Lack Of Independent Thought In Emily Dickinson's Literature

The ability to make one’s decisions, to decide on one’s choices, and to complete one’s desires is called independent thought. Often in the modern world, this gift is taken for granted, with many people exercising it every moment of the day. However, for individuals living in the 1800’s, personal reflection did not exist for everyone, especially for women and children. Many authors attempted to tackle the lack of an independent society, with none being greater than Emily Dickinson, Henry James, and Kate Chopin. In Emily Dickinson’s “In Much Madness is Divinest Sense” and “This was a Poet”, Henry James’s Daisy Miller: A Study, and Kate Chopin’s “A Story of an Hour”, all the authors depict independent thought as a positive trait.
In her poems
The narrator of the tale even states he feels as though “[s]he was a young lady whom a gentleman need no longer be at pains to respect… He felt angry with himself that he had bothered so much about the right way of regarding Miss Daisy Miller” (James 363). Daisy’s one defender, albeit a feeble one, is Winterbourne. However, in the end, even he wonders if she is a “nice girl”. Ultimately, he decides she is an embarrassment to her neighbors and is incredibly reckless. Later, Winterbourne comes to regret this belief after Daisy’s death from Roman Fever. He feels as though he has wronged the late Daisy by passing judgment onto her. However, he only feels this guilt for a moment, before returning to Geneva to live the same lifestyle he had lived before he met Miss Daisy Miller. One could infer that James believed independent thought was a necessity. Through his thoughts, Winterbourne could have seen Daisy for who she was and her true intentions. However, Winterbourne shamelessly instead debates whether she is respectable. He questions her character and where she belongs on the social ladder. He tries to define her by the same standards of nobility and grace he has been taught to understand. Both he and his fellow expatriates fail to see Daisy as a person; rather they see a personification of dishonor that may ruin her name as well as
In her story, “A Story of an Hour”, Chopin writes about a woman who learns of her husband’s death and first experiences terrible grief. Following her anguish is the strange feeling of relief and excitement, from realizing her chance at living an independent life. From this, one can infer that Chopin writes Louise Mallard as experiencing joy upon the news of her husband’s death. Louise even whispers to herself, “Free! Body and soul!” (Chopin 426). This joy and excitement do not make Mrs. Mallard a wicked woman. In actuality, Louise, an unsatisfied woman, is enthused by the possibility of freedom from her former captive and boring life. Women during this period are not allowed to vote, own land, or form their opinions, so only when women become widows that they gain any semblance of self-determination. Mrs. Mallard dreams of this independence, as it represents her new future, a future where she can have her desires and make decisions for