Emily Dickinson's Idea Of Social Rebellion
Greene supports this idea of social rebellion when she includes a quote from the original editor of Emily Dickinson’s poems, Mrs. Bingham in her literary criticism:
“In Emily’s day, domestic activity was still a full-time career for women…To absorb small annoyances and leave the menfolks [sic] free to carry on the constructive work of the community was, a hundred years ago, a woman’s sufficient reason for being. No one questioned, least of all the women. It was not their way to express likes or dislikes toward necessary work. They resented it, for the most part, no more than we resent putting on our clothes” (Greene 65).
In this quote, Mrs. Bingham explains that the role of women during Emily Dickinson’s time was restricted to being mothers
and taking care of the house. Her quote supports the idea that Emily Dickinson may have used feminist-style themes in her poetry in order to rebel against the patriarchal Puritan style of writing. Unlike her contemporaries, Emily Dickinson was not afraid to hide who she really is in her poems. Anna Priddy writes, “Emily Dickinson was not afraid to be passionate, violent or ‘unwomanly’ in her poems” (51). Emily Dickinson’s refusal to publish her poems, her refusal to get married, and her conscious decision to lock herself in her room and write beautiful poems back up the statement made by Priddy. Emily Dickinson very well may have been a feminist poet before there were such things as feminist poets.
Literary critic, Brita Lindberg-Seyersted has noted that the style of Dickinson’s poetry is more like that of a modern poet than of a Romantic poet. Even though the solid majority of Dickinson’s poems were written from the end of the Romantic period and well into the Transcendentalist period, Lindberg-Seyersted classifies Emily Dickinson as a modern poet because of her innovative techniques and unique styles (Ferlazzo 149-150). She claims this because Dickinson’s lack of rhyme scheme and use of abstract imagery is similar to the writers
“In Emily’s day, domestic activity was still a full-time career for women…To absorb small annoyances and leave the menfolks [sic] free to carry on the constructive work of the community was, a hundred years ago, a woman’s sufficient reason for being. No one questioned, least of all the women. It was not their way to express likes or dislikes toward necessary work. They resented it, for the most part, no more than we resent putting on our clothes” (Greene 65).
In this quote, Mrs. Bingham explains that the role of women during Emily Dickinson’s time was restricted to being mothers
and taking care of the house. Her quote supports the idea that Emily Dickinson may have used feminist-style themes in her poetry in order to rebel against the patriarchal Puritan style of writing. Unlike her contemporaries, Emily Dickinson was not afraid to hide who she really is in her poems. Anna Priddy writes, “Emily Dickinson was not afraid to be passionate, violent or ‘unwomanly’ in her poems” (51). Emily Dickinson’s refusal to publish her poems, her refusal to get married, and her conscious decision to lock herself in her room and write beautiful poems back up the statement made by Priddy. Emily Dickinson very well may have been a feminist poet before there were such things as feminist poets.
Literary critic, Brita Lindberg-Seyersted has noted that the style of Dickinson’s poetry is more like that of a modern poet than of a Romantic poet. Even though the solid majority of Dickinson’s poems were written from the end of the Romantic period and well into the Transcendentalist period, Lindberg-Seyersted classifies Emily Dickinson as a modern poet because of her innovative techniques and unique styles (Ferlazzo 149-150). She claims this because Dickinson’s lack of rhyme scheme and use of abstract imagery is similar to the writers