An Interpretation of Dickinson’s Writing

A Woman—White—To Be by Edina Szalay explores Emily Dickinson’s participation in the debate regarding gender in the nineteenth-century. This article also strives to convince the reader that Dickinson had a deep understanding and concern for the problems of power within men and woman. As Szalay describes, Dickinson shares her opinion on the “True American Woman” through her poems. Dickinson has a unique and quiet way to her writing, a style that is sure to keep you wondering about her opinions on other topics such as politics, history, and social turmoil.

The chosen article was written to convince its readers that Dickinson was able to come face to face with issues like gender politics, without being extremely straightforward through her poetry. According to Szalay, Dickinson remained engaged in talking about gender politics in a broader process “commonly associated with her female speakers through the analysis of the poem ‘A Charm invests a face’” (Szalay). Also pointed out in Szalay’s article, many people had a view that Dickinson was a poet mainly concerned about “personal self-scrutiny and the pursuit of individual insight” (Szalay). This, according to Szalay, is all wrong, because of the way we are interpreting her poetry. Szalay’s first attempt to prove her thesis was to explain the so-called woman writing style. It is described that woman mainly wrote to bring joy, comfort, and happiness to other’s lives. Women were expected to write a certain way; a way to share with other’s their own personal experiences and how it could enlighten others through their own trials. On another hand, however, women were also expected to refrain from displaying their personal concerns or thoughts too freely. It was assumed that a women’s “natural” essence was to be kept quiet, but Dickinson might have been showing those concerns freely through her writing in a way that would deliberately hide her openness about those issues. Hence, it wasn’t very noticeable.

Another way that Szalay sets up her argument is through describing the characteristics of a so-called “true” woman, according to the common beliefs of the nineteenth-century. Those characteristics are piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. (Szalay) That view of how women were supposed to be was almost forced upon you, in the nineteenth century. Those four characteristics were found everywhere; you couldn’t escape that view. Dickinson displayed her mistrust in that ideology by trying to keep her focus on the individual woman, rather than that “true woman” ideology. As described by Szalay, only a true feminist would support that idea in those times. Dickinson also identifies the “normal” writing style of women in her time, and strives to depart from that. Because of her “apparent lack of interest in any specific social cause” (Szalay), her writing style indicates her “intellectual engagement in contemporary political discourse” (Szalay)

Szalay goes on to include her analysis of A Charm invests a face. She believes Dickinson is trying to point out that her focus on gender politics is apparent and is specific to women of her own class. Szalay breaks it down by looking at Dickinson’s grammar, word choice, and her tone in the poetry, along with the actual content. She displays a feministic view that is different from the traditional “woman” view that is spread in that era. To back up this statement, Szalay thinks that “Exchanging glances with the world might fill a present void” (Szalay), the void that lies between the true woman underneath the “veil” and the veil itself. Szalay used the “veil” symbolically as a way to demonstrate that people only see what is expected, not the true identity and individuality.

Dickinson’s view of the true “American woman” was different than the normality of the time, and through her writings you can see that if you know how to correctly interpret. She also had some firm beliefs on gender politics and social problems that could easily be hard to see, but again, with the right interpretation, you can see her true reasons for writing what she did, reinforced by Szalay’s analysis of Dickinson’s A Charm invests a face.

Personal Evaluation

Szalay does a very well job with showing that Dickinson truly understood the true identity of women behind the so-called veil. Though Dickinson had a different way of letting her true values show, a lot of our confusion is because of our interpretations. Especially back in her times, discussed by Szalay, everyone had certain expectations of how woman wrote and what kind of emotions woman were able to express, cutting off people’s ability to interpret her writing correctly. I also think that Szalay brought up an issue that isn’t common and one that I didn’t really think about prior to reading this article. It was one of those things where once I actually read the article and thought about Dickinson’s work regarding the article, I was then able to understand the point Szalay tries to make and how it could help clear up confusion about Dickinson. I only slightly felt like this article was pointless, but that eventually drifted away and I understood that some people may really be wondering about Dickinson’s intentions and understandings. Overall, Szalay did a good job in carrying out Dickinson’s understandings about a “true woman” and likewise adding her opinions on gender politics and such.

Works Cited
Szalay, E.. ""A woman -- white -- to be" :Politics of subjectivity and gender in Emily Dickinson's poetry. " Neohelicon 35.1 (2008): 61. Humanities Module, ProQuest. Web. 1 Jun. 2010.