Emily Dickinson's A Quiet Passion

“This is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me...” -Emily Dickinson

Why are people so enamored by Emily Dickinson? She guards the independence of her heart and soul with her poems and her words. The person she is, the words she writes, and the people she grows up with, watches her struggle through pain rebellion, and introvertedness. The film, “A Quiet Passion,” shows her life story throughout her later teenage years to her 50’s and how she sculpts her life by her poems, her beliefs, and the exaggerated quiet life she lives. In the film, it shows Dickinson in the 18th century, which is known as the Age of Enlightenment. In the film, Dickinson and her poems were portrayed with high modern but not contemporary qualities that artists

Emily doesn’t go to church because she believe she doesn’t need to, to be saved. Her father comes into her room and asks if she will go this once and if not, then why? “God knows what is in my heart, he doesn’t require me to be in a pew to remind him.” Emily responds. “Your soul is no trivial matter.” “I agree, father. That’s why I am so meticulous in guarding its independence.”6 This leads into another reciting of one of Emily Dickinson’s poems called, “I reckon - when I count at all.” While this is being recited, Emily is shown hand weaving her poem book. This book is called a ‘fascicle.’ Mabel Loomis Todd, Emily’s editor, gave the name to the homemade books. These manuscripts that Emily made had hundreds of poems dating from 1850s to the 1860s. The way she made these fascicles is by taking folded pieces of paper, which creates four pages, and stacks several folds on each other creating a book like structure. After this, she starts threading holes into the side of the book, and then tying the sheets together.7 This is not the entire poem. It was pulled directly from her