Untitled 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.