Emily Dickinson consistently expresses the notion of gender roles within a patriarchal society. Many critics have alluded to the fact that the women’s rights movement influenced Dickinson’s work. Kelly writes in her article ‘Critics, who have surveyed the different cultural elements that fed into Dickinson's poetry, have concluded that Emily Dickinson's work was influenced by the women's right movement. In addition, some of these critics believe that some of her poetry can be interpreted as Dickinson's opinion of gender issues’ (kelly, 2016) David S. Reynolds further supports this point as he states, “It was a period of extreme consciousness about proliferation of varied women's role in American culture.” (Reynolds, 2008). This connotes that
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Women where primarily taught to be a housewife, only having the responsibilities of looking after the house every day and organising social convention created by the patriarchal society. These roles separated both genders and segregated society. Emily Dickinson however, managed to tear away from the segregated society that compressed the high value of women and the voices of women through her own literature. Not only did Dickinson liberated her herself through literature, but many other women did as well; writing became the voice for many women who were subjugated. One of Dickinson’s poem that highlights the difference in gender roles in marriage is ‘I gave myself to him’, this poem depicts marriage as ‘solemn contract’ where the woman is seen as a financial security, identifying a woman as an object her husband is simply buying. Similarly. Dickinson’s poem ‘Title Divine is mine’, expresses that the presence of love like women are ‘Betrothed- without the swoon’. Kelly states ‘Both poems depict marriage as an act of oppression against women who were subjugated by men's efforts to maintain control of the opposite gender through social relations and domestic labour’ (kelly, 2016). This negative connotation of women and love analysed from both poems does make the readers feel as though they should regulate the behaviour to favour the free woman who is not afraid to let her voice to be
Women where primarily taught to be a housewife, only having the responsibilities of looking after the house every day and organising social convention created by the patriarchal society. These roles separated both genders and segregated society. Emily Dickinson however, managed to tear away from the segregated society that compressed the high value of women and the voices of women through her own literature. Not only did Dickinson liberated her herself through literature, but many other women did as well; writing became the voice for many women who were subjugated. One of Dickinson’s poem that highlights the difference in gender roles in marriage is ‘I gave myself to him’, this poem depicts marriage as ‘solemn contract’ where the woman is seen as a financial security, identifying a woman as an object her husband is simply buying. Similarly. Dickinson’s poem ‘Title Divine is mine’, expresses that the presence of love like women are ‘Betrothed- without the swoon’. Kelly states ‘Both poems depict marriage as an act of oppression against women who were subjugated by men's efforts to maintain control of the opposite gender through social relations and domestic labour’ (kelly, 2016). This negative connotation of women and love analysed from both poems does make the readers feel as though they should regulate the behaviour to favour the free woman who is not afraid to let her voice to be