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... g (Readings 109). Although not all critics have been generous about the triumph of her frail sanity, most will agree that her despair and desolation is the crucible in which her poetry is forged (Readings 109). Other recently developed theories regarding Emily Dickinson and her impact on feminism include the feminist conceptions of Dickinson and gay and lesbian elements in her life and her work.
Recent feminist analyses have cut through the old rationalization that Victorian women habitually addressed friends with endearments we misread as lesbian effusions. The case for Dickinson's identity as a lesbian perhaps might rest on her relationship with Susan Gilbert. Critics have begun to look at the relationship and the letters and poems exchanged between the two. The censorship in some of the letters is seen by some as gender related. Many feel that issues of sexual identity that were part of the letters, manuscripts and poems were edited censored and essentially mutilated because of their content. Other feminist issues regarding Emily Dickinson also arise when talking about the editing of her work.
Original manuscripts from Dickinson are difficult to obtain. Even critics who have only laid eyes on the original manuscripts once or twice emphasize the importance of the dashes, lines, and punctuation to the meanings and interpretations of Dickinson's work. Emily Dickinson's work has changed and shaped the continuously developing feminist criticisms. Religion is another aspect of her life that is evident in Dickinson's poetry. Critics are in debate about whether religion played a part in influencing the poetry of Dickinson, and if so, the amount of influence that her religion had. The environment in which Dickinson grew up affected her views on religion and life that reached into her poetry.
Dickinson's Puritan heritage is apparent in the early years of her life when she was influenced by her strictly Puritan family (Edison 1). The New England Puritan tradition and Calvinistic theology formed the basis of Amherst's religious climate and was the bedrock of Dickinson's upbringing (Klein 1). What is of greatest importance is not the Puritan tradition itself but the breakdown of that tradition that was taking place during Dickinson's lifetime (Edison 1). Dickinson's understanding of her own experiences was shaped by the Puritan reading of the Christian scripture, which had been reinforced and spread in the colonial awakening, in her home as well as at her church. That the religious climate of her time greatly influenced Emily Dickinson's life has been widely acknowledged (Klein 1).
Puritanism is greatly evident in Dickinson's poetry as well as in her heritage. Some critics argue that to understand the depth and complexity of Dickinson's works her relation to religion must be closely examined. Puritanism allowed Dickinson to remain grounded in her faith of God (Edison 1). In Dickinson's mind she could relate to the Puritan foundation because of the influence of her family's beliefs.
Dickinson's conforming respect for God is derivative from her childhood, but she could not deny her self-expression (Edison 1). Puritanism emphasized human goodness but also recognized the presence of evil in human nature (Edison 1). The Second Great Awakening took place during the 1820 s and 1830 s in an attempt to rejuvenate the once popular Puritan religion. The Awakening focused on two Puritan ideals: the relationship inside the person, between the self and God, and the relationship outside the person, between the individual and community. Growing up in a staunchly Puritan environment in a well respected family made Dickinson realize how different her views on life were from those of her fathers (Edison 1).
She opposed the idea of a higher power, God, as influencing her every move and thus governing her thoughts and beliefs toward her life. Dickinson's poetry is closely related to other American Romantics influenced by Puritanism [such as Romantics] (Edison 1). One aspect of spiritual representation in the poet's work that has somehow escaped critical attention is Dickinson's use of "sacramental" imagery. Throughout her poetry, Dickinson again and again comes back to images of the Christian sacraments in a quest for spiritual truth (Klein 1).
For Calvinists two sacraments, baptism and communion, symbolize God's promises to his fellowship of believers, and initiate a meaningful spiritual life (Klein 1). When Dickinson finds the sacraments of the formal church empty and distant from her own experience, she moves away from these constraints in poetry. Dickinson begins with the "tools" of Calvinism, such as the raw materials of the language, and is imaginatively challenged by the idea of "sacrament, " but denies tradition by converting doctrine into her own vision (Klein 1). Religion is also evident in the style of Dickinson's poetry. The style of her first efforts was fairly conventional, but after years of practice she began to give room for experiments. Often written in the meter of hymns, her poems dealt not only with issues of death, faith and immortality, but with nature, domesticity, and the power and limits of language (Books and Writers 2).
It is legitimate to suggest that Dickinson, although she excluded much of her life from the church, recognized the importance of spiritual experience and connection to the God (Klein 2). Aside from the obvious thematic of her work, the poet's correspondence documents these values. Not only was Dickinson raised in an intensely religious atmosphere, but she maintained that presence in her own life and work. It was forever a monumental concern (Klein 2). Transcendentalism was a philosophic and literary movement that flourished in New England as a reaction against 18 th century rationalism, the skeptical philosophy of Locke, and the confining religious orthodoxy of New England Calvinism (Brown 1). Transcendentalism was transforming traditional religion and thus became another influence in Dickinson's poetry (Brown 1).
Emily Dickinson embraced Transcendentalism because it allowed her to leave her Puritan heritage behind her and express her views and opinions of the worlds and put them into writing (Brown 1). Transcendentalism involved a rejection of the strict Puritan religious attitudes that were the heritage of New England, where the movement originated (Edison 1). Transcendentalists were influenced by romanticism, especially such aspects as self-examination, the celebration of individualism, and the integral relation between nature and mankind (Edison 1). As a result of the realization of her differing views, Emily Dickinson embraced Transcendentalism. The Transcendentalist movement began flourishing in the early 19 th century America, especially in New England, was based on some of the concepts of Transcendental Philosophy. In America "transcendentalism" was mostly used in a literary form having a semi religious nature (Transcendentalism 1).
Transcendentalist saw a connection between the universe and the individual soul. Transcendentalists believed "the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world, and latently contains all that the world contains" (Transcendentalism 1). Transcendentalism allowed Emily Dickinson to materialize from her Puritan heritage. It allowed her to discover her self-worth by realizing that what she felt in her heart was significant of recognition (Edison 1).
Dickinson used Transcendentalism to help her to discover and confide her feelings in word and in the reader through verse (Edison 1). Transcendentalism was a natural outgrowth both of a literary time when visionary ideas were powerfully set abroad and [a time] of personal, exuberant discovery of self in poetry" (Edison 1). As Transcendentalism was beginning to emerge, so was Emily Dickinson's soul (Edison 1). Possibly the greatest indication that Dickinson had inclinations from transcendentalism was the amount of text in which nature takes a central role. Dickinson also seems to express a great admiration for natural things that might lead one to accept that she is seeing somewhat of an over soul in nature (Emily Dickinson 3). While it is hard in many of her poems to grasp what exactly she is thinking in regard to religion, it also seems clear that she is not an atheist (Emily Dickinson 4).
Emily Dickinson wrote numerous poems that could be interpreted as having transcendental sympathies. The strong conflict of Puritanism and Transcendentalism in Emily Dickinson's poetry is what allowed her to become one of the greatest and most influential American poets of the nineteenth century (Brown 1). Her obsession with life, death, and mortality could be derived from her own questions and doubts when it came to religion. Dickinson's love of nature expressed itself early as an appreciation of plants and animals in her own spacious garden, which she tended avidly throughout her life (Hermitary 1).
For most Romantics, however transcendental, nature served as an intermediary between man and God (Bloom 50). Dickinson included nature in many of her works, emphasizing her romantic style of writing. To the Romantics Nature was precious because it was an earthly and material medium through which God could touch man and man could touch God (Bloom 50). Romanticism represents a rebellion against Enlightenment thinking.
It replaces a faith in reason with feeling as the stronger expression of what we are. It is restless with practical reality and prefers visionary longing and excitement to the complacency of everyday reality (Intellectual Heritage 1). Romantics also emphasized the importance of individuality, uniqueness, and even the eccentric. The poetry of Emily Dickinson is one examples of American Romantic literature.
Emily Dickinson's reclusive and anti social nature could be considered a sign of her uniqueness or an eccentric attitude that was emphasized by the Romantics. Dark Romanticism places its emphasis on the tragic dimension of life. Dickinson is often thought of as a tragic figure, and some of her poems about death fit the description of dark romanticism. Dark Romanticism also shows awe at human nature, struggle, suffering, mortality and mans relationship with God (Loflin 1). Mystery and the reality of evil are also key themes seen in Dark Romanticism (Loflin 1). Dickinson's poems seek to complete a voyage and prove the strength of the imagination against the stubbornness of life, the repression of an antithetical nature, and the final territory of death.
Emily Dickinson was affected by various movements of her time as well as influencing and guiding the futures of some of those movements. Her poetry reflects ideas from feminism, Puritanism, transcendentalism, and romanticism. Her own uneasiness about her own religious ideas, decisions and the lack of stability in her faith life may have been reasons for her focus on life and death. Her humor is demonstrated in some of her shorter poems, such as Faith Is a Fine Intervention, is still being examined especially by feminist critics. Dickinson's poetry shows elements of several different movements and ideas of her time. They contain elements of feminist humor, emphasize her inner conflict between religions (especially her childhood religion of Protestantism and the new movement of Transcendentalism) and her focus on nature also brings in elements of Romanticism.
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Research essay sample on Emily Dickinson Dickinson Poetry
