Volume 10 65

church, and generally fulfilling civic and social re-
sponsibilities. Even if she could have found the
time and the solitude to read, contemplate, and
write, her work would likely have been seen as
completely unseemly, even downright dangerous,
for a woman.
Under the circumstances it makes sense that a
young woman with towering artistic ambitions, like
Dickinson, would chose solitude. She was fortu-
nate that she had some money of her own and did
not have to marry for support or protection, which
would have been true for a woman without her so-
cial status. Dickinson gave up the chance to marry
and have a family; in exchange, she had the inde-
pendence, time, and solitude to devote herself to
her writing. She was not an isolated and heartbro-

ken eccentric, having enjoyed many correspon-

dents and a dear relationship with her sister-in-law.

Poetic Tradition

Dickinson’s unconventional way of life and

her poetry still strikes readers today as daring and

original. Earlier critics have suggested that she pub-

lished so few of her poems while she was alive be-

cause she had no intention of ever releasing them.

More recent scholarship suggests that Dickinson re-

garded herself as a serious poet and imagined an

audience for her work beyond her primary reader,

who was her sister-in-law.

Dickinson was an avid reader and was well

aware of the kinds of poetry popular in her day.

She also knew, therefore, how little hers resembled

The Bustle in a House

Compare

&

Contrast

• Late Nineteenth Century:The Civil War, as
  well as bacterial infection and widespread dis-
  eases such as consumption, makes death a fa-
  miliar part of daily life in the United States.
  Today:Through live news reports from both
  network and cable television, Americans view-
  ers are presented with images of death and
  tragedy from around the world with an imme-
  diacy previously inconceivable.


• Late Nineteenth Century: New Englander
  death rituals take place in the home, with the dy-
  ing being surrounded by friends and family in
  household rooms temporarily made into death
  chambers. There, the company awaited signs of
  the dying’s heavenly salvation, received last re-
  quests and wills, and witnessed the repentance
  of sins during the last rites sacrament. The faith-
  ful dying sometimes gave witness to the ap-
  proach, then presence of heavenly salvation. For
  the onlookers, contact with the dead and dying
  is considered an important part of living, in that
  it reminds them of the temporality of the body
  and the potential passage of the spirit into heav-
  enly eternity.
  Today:In most cases, the dying are removed
  from their homes and cared for in specialized

facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, and

hospices. In all cases—and by law—corpses are

removed from houses and prepared for burial by

mortuary specialists. Even in instances in which

the dead are viewed postmortem, their bodies

are carefully prepared and doctored. In the eyes

of the general public, contact with the dead and

dying is seen—both rationally and irrationally—

as dangerous, harmful, and disturbing.

• 1830-1855: Transcendentalism, an American
  philosophical and literary movement born in
  New England, is at its height. An outgrowth of
  Romanticism, the transcendentalist attitude op-
  posed middle-class commercialism and looked
  for evidence of the divine in the world while
  conceiving very liberally of godliness. It gave
  priority to personal intuition, organized mysti-
  cism, and a broad optimism about human
  nature.
  Today:While many people espouse views of
  divinity and have faith in a transcendent mover
  of the world we see, the domain of the mysteri-
  ous—concerning aspects of everything from
  causes of death to weather patterns to human be-
  havior—in increasingly collapsed by advances
  in human sciences.