The Victorian Female Friendship and Homosexual References in Emily Dickinson's Work
While some might believe that Dickinson is a chaste and eclectic hermit from New England, I found her work to be saturated in oblique (by today's standards) sexual references, many of which would be referred to today as lesbian. Homosexual imagery is not what typically comes to mind when thinking of works by Emily Dickinson, but I found that element to be present while reading select poetry and letters from her repertoire.
Ongoing debate seems to be centered on the nature and commonality of romantic friendships, and the extent to which female interrelations must progress before acquiring the nomenclature of "lesbian." I tend to agree with Lillian
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Dickinson writes in a letter to Susan:
"when he said 'Our Heavenly Father,' I said 'Oh Darling Sue'; when he read the 100th Psalm, I kept saying your precious letter all over to myself, and Susie, when they sang—it would have made you laugh to hear one little voice, piping to the departed. I made up words and kept singing how I loved you, and you had gone while all the rest of the choir were singing Hallelujahs. I presume nobody heard me, because I sang so small, but it was a kind of comfort to think I might put them out, singing of you. (Dickinson 2936)
Reciting a letter from Sue within her heart inappropriately during religious worship, singing quietly words of praise and worship to Susan during the same service, not only rank Susan above all others as far as preference, it places her as a deity above Dickinson's god. Dickinson furthers this by the grammatical comparison of "Our Heavenly Father" and "Oh Darling Sue," the former of the two commonly capitalized, the later punctuated and emphasized by capitalization and implied
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This is probably because female sexuality was a vice, not a virtue, and was considered low and debasing (Faderman 151). Dickinson sees this secretive "burden" (line 13) as necessary, but painful, associating it with religious significance as a crown of "Thorns". She distinguishes herself by being proud of her affections nonetheless, by a "Diadem" of royal standing. This also bears religious significance, as Christ is often symbolized with regal adornments post resurrection--"sunset" in Dickinson's case. Dickinson's work and her "Secret" are subject to conjecture mainly because the changing sensibilities concerning sexuality and the popularization of Freudian principles that stigmatized these intense relations between women, made the subject of her poetry scandalous at the time when her niece, and Gilbert's daughter, Martha Dickinson Bianchi sought to publish them (Faderman 174). This convergence led to a slash and burn style of editing that replaced pronouns and names with ambiguities and masculine references where there they other wise may not have
Dickinson refers to “the Majority” as society, this Majority does not take women’s literature seriously. The vast majority of good literature is composed by men and it is extremely rare for a woman to create a masterpiece. Dickinson’s highly unusually writing style was her self-expression at its finest. Her use of capitalization and hyphens was deemed as unnecessary by many, but to her it was completely necessary to express her emphasis. Unfortunately, she was unable to obtain recognition during her lifetime. When her poetry was first published many changes were made so that it would meet the current standards. Little did anyone know that the true strength of her poetry lied within her unique style. Only when her work was published in it’s original form did Dickinson start to receive recognition as a pioneer. Dickinson writes” Assent – and you are sane- Demur – your straightway dangerous – And handled with a Chain –" (Lines 5-7) If one was to conform to standards then they would be considered normal. However, if one strayed away from norms they would be deemed outcasts. “Much Madness is divinest Sense” (line 1) meant that madness was true free thinking and
Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she spent most of her life with her younger sister, older brother, semi-invalid mother, and domineering father in the house that her prominent family owned. As a child, she was curious and was considered a bright student and a voracious reader. She graduated from Amherst Academy in 1847, and attended a female seminary for a year, which she quitted as she considered that “’I [she] am [was] standing alone in rebellion [against becoming an ‘established Christian’].’” (Kort 1) and was homesick. Afterwards, she excluded herself from having a social life, as she took most of the house’s domestic responsibilities, and began writing; she only left Massachusetts once.
Emily Dickinson was an intricate and contradictory figure who moved from a reverent faith in God to a deep suspicion of him in her works. (Sherwood 3) Through her own intentional choice she was, in her lifetime, considered peculiar. Despite different people and groups trying to influence her, she resisted making a public confession of faith to Christ and the Church. (Sherwood 10) She wanted to establish her own wanted to establish her own individuality and, in doing so, turned to poetry. (Benfey 27) Dickinson’s poems were a sort of channel for her feelings and an “exploration” of her faith (Benfey 27).
Emily Dickinson was a different type of poet that has people thinking of things people would never think about in another author’s work. Dickinson was born and raised with the rich life with only two siblings. Her work was inspired by her much of her childhood and the people she interacted with. An example of Dickinson’s different type of style is, “ So I conclude that space and time are things of the body and have little or nothing to do with ourselves. My Country is Truth,”(Berry) Emily Dickinson did not share hardly any of her writing when she was alive. According to Berry,” With the exception of six poems that appeared in newspapers at various times, and another that appeared in a collection of stories and poems in 1878, Emily Dickinson never published her work,” (Berry) Even though Dickinson wrote differently, does not mean she had a different lifestyle compared to most people today. Dickinson was an outstanding American poet where her childhood, family and friends, religion, and education inspired most of her poetry.
First, Emily Dickinson poems are often under scrutiny since she was never married. As a poet who wrote so intently about love but was never married, she had to have had some form of inspiration. The fact that she wrote several love poems but never married may have caused more people to look into her personal life and see what drove the women to write such poems. Early Dickinson biographers identified George Gould as a suitor who may have been briefly engaged to the poet in the 1850s (Emily Dickinson's Love Life). Her lady friendships, notably with schoolmate and sometime later sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert and with their mutual friend Catherine Scott Turner Anthon, have also drawn interest with anyone observing Dickinson’s life, who argue whether their friendships represent just a normal kind of friendship or maybe something more resembling that of a sexual relationship (Emily Dickinson's Love Life). Biographers have attempted to find the main source for her intensity in her love poems, but no biographer has been able to identify specifically who the inspiration was for Dickinson's love poems (http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/ED303/emilybio.htm...
Emily Dickinson is one of the most well known poets of her time. Though her life was outwardly uneventful, what went on inside her house behind closed doors is unbelievable. After her father died she met Reverend Charles Wadsworth. She soon came to regard him as one of her most trusted friends, and she created in his image the “lover'; whom she was never to know except in her imagination. It is also said that it was around 1812 when he was removed to San Fransico that she began her withdrawal from society. During this time she began to write many of her poems. She wrote mainly in private, guarding all of her poems from all but a few select friends. She did not write for fame, but instead as a way of expressing her feelings. In her lifetime only six of her poems were even printed; none of which had her consent. It was not until her death of Brights Disease in May of 1862, that many of her poems were even read (Chelsea House of Library Criticism 2837). Thus proving that the analysis on Emily Dickinson’s poetry is some of the most emotionally felt works of the nineteenth century.
Emily Dickinson lived in an era of Naturalism and Realism (1855-1910). She lived in a period of The Civil War and the Frontier. She was affected by her life and the era she lived in. She also had many deaths in her family and that’s part of the reason that she was very morbid and wrote about death.
Dickinson’s Christian education affected her profoundly, and her desire for a human intuitive faith motivates and enlivens her poetry. Yet what she has faith in tends to be left undefined because she assumes that it is unknowable. There are many unknown subjects in her poetry among them: Death and the afterlife, God, nature, artistic and poetic inspiration, one’s own mind, and other human beings.
and?A Swelling of the Ground? i.e. 14, 18). In both of these lines, Dickinson has the reader conjure up subtle images of death. The?quivering chill?
As one of the most famous introverts, Emily Dickinson internalized her volcanic emotions and turned them into literature. In this poem, she openly expressed her adoration towards Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, her sister-in-law, close friend, and role model. Dickinson illustrated a compelling, goddess-like image of Susan and revealed her own lack of confidence by utilizing a combination of parallelism, imagery, diction, and other poetic devices.
Dickinson was unique and the “exception” in creating a private relationship with her self and her soul. In “Emily Dickinson and Popular Culture”, David S. Reynolds, a new historicism critic, wrote that it 's no surprise that the majority of Dickinson 's poetry was produced between 1858-1866, “It was a period of extreme consciousness about proliferation of varied women 's role in American culture.” It was a time where women were actively searching for more “literary” ways of self expression” (Reynolds 25). Dickinson was able to express her ideas and beliefs as a woman, something that was scandalous during this time period.
Hughes Gertrude Reif. (Spring 1986). Subverting the Cult of Domesticity: Emily Dickinson’s Critique of Woman’s Work. Legacy. Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 17-2
Emily Dickinson was America's best-known female poet and one of the foremost authors in American literature. She was born in1830 in Amherst Massachusetts and died in her hometown in1886, at the age of 56, due to illness. Emily was the middle child of three children. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a prominent lawyer and one-term United States congressional representative. Her mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, was a housewife. From 1840 to 1847 Emily attended the Amherst Academy, and from 1847 to 1848 she studied at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, a few miles from Amherst. During her lifetime, she published only about 10 of her nearly 2000 poems, in newspapers, Civil War journals, and a poetry anthology. Most people believed that Dickinson was an extreme recluse, but this is not entirely true. Although it is true that Emily never married and became very selective about the company she kept. Emily was far more sociable than most descriptions would have readers believe. She frequently entertained guests at her home and the home of her brother and sister-in-law during her 20's and 30's. Also, Dickinson kept up a huge correspondence with friends and family. Only recently are biographers beginning to recognize the role of Emily's sister-in-law, Susan Dickinson, in Emily's writing. They lived next door to each other for over 35 years, sharing mutual passions for literature, music, cooking, and gardening. It is rumored that Emily and Susan where secretly lovers. Emily sent Susan more than 400 poems and letters, twice as many as she sent to any other correspondent. Susan also is the only person at whose request Emily would actually change one of her poems. Evidence has also surfaced that Susan par...
"Arguing with herself, Dickinson considers three major resolutions for the frustrations she is seeking to define and to resolve. Each of these resolutions is expressed in negative form: living wither her lover, dying with him, and discovering a world beyond nature. Building on this series of negations, Dickinson advances a catalogue of reasons for her covenant with despair, which are both final and insufficient. Throughout, she excoriates the social and religious authorities that impede her union, but she remains emotionally unconvinced that she has correctly identified her antagonists." (Pollack, 182)
Her poetry legacy approximates nearly 2,000 poems. Many of them include a radical philosophy, which requires sensitive perception from the reader. Typically, the poem “She Rose to His Requirement” contains an indignant point of view of gender inequality. In the 19th century, women were inferior to men, and they did not have many rights as men did. Married women were restricted to domestic employments. They were the shadow of their husbands. This prejudice was normal in Dickinson’s time period, but she refused to follow this convention. She owns a feminist ideology of a modern woman, so to her, limiting women’s ability is against nature. Therefore, the poem is her voice for the desire of gender equality for women, and for wives.