Study On The Consciousness Of Loneliness In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Emily Dickinson?1830-1886?was the most famous American poetess in the 19^thh Century.Alfred Habegger,a biographer of Emily Dickinson,began his book with this statement "Any great writer who stands aloof from customs seen as fundamental is certain to be mythologized by posterity.For no one is this truer than Emily Dickinson..." ?A.H.13?.Dickinson was indeed a legendary figure in the history of American literature.She never married and almost lived a reclusive life.In the solitary and silent condition,Dickinson wrote nearly two thousand unpublished and untitled poems.She was totally different from the majority of her contemporaries on religion,female roles,poetic writing,and the way of life,and she also experienced dramatic ups and downs in the critic circle.To some extent,her loneliness and mystery are both impeding and attracting her readers from generation to generation.Choosing lonely consciousness as the topic of this thesis has two reasons.Firstly,loneliness is imprinted in Dickinson' s life and poems.Dickinson chose to live her life in a lonely way.She was away from the crowds and determined to be a great poet,which doomed to be a lonely path for a woman in the 19^thCentury America.During her lifetime,Dickinson had lots of lonely experiences.She deemed that life itself was a lonely journey where she both gained sufferings and enjoyments.Meanwhile,Dickinson' s poems also display a strong sense of loneliness,so making a study on Dickinson' s lonely consciousness will definitely deepen readers' understanding about her poetry.Secondly,loneliness is a universal phenomenon in the modern society.Every person will face loneliness more or less in his life. "How to handle the large sense of loneliness" has been an individual and social problem that everyone needs to think about.Therefore,studying on the lonely consciousness in Emily Dickinson' s poetry presents a great concern to universal human conditions,having a certain realistic significance,bringing certain inspirations so that we don' t have much panic when we are facing the loneliness in our life.This paper mainly based on three aspects,Dickinson' s poems,letters and biographies,makes a study on the lonely consciousness in Emily Dickinson' s poetry:the types of loneliness,text creations of loneliness and the multiplicity of loneliness,trying to clarify the reasons of Dickinson' s loneliness,her attitudes toward loneliness,and the influences of loneliness,in order to deepen reader' s understanding on Dickinson' s poems and to advance the domestic relevant research.The main method used in the research is close reading of text,which is grounded in the theoretical support of new criticism.Except for the parts of introduction and the conclusion,the main body falls into three chapters.Chapter one discusses the existence of Loneliness in Emily Dickinson' s poetry:loneliness as an alienated individual outside the world;loneliness as an immersed experiencer in the world;and loneliness as a persistent lover of the world.As for the first kind of loneliness,Dickinson is an alienated individual as a pagan,a never-married hermit,a female writer.The initial feeling of loneliness is being alone,single and isolated.As for the second kind of loneliness,Dickinson is an immersed experiencer who experiences the process of growing up from childhood to adulthood,from naivety to maturity;experiences the helpless of disease and death;experiences the contrast between insignificant,uncertain human beings and eternal,grand space and time.As for the third kind of Loneliness,Dickinson is a persistent lover of the world.Dickinson can' t give up her love to the world although there are pains,suffers and helplessness in the world.Love is Dickinson's instinct.For Dickinson,the only way to release the burden of life is to keep loving life,which has a sense of solemn loneliness.Chapter two illustrates three text creations of loneliness matching with the three kinds of loneliness in Dickinson' s poems.First,Dickinson created the "reclusive Utopia" in her poems for escaping the loneliness of alienation.She couldn't find the redemption from God,so she created the idealized door image,garden image,and home image in her poetry for escaping the lonely feelings in the reality.Second,for standing out the loneliness of insignificant human in an endless and grand time and space,Dickinson created the "circumference" in her poems.Two representative ones are "the alternation of day and night" and "the cycle of life and death" .Third,the loneliness as a persistent lover of the world creates the vitality of Dickinson' s poetry.That' s the reason why her poems can be handed down from generation to generation.This vitality hiding in her verses is reflected by "the aesthetic style of being towards death" and "the strong belief of being with hope and courage" .Chapter three analyzes the multiplicity of loneliness in Dickinson' s poetry.The loneliness in Dickinson' s poetry has multiple characters and influences.It is painful,violent,romantic,vital,enjoyable,and peaceful.First,loneliness brings great pain.The great pain of loneliness is embodied in her several poems such as "Savior!I have no one to tell" , "Poor littler Heart" , "It struck me—every Day" etc.Second,loneliness breeds poems,which can be seen from three points:loneliness gives poems imagination;loneliness gives poems originality,and loneliness gives poems inspiration.Third,loneliness promotes self realization.It helps her to return to her true-self and to find her own voice so that Dickinson lived a life she wanted and became a person she liked.The conclusion part summarizes the main findings of the three chapters and indicates the changing process of Dickinson' s attitudes toward Loneliness,which shows Dickinson' s self regulation during the process.At the beginning,Dickinson felt fearful and wanted to escape from loneliness.Then,she chose to face the loneliness in her life and to fight against it bravely.Finally,she found the joy of loneliness and turned to enjoy loneliness and coexisted with it peacefully.Dickinson never denied the pain of loneliness;she just accepted it and learned to coexist with loneliness.During the process,Dickinson developed a deeper and deeper perception on her life and the world.