Thursday, January 21, 2010
Dickinson's Sense of individuality and loneliness
A repeating theme that's prevalent and what sets Emily Dickinson away from Walt Whitman's view of a close community is her willingness to stray away from conformity and become more of an individual. That in itself leads to a meditation on how she views loneliness and death. I believe because she is more alone she thinks more about death as "49" shows about losing someone as well as "449". She leans more on being herself and doing her own thing. "303" and "324" explains her want to not conform to the regular way to worship. She explains to become her own self and worship or concentrate on her issues or important things. Even with her belief in individuality, she writes a lot about longing for someone else or writing how she's apart from someone like in "511" and "249". I believe that those ideas contradict themselves but shows the gloominess she possesses that makes her writing seem so dark.
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(Aauzsa Mack)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mr. Fhlug about how Dickinson leans herself away from the common crowd and doing what everyone else does. She would do things that other people wouldn't do. A more specific example of how Dickinson is more of an individual than the people in her society is how she did not go to church on Sundays, but instead she would just sit and home and connect with God that way, as interpreted in poem “324”. In her time, that was looked upon as not being the right thing to do, which in turns shows how much Dickinson was really into individualism.
I also agree with what Fhlug said about Dickinson said in her poetry. She does seem like she has a negative outlook on her life and that she is regretting the choices that she had made and that she is wanting to see someone in the future but is not sure. As in poem 511, she is saying she is hoping to be with someone and that she is counting the days or centuries on her hand until she gets to see the person. Overall what Dickinson has to say in her poetry is very meaningful and I believe we can learn from all that she has to say.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Fhlug about Dickinson, but my overall idea about her is the depressed and unrealistic pain she is always enduring. Why is she so sad and distraught to the point she gives up all hope in some regard to ever truly find happiness. In my mind she is lost by her own actions because she looks into a matter to deeply and confuses life and it wonders with pain and a direct evil that was put upon her.
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