Emily Dickinson Research Paper

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. After leaving school as a teenager Dickinson became very reclusive. She wrote poetry in private which wasn’t found until after she died. Her sister came across her poetry stash and not long after her work was published. Dickinson is now considered one of the towering figures of American literature. Looking at Dickinson’s work and reclusive behavior some have speculated that she may have had agoraphobia, depression and anxiety. Agoraphobia is the fear of places and situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment. Another speculation is that she may have been sequestered due to her responsibilities as guardian of her sick mother. Emily died of kidney

In most of Dickinson work we find that she focuses on the theme truth. In a sense its odd and contradicting because in some of her pieces one reads that lying is ok. She doesn’t come right out and say it like that but states that one should speak the truth but tell it slant. So in a sense one is not lying they are simply just not telling everything or the full truth. Truth itself is a lot of times associated with death or pain in her works. Dickinson seems to focus on this very strongly in her poetry. One cannot fake death or pain, one cannot fake agony; she puts this into perspective. One may say that Dickinson is sadistic to prefer the hurt or dead over the living and people in general. Her works match her lifestyle, she was reclusive and signs of depression and anxiety were very prominent in her work and way of life. Some argue that it possibly was just because of her mother being ill. However her writing and way of life speak louder than the latter. Is it possible that she lived life where truth itself wasn’t there? Could this be why her writing seems so dark? Dickinson was very intelligent and a lot of her poetry may not have been accepted at the time it was actually written. She seemed to have quite a bit of views that differed from society. The metaphors and writing style seemed slightly philosophical and from looking at her earlier life she obviously held education high. Emily Dickinson herself seemed to have an enlightened way of thinking just by reading her work and researching her life one can see