The Soul Selects Her Own Society Analysis

Dickenson’s portrayal of the woman choosing her lover over the rest of society is a statement about the isolation that comes with love, similarly William Faulkners “A Rose for Emily” displays the same blindness towards the rest of the world when she falls in love with Homer. The works both demonstrate a woman of status separating herself from society. ”The Soul Selects Her own Society” describes a woman who: “Shuts the door-To her divine majority-Present no more” (844). “Present no more” restates how the narrator no longer is involved in society, similarly Emily was absent in her own society: “she went out very little…people barely saw her at all” (79). The speaker in The Soul Selects Her own Society describes herself making a decision: “Choose

Similarly, “The Soul Selects Her own Society” represents an obscure love story and reveals a woman choosing her own destiny to love someone and live in privacy. “A Rose For Emily” exemplifies the natural fear of feeling alone, noting the difference between feeling alone and physically being alone. Emily longs for a loving relationship to fill the gaping hole in her life left by the anguish of losing her beloved father for whom she was dependent upon. She is left feeling very alone despite the fact that the towns people flock to her aid upon hearing the news of her fathers death. Her grief soon leads to autophobia and she is desperate to feel needed and loved. When Homer comes into her life she immediately falls in love with him; she then grows emotionally dependent on him, thus spawning her obsession with always being with her lover and never feeling alone. She goes on to kill her lover so that she will never feel alone again, thus sealing their fate through the irreversible act of death. Similarly the speaker in “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” rejects all other possible suitors, because the soul has made its choice. She goes on to segregate herself from society completely: “then-close the valves of her attention”(844), meaning once the soul has decided its fate it is