Whether by the simple spread of misinformation or through a series of misguided readings, Emily Dickinson has frequently been mistakenly branded as a "death-obsessed hermit," but this dismisses the importance of how the context of her life impacted her work and encloses her in a box she was never meant to fit in.
Granted, it is easy for we modern-day readers to inadvertently condense artists and poets to mere archetypes that cause them to fit into easy-to-explain blurbs. However, this cannot be the case for Emily Dickinson because there was so much more to her than how often she stayed at home or the heavier topics she chose to write about––she was an intelligent and creative woman living in a time where women were not viewed as intellectual equals to men. Dickinson’s cultural, family, and emotional history reflects this fact and offers insight that shows modern day readers a side of her that is completely missed when she is reduced to the ill-fitting labels of ‘hermit’ and ‘obsessed with death.’
Dickinson lived during a time where an abundance of death was a sad reality. Due to the lack of modern medical practices and knowledge, people died from easily curable issues every day; this experience was no different for Emily. As a girl, after losing many family friends and a cousin who was her age, Emily began to worry about the afterlife and her own soul. To make matters worse, the view from the second floor of Emily’s childhood home looked out over the local cemetery, so it seemed as though thoughts of this sort were always near her mind (Habegger 129). Intensifying this concern, Emily attended schools that were based in religious teachings, so she often felt pressured to convert to Christianity even though she did not feel that she could accept it. This caused a great deal of inner turmoil for Emily at a very young age, which can be seen in many letters she wrote to family and childhood friends at the time, including one where she explains that she was sure that she “ought to ‘give up & become a Christian’” (Habegger 202).
After dealing with so much death so early in her life, the added pressures of wondering about her own mortality weighed heavily on Emily’s mind and heart. This could have also caused Emily to isolate herself even more due to her concerns of bringing up “burdensome issues not to be carried to Mother or Father” (Habegger 175). These thoughts caused Emily to become even more introspective than ever, which added to her somewhat isolative nature and her preoccupation with weighty ideas like life beyond the grave.
One of the traumatic things that Emily dealt with was the occurrence of several subsequent deaths in her family’s community. Everything ranging from consumption, typus, and suicide claimed many lives over the course of a year in Emily’s hometown. However, the death that was likely the most distressing for Emily was that of her second cousin, Sophia Holland. Emily and Sophia were around the same age and considered one another good friends, so it was a shock for Emily when her cousin died. She apparently was allowed to help care for her cousin during her final days, and she insisted on seeing Sophia once more right before she died. She wrote about this final peek into the sick room, mentioning how her cousin’s “pale features lit up with an unearthly – smile” (Habegger 172). She was led away from the room at this point and her cousin died soon afterward. Understandably, this troubled Emily and began to really make her start to wonder about death and the afterlife, especially because she did not consider herself to be 'saved.'
All of these questions and concerns about death and religion bled into her poetry, and it was a subject she wrote about through the rest of her life.
For example, in the last stanza of "It will be summer – eventually" (F374), Dickinson touches on the end of summer through referencing the religious concept of 'Sacrament': “Till Summer folds her miracle— / As Women—do—their Gown— / Or Priests—adjust the Symbols— / When Sacrament—is done –” (Dickinson 171, lines 17-20). The acts of ‘folding’ a gown and ‘adjusting’ religious symbols are meant to signify the end of Summer and the good times that were enjoyed in the previous stanzas. These visuals not only create a sense of completion for the poem, but the explicit notion of summer ending also confirms to the reader that good things, such as life, do not last forever. However, both the folding of the Gown and the adjusting of the Symbols do not hold a sense of permanency––a dress can always be brought out again and religious ceremonies can be repeated over time––which allows the reader to understand that this change will also have an end.
Interestingly, Dickinson’s comparison of summer ending to a priests’ completion of sacrament indicates that experiencing the change of a season is also, in a way, a religious experience because of the semblance of death and rebirth. To understand this idea fully, one must first understand that in the Catholic denomination, sacrament is a term used for certain religious activities that members of the Catholic church are meant to experience––one of these being communion, which involves bread and wine being used to symbolize the final meal of Christ before he died and was eventually resurrected. If this symbolic view of the Sacrament of communion is applied to the poem’s theme of eventual return of Summer, the ideas of ‘death’ and ‘resurrection’ can be seen in how the season always ends, but it will come again––or how Christianity promises life after death. This concept is also dealt with in another poem, where Dickinson simply says, "Life is death we're lengthy at, / Death the hinge of life" (F503), indicating that while death comes for everyone, death is a 'hinge' or a beginning of a new life.
Dickinson discusses death in connection with religion again in "Life – is what we make it" (F727), stating, "Life – is what we make it – / Death – we do not know – / Christ's acquaintance with Him / Justify Him – though – // He – would trust no stranger – / Other – could betray – / Just His own endorsement – / That – sufficeth Me" (Dickinson 325, lines 1-8). Here, she provides a comforting view of death, reminding the reader that Jesus was 'acquainted' with death and that He 'endorses' it even when He 'would trust no stranger.' The speaker states that knowing that Jesus 'endorses' death 'suffices,' implying that there is nothing to fear from death.
Works Cited:
Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Edited by Ralph W. Franklin, Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1998.
Habegger, Alfred. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: the Life of Emily Dickinson. Modern Library, 2002.