The Reclusive Emily Dickinson
Why the 19th Century American Poet's Isolation is Understandable
A discussion of American poet Emily Dickinson's reclusive nature as a distraction from the what should be the reader's true focus on her life -- her poetry.
Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) is considered by most critics and literary historians to be one of the eminent poets of American history. While admired and even revered for her literary prowess today, Dickinson famously had only seven poems published in her lifetime, though after her death relatives discovered more than 1,800 poems and poetic fragments stashed away in her bedroom.
An Overstated Reclusiveness
Much has been made of Dickinson’s seemingly extraordinary and eccentric reclusiveness. Indeed, in many modern, supposedly comprehensive high school and college literature courses, Dickinson’s reclusiveness is sadly and too often the first and last word taught on the poet, thus creating a mythos around her the prominence of which unfortunately distracts from the quality and importance of her work.
Dickinson was indeed renowned for her reclusiveness in her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts in the later part of her life (residents sometimes referred to her as “the myth”), but it is an unfair assessment to ascribe her reclusiveness exclusively to unsoundness of mind, strangeness or eccentricity. In fact, Dickinson led a relatively normal young adolescence, even spending a time away from home at a nearby boarding school for girls in 1847 (though she dropped out after the year, supposedly because of illness. It is more likely she left due to homesickness, as well as distaste for particular aspects of the school). While she lived and died in Amherst, sharing a home throughout her life with her parents and sister Vinnie (short for Lavinia), it wasn’t until her late twenties that Dickinson fully withdrew herself from contact with those outside of her immediate family.
It is interesting that Dickinson’s serious poetic output seems to have its origin in coincidence with her sudden withdrawal from society sometime around 1858. It is at this time she began to be referred to as “the myth,” her lack of appearance in public leading many to question her frailty of mind. Rumors circulated (and continue even today) that she had been rejected by a love interest.
An Understandable Withdrawal
In truth, Dickinson’s reclusiveness could have stemmed from any number of understandable causes. Her brother Austin, with whom she was very close, married a close friend of Dickinson’s named Susan in 1856. The couple moved into a house built for them by the Dickinson’s father next door to the Dickinson family’s own, and for a while Emily and Susan would visit with each other often.
It is not clear exactly what happened between the two women, but it is well known that Austin’s marriage to Susan was tumultuous and unhappy, and the close friends had a painful falling out. The rift between the two was to the extant that Dickinson’s sister Vinnie claimed the meanness of Susan toward her sister shortened the latter’s life by ten years. The pain caused by the dissolution of this friendship could easily have contributed to a depression in Dickinson that manifested itself in part in her reclusiveness.
Another factor contributing to Dickinson’s reclusiveness was the illness of her mother, contracted in 1855. While the nature of the illness is unknown to us, it is known that Dickinson’s mother needed nearly constant attention and was bedridden for much of her later life, until her death in 1882. Dickinson was so pressed for time between her daily chores, caring for her mother, and her writing that she took to wearing a wardrobe consisting almost entirely of white dresses, which required less care to color coordinate in matching and were quicker to clean because they could be bleached with the sheets and towels.
The seeming eccentricity of her choice of clothing only served to add to the mythos surrounding Dickinson’s exclusive nature, and the longer she stayed in her home, the harder it would have been for her to leave. Many of her childhood friends (some sources say as many as thirty or more) had died by 1854, and numerous others had married or moved away from Amherst. Dickinson’s father died suddenly in 1874, adding to her grief.
Given the circumstances Dickinson lived through, it is not altogether odd that she would lead the type of life she did. Mabel Loomis Todd, a friend of Dickinson (who at one time was having an affair with her married brother Austin), once wrote in her journal that Dickinson wore “her hair arranged as was the fashion fifteen years ago when she went into retirement.” If women in Dickinson’s time are anything like women today, it is understandable she would not want to be seen so ‘out of fashion.’ At one point she became so isolated that she would only entertain visitors from behind a screen or door.
Poetic Justification
After her death of a kidney disease in 1886, Dickinson’s sister Vinnie found her poems tied with care in bundles in her desk. They were published due in large part to Vinnie’s dedication to the cause in three extraordinarily popular volumes throughout the 1890s. The rejection of these same poems by publishers during Dickinson’s lifetime likely was another contributing factor to the poet’s deepening isolation.
Dickinson has been celebrated ever since the appearance of her poems in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a poetic innovator who successfully bridged the gap between the lyric verse of the 19th century and the modern tradition of free verse. Her influence has reverberated throughout American and even international literature, and her poetry has been translated into numerous languages, read and studied throughout the world. Of all the things to remember about Emily Dickinson, the quality and innovation of her work should have not only the first and last word, but all the words between as well.
