Why My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun

Many women during the Antebellum period accepted their submissive roles forced onto them by society but some, like Emily Dickinson, rejected the norm. According to Barbara Welter’s writing, “The Cult of True Womanhood”, many young housewives during the 1820’s “did not think a woman should ‘feel and act for herself’” (Welter 236). Emily Dickinson, an American poet, wrote about this public opinion in her poem “My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun”. In the poem, the loaded gun represents a woman who was waiting “till a Day The Owner passed… and carried [her] away” (Dickinson). Dickinson describes the woman as “an empty vessel”, so before the Owner/her husband comes along she is useless (Welter 235). The last two lines of the poem express a feeling of helplessness, when the woman has “the power to kill, Without--the power to die” (Dickinson). After marriage she becomes “completely dependent on” her husband and lacks any “legal or emotional existence of her own” (Welter 235). The 1950’s also held women who ignored the housewife expectations thus pursuing a career. Despite living in a patriarchal society, Emily Dickinson defied normalcy and showed her

During the 1950’s, the typical American women was a housewife without career aspirations as Betty Friedan described in The Feminine Mystique. Many women “pitied their poor frustrated mothers, who dreamed of having a career” (Friedan 2). This mindset made other women desire being housewives. Even though Friedan called for the end of gender roles, many women still disagreed with her and stood by Barbara Welter’s virtues from the “Cult of True Womanhood”. Despite being shown a better way of life, they still believed all women should be submissive and domestic. Gender inequality was not only an issue in the 50’s but is a constant throughout time. In William Shakespeare’s