alarm, than peace”. When the war ended, she continued to express interest in meeting Higginson. He pressed her to come to Boston, where he could introduce her Emily Dickinson to his literary friends. Dickinson declined, making up face-saving excuses and eventually stating categorically, “I do not cross my Father’s ground to any House or town”. She pressed him to come to Amherst, as she had done previously, and while revealing nothing particular about her terror, she indicated both that he had saved her life and that “My life has been too simple and stern to embarrass any”. Puzzled, Higginson continued to hope that a face-to-face interview would explain the “strange power” of Dickinson’s letters and verses and prove that the reclusive and mysterious correspondent who “enshroud[ed]” herself in a “fiery mist” was “real”. These epistolary friends met for the first time in August 1870 in Amherst, in a “parlor dark & cool & stiffish”, and when Higginson wrote to his wife the next day, he remarked, “I never was with any one who drained my nerve power so much. Without touching her, she drew from me. I am glad not to live near her. She often thought me tired & seemed very thoughtful of others”. This paper: He often commented on her poems that she sent to him through her letters and “edited” them even though Emily said she couldn’t take the “surgery” (“Emily Dickinson”). Source: Higginson never really understood--if he had, he would not have tried to "edit" them, either in the 1860s or after her death. Dickinson could not take his "surgery," as she called it, but she took his friendship willingly. This paper: Her most caring, passionate and selfless writing was perhaps reserved for Judge Otis Lord with whom she had her only recorded love affair when she was in her late forties (Pollak and Noble 49-50). Source: Dickinson did have one documented love affair that was significantly mutual and physical (p. 49)….She was in her late forties during the flourish years of their romance (p. 50)…. My lovely Salem smiles at me. I seek his Face so often—but I have done with guises. I confess that I love him—I rejoice that I love him— I thank the maker of Heaven and Earth—that gave him me to love— the exultation floods me. I cannot find my channel—the Creek turns Sea—at thought of thee— ….. PARAGRAPH 6 This paper: During this period, Emily stopped her rare excursions outside her home and any form of social life and retreated into the confines of her home (Pollak and Noble 24). Source: She was receiving medical treatment for her eye problems and after her return to Amherst in the fall of 1865, she never left the town again.15 Nor did she usually visit in the town, not even at The Evergreens. Nor did she freely receive visitors at home. This paper: For example, she characterized her solitude as “magic Prison” and elsewhere she wrote “A Prison gets to be a friend” (Pollak and Noble 25). Source: She wanted to believe that there was value in deprivation and that her imagination of freedom was intensified by her physical confinement, in what toward the end of her life she described as a “magic Prison,”…… Elsewhere, she wrote that “A Prison gets to be a friend” (Fr 456). This paper: However, contrary to what one might believe, she did not break off contact with the outside world complete and her period of seclusion saw a flurry of letters written to people she connected with outside the boundary of her home (Leiter 18). Source: Dickinson’s 20 years of seclusion, between 1866 and her death in 1886, were by no means isolated. After 1866, her poetic production decreased and letters became her primary genre. They were her vehicles for cultivating intimacy with those who led their lives outside the boundaries of the household to which she had confined herself This paper: As she retreated further and further into her isolation, her writing became more melancholy (Pollak and Noble 25). Source: As the years went on, she could scarcely be induced to leave her own threshold; what she saw from her window, what she read in her books, were her only external stimuli. Those few people whom she admitted to her friendship were loved with the terrible and morbid exaggeration of the profoundly lonely. In this isolation, all resilience to the blows of illness and death was atrophied. She could not take up her life again because there was no life to take. Her thoughts came to be more and more preoccupied with the grave… This paper: The period between 1858 and 1866 saw Emily write prolifically and covered topics like relationships, death, and God (“Emily Dickinson”). Source: Between 1858 and 1866 Dickinson wrote more than 1100 poems, full of aphorisms, paradoxes, off rhymes, and eccentric grammar. Few are more than 16 lines long, composed in meters based on English hymnology. The major subjects are love and separation, death, nature, and God--but especially love. This paper: She was evidently affected by the Civil War as most of her work was produced during 1861 and 1865 and dealt with issues like death, transient nature of life, pain and sorrow, and the relationship between demands of the society and those of self (Leiter 16). Source: Wolosky doubts that it is mere coincidence that more than half of Dickinson’s poetic production coincides with the years of the Civil War, 1861–65. Her surviving correspondence for those years is marked by social consciousness, with at least 15 references to the war. They suggest how the carnage of war may have intensified some of her central concerns—the justification for suffering, life’s ephemeral nature, the mystery of death, the delicate balance between society’s demands and the integrity of selfhood, and the power of redemption through art. PARAGRAPH 7 This paper: Years after her death in 1886 till today, there is still debate on who the real Emily Dickinson was. Her powerful, rich, and emotive writing, the absence of all facts related to her life and writing, and her decisions to stay aloof in the usual sense of the word have all added to the mystery that continues to unravel. She was never to seek fame and never published. Her life, perhaps, is best described in her own words, “If fame belonged to me, I could not escape her. If she did not, the longest day would pass me on the chase—and the approbation of my Dog, would forsake me—then—My Barefoot-Rank is better” (Pollak and Noble 54-55). Source: This is especially true of Dickinson’s biographers, since she did so much not only to encourage but also to thwart them…. By now, at the start of the twenty-first century, Dickinson’s intellectual development, social experience, and psychological logic have been the subject of a formidable quantity of biographical research, as well as a vast quantity of idle speculation. In writings about her as a person, there has been drama and there has been melodrama, but it is well known that many of the actual facts of her life, including the exact dating of her manuscripts, have continued to elude us….. Marked by its intellectual and emotional range, Emily Dickinson’s writing is full of self-confidence and of secrets; the richness of her language emerges out of a narratival impulse… Read More