Free Essay About The Significance Of The Work Of Emily Dickenson

In a letter from Emily Dickenson to “Austin”, Dickenson writes of her difficulty in writing, afterward focusing instead on her identity as a sister, rather than a writer. It seems interesting that a woman who was so outspoken, in general, and willing to embrace her ideas is willing to rely on her brother both in terms of getting her the prescription she needs, and as it relates to his judgement regarding what is best with her father. He voice in the letter is also interesting because it is familiar. While a formal letter would refer to individuals by their title and last name, this uses first names and nicknames like:”Susie” to refer to individual who are clearly intimate acquaintance of not only the writer, but also her audience. As a result, we are given a sample of some of the most informal writings on record for the artist Dickenson.
Dickenson’s poem “My Life has stood- A loaded Gun” uses the extended metaphor of a gun, wielded by man, but inherently feminine to discuss the situation of women in her era. The gun, like woman, is a tool essential to life, and of service to man, but having no power of her own to act. Further, in absence of man, no power to continue to live. Women, in that era, did not speak, unless given permission by a man, just as the gun only echoes when the man fires it. Further, the gun rests beside him on the bed, in a blatantly sexual reference, to serve his needs, and not its own. It is there to protect him, to serve him, and for no other purpose. Finally, as she notes, she is likely to outlast her master, just as women naturally have a longer lifespan than men, but she has not rights in his absence. A husband’s death left a women, often, without any form of livelihood, without property rights, and without any meaningful way to survive, lest she elect to remarry. Likewise, the gun will outlast the man, will be useful after his death, but will require a new owner to fire it before it can have life or purpose again.
The poem, “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” is an extended metaphor about loss of power, inability to say what one is thinking, and eventual dissention into madness. Women, in the era of Dickenson, had a total lack of power, impoverished of the right to speak by gender discriminatory social customs of the era. Women were to be seen and not heard, and so, the initial stanza, and the funeral therein, is representative of the death of her ideas, she says that the thought almost breaks through, or that she almost expresses her thoughts, but that ultimately it dies and it is mourned, this is because she does not have the power or authority to speak it. As a result her mind goes numb, giving up the right or inclination to think, when there is no power of expression. This lack of power leaves her both “wrecked” and “solitary” ultimately driving her into madness. This is symbolized in the stanza which states: “And then a plank in reason broke/ and I dropped down and down” ultimately reaching a point at which she “finished knowing” or stopped thinking completely, no longer seeking power in its absolute absence.