Emily Dickinson

It seems that, when studying Emily Dickinson, many people get caught up on the fact that she was such a recluse. Of course, it's true that Dickinson spent a great deal of her time closed up in her room, but her poetry and correspondence provide further dimension to Dickinson as a social being.

In 236, it seems as though Dickinson speaks directly to those who question her lonely lifestyle, wondering why she does not even venture out to attend church. She somewhat brazenly refutes the notion that one must go to church in order to achieve salvation in this poem, perhaps even suggesting that her Sabbath is superior when she asserts that "instead of getting to Heaven, at last/I'm going, all along" (11-12). Her sarcastic, almost mocking tone is apparent throughout, but especially when she tells us that, at home, "God preaches, a noted Clergyman," suggesting that the supposedly holy people who criticize her have completely lost sight of true faith. In fact, they are so submerged in society that they focus more on human clergy than on God himself.

In the context of 236, Dickinson is clearly aware that others label her as different, that they wonder why she chooses to sit alone, writing in her bedroom. Many of her other poems express a similar awareness of naysayers as she writes a "letter to the World," reads of her "countrymen- [who] judge tenderly - of [Her]," and assertively expresses her belief that "The Brain - is wider than the Sky" and "deeper than the sea." It seems like, in her mind, it is her own views versus the views of the world -- that the two positions are polar opposites.

After reading 225, I honestly can't blame Dickinson for wanting to be separate from the world. To only be a "Wife! Stop there!" would be quite the difficult existence for a woman as strong and talented as Dickinson...