Emily Dickinson Analysis Essay
Raine Aslan
Literary Analysis
ENG 233-001
Dr. Beringer
4 November 2016 Emily Dickinson has proven to be one of the most influential poets of the 19th century. Her reclusive lifestyle and strict religious upbringing along with the opinions of many during her time played a major role in her poetry and her thoughts about the expectations that society had for her. For example, the women’s rights movement of this time had a great impact on her writing, as she was able to use poetry as a form of self-expression. Despite the unspoken norms and standards that women are held to even today, she is rather vocal about these issues in her poetry and ultimately brings them to light for the reader. However, in her poetry, she does not often explicitly challenge
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In her poem I'm "wife" – I've finished that, she addresses the topic of marriage and how people perceive wives’ roles in society by imagining herself in the place of a wife and leaving her reclusive lifestyle behind. She never married and lived a Dickinson refers to her unmarried status as “that other state”. The way that she refers to her life as an unmarried woman seems dismissive, and it serves as a representation of how people in the 19th century would basically be dismissive of her and see her as unimportant in the overall scheme of social status and her value as a woman. Dickinson goes on to state that once a woman is married, she is able to become a complete “Woman” and even a “Czar”. By stating rather sarcastically how it is safer and of much importance to become a wife, Dickinson is able to illustrate how people in 19th century society felt about how much more valued married women are than unmarried women. Dickinson simply states a fact that in the 19th century, it was safer to be married in the sense that the woman would receive social stability. During that time, men were seen as having a higher status than women in practically all aspects, but especially socially. However, it is unlikely that she agrees that women’s status and worth in society should be based on their marital
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