Biography Of Emily Dickinson Essay, Research Paper

Emily Dickinson was raised in a traditional New England home in

the mid 1800’s. Her father along with the rest of the family had

become Christians and she alone decided to rebel against that and

reject the Church. She like many of her contemporaries had rejected

the traditional views in life and adopted the new transcendental

outlook. Massachusetts, the state where Emily was born and raised in,

before the transcendental period was the epicenter of religious

practice. Founded by the puritans, the feeling of the avenging had

never left the people. After all of the “Great Awakenings” and

religious revivals the people of New England began to question the

old ways. What used to be the focal point of all lives was now under

speculation and often doubted. People began to search for new

meanings in life. People like Emerson and Thoreau believed that

answers lie in the individual. Emerson set the tone for the era when

he said, “Whoso would be a [hu]man, must be a non-conformist.” Emily

Dickinson believed and practiced this philosophy. When she was young

she was brought up by a stern and austere father. In her childhood

she was shy and already different from the others. Like all the

Dickinson children, male or female, Emily was sent for formal

education in Amherst Academy. After attending Amherst Academy with

conscientious thinkers such as Helen Hunt Jackson, and after reading

many of Emerson’s essays, she began to develop into a free willed

person. Many of her friends had converted to Christianity, her family

was also putting enormous amount of pressure for her to convert. No

longer the submissive youngster she would not bend her will on such

issues as religion, literature and personal associations.

She maintained a correspondence with Rev. Charles Wadsworth over

a substantial period of time. Even though she rejected the Church as

a entity she never did reject or accept God. Wadsworth appealed to

her because he had an incredibly powerful mind and deep emotions.

When he left the East in 1861 Emily was scarred and expressed her

deep sorrow in three successive poems in the following years. They

were never romantically involved but their relationship was

apparently so profound that Emily’s feelings for him she sealed

herself from the outside world. Her life became filled with gloom and

despair until she met Judge Otis P. Lord late in her life. Realizing

that they were well into their lives they never were married. When

Lord passed away Emily’s health condition which has been hindered

since childhood worsened. In Emily’s life the most important things

to her were love, religion, individuality and nature. When discussing

these themes she followed her lifestyle and broke away from

traditional forms of writing and wrote with an intense energy and

complexity never seen before and rarely seen today. She was a rarity

not only because of her poetry but because she was one of the first

female pioneers into the field of poetry. Emily often speaks of love

in her poems, but she did it in such a way that would make people not

want to fall in love. She writes of parting, separation and loss.

This is supported by the experiences she felt with Wadsworth and Otis

P. Lord. Not with a club the heart is broken, nor with a stone; A

whip so small you could not see it, I’ve known This seems to be an

actual account of the emotions she experienced during her

relationship with Otis Lord. Individuality played a pervasive role in

her life as a result of her bout with separation. Emily did not

conform to society. She did not believe it was society’s place to

dictate to her how she should lead her life. Her poems reflect this

sense of rebellion and revolution against tradition. From all the

jails the boys and girls Ecstatically leap,- Beloved, only afternoon

That prison doesn’t keep. In this poem Emily shows her feelings

towards formalized schooling. Being a product of reputable college

one would think that she would be in favor of this. But as her

beliefs in transcendentalism grew so did her belief in individuality.

Emily also went against the Church which was an extreme rarity of the

time. Similar to many other that shared her beliefs she too did not

think that a set religion was the way for salvation. Some keep the

Sabbath going to Church; I keep it staying at home, With a bobolike

for a chorister, With an orchard for a dome. According to this poem

Emily clearly states that nature is her source of guidance and she

has little need for the Church as an institution. Like Thoreau, Emily

believed that people need to understand nature before they could

begin to comprehend humanity because humanity was just a part of

nature. Unlike many other she felt that nature was beautiful and must

be understood. Has it feet like water-lilies? Has it feathers like a

bird? Is it brought from famous countries Of which I have never

heard? (Will there really be a morning?) Further on in the poem she

goes on to ask if the scholar or “some wise man from the skies” knows

where to find morning. It can be inferred that morning, something so

common place and taken for granted, cannot be grasped by even the

greatest so called minds. Emily also saw the frightful part of

nature, death was an extension of the natural order. Probably the

most prominent theme in her writing is death. She took death in a

relatively casual way when compared to the puritan beliefs that

surrounded her life. Death to her is just the next logical step to

life and compares it to a carriage ride, or many other common place

happenings. Because I could not stop for Death- He kindly stopped for

me- The Carriage held but just Ourselves- And Immortality. Life

according to Emily is brief and the people living out their lives

have little control. In this short life That only lasts an hour, How

much, how little, Is within out power! However non-religious she may

appear and however insignificant she believes life to be she does

however show some signs in accepting life after death. This world is

not conclusion; A sequel stands beyond, Invisible, as music, But

positive as sound. To Emily the most important things in her life

were religion, individuality, nature and death. She may not have

believed in God but He did have a profound impact throughout her

childhood. Emily and Emerson alike felt the most important thing was

to maintain ones individuality as she did. She was fascinated by both

nature and death and she attempted to explain both in her writings.