Emily Dickinson Satire

Many might assume that because Emily Dickinson led a quiet life, that she would be timid, meek, and deferential. This is not the case; Dickinson defied both the societal and religious expectations that both her community and Puritanism placed upon her. Though it is true that Dickinson did not start rebellions and riots in the streets, through both her writing and her lifestyle, she continued to rebel in small but significant ways. Emily Dickinson’s community forced both religious and social standards on her; her defiance of these are illustrated in her poetry, as she addresses the negatives of both the expectations and a life that is led according to them.
Although many people think that Emily Dickinson’s choice not to practice Puritanism,

Puritanism is very hierarchical with the solely male church officials being at the top. The middle tier was comprised of people who followed the church’s rigid rules which were intended to help them get to heaven, and adhered to the patriarchal values. The church taught that a woman's worth was defined solely by her appearance and ability to be a good wife and mother (“Because I Could Not Stop for Death”). While Emily’s family complied with the church, she did not. Dickinson was indoctrinated into this traditional, patriarchal culture throughout her adolescence by her mandatory presence at church and by the way her parents raised her. Together with her home life, all of the schools that Dickinson attended reinforced the same patriarchal point of view. In particular, their focus on the Bible caused Dickinson to recognise that “women were excluded, discarded, or only peripherally active” (Berglund). Noticing this injustice may have been a driving force in her rejection of Puritan practices. Furthermore, Dickinson’s strong and independent nature was in direct conflict with her family’s beliefs about a woman’s role. In her mind, the way that her

Historians place these expectations into four categories, “piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity” (Radek-Hall). These standards dictated every part of a woman’s life, from her dress (corsets and crinolines) to her behavior (deferential and meek), to her occupation (housewife). It was assumed that a young woman was supposed to behave in a passive and timid manner so that someone would want to marry her. Then her purpose in life was to get married and have children. Additionally, she should not even aspire to have a formal occupation, but spend her time doing housework, taking care of her children and husband, and making meals to feed her family. Women were also expected to be submissive to all authority figures, including her husband. She was to respect and not question the religion and long-established social norms of the time (Radek-Hall). Fundamentally, women were to blindly and gratefully accept their role in society and not to question or to think for themselves (Wolff). All of these expectations created a rigid lifestyle that Dickinson chose not to partake in. By making choices throughout her life for herself, Dickinson demonstrated her unwillingness to submit to societal expectations. She never married and did not have any children. Furthermore, by not being a Puritan, like the rest of her town and family, she was not pious in the