Analysis of Dickinson’s Loaded Gun Poem Essay Example

otherwise stay in the same home under her father's rule for the rest of her life much like Emily Dickinson did herself. When she married the husband took on the role of the "Owner" and the woman became another possession the husband controlled.The woman, or "Loaded Gun," being a tool ready for use and in need of ownership to amount to anything. Through the second stanza Dickinson emphasizes how the nineteenth century wife is this tool.

The hunter also represents the husband who keeps his possessions and tools near him. The hunter uses the gun as a tool to "hunt the Doe" (6), hunting being the typical use for a gun. Like the gun, the woman has been placed into a typical situation and typical marriage of the nineteenth century. Where the husband goes, the wife willingly follows.She was the gun, unused, and once married her husband took her into a newer life where he became the king and "Sovereign" (5) of the marriage. When the husband tells the wife what to do, when the hunter pulls the trigger, she complies.

"And every time I speak for Him - / The Mountains straight reply -" (7-8) suggests the man gave an order and the "Loaded Gun" followed the order by firing. The capitalization of "Him" gives the man a godlike quality being able to completely control another like the hunter has control over the gun and able to take or spare the life of the doe it hunts.The echo that the gunshot gives off when fired indicates that the woman will always comply with her husband. The process of the gun's "Owner" pulling the trigger

and being obeyed will repeat because it is mechanical for the wife and programmed into her by her family and society's rules. Dickinson writes in the third stanza that the nineteenth century wife needs to be happy.

Society sees the wife, through which Dickinson is writing this poem's perspective, as this bright and happily married woman full of "cordial light" (9).Society expects a woman to grow up under her father's rule, marry, and give birth to children. Her husband requires her to obey every command and smile all the while, happy and compliant to every demand. In reality, however, this woman possesses more of an angry, "Vesuvian face" (11) as her husband uses and controls her like a gun and expects her to keep this mask of happiness.

Then, at the end of the day the gun rests by the head of the "Master" (14) guarding him like a dog, happy to have served her mater for the day and be there by his side at the end of it.The wife sees that the life she has been given as the property of her husband benefits her more than any other life she could have on her own. Dickinson shows in stanza five that the nineteenth century wife never questions her husband. Because this woman accepts the traditions of marriage and she depends so much on her "Master" to take care of her, she agrees completely with him. When she marries him, a "foe of His" (17) becomes an enemy of hers as well. She accepts his opinions of people, politics, religion, or anything else and adopts them as her own, always backing up her

husband without question.

If the hunter shoots the gun at an enemy, the gun does not question the hunter's reasons for pulling the trigger. It shoots and kills. The man gives an order. The wife obeys it. If the husband has to relocate for a job, the family moves.

If he suggests another way in handling the children, or a change that needs to occur in the wife's behavior or the way she or others run the house, they change it to the way he wants it. The wife does not second guess her husband and whatever needs to be done she does so immediately.In the last stanza Dickinson restates how the married woman of the nineteenth century depends on her husband. Although the most confusing stanzas of the poem, it could be the woman telling us her husband must live longer than her. Dickinson writes that the gun, like most inanimate objects, lives longer than the hunter, like women often live longer than men, but the "Loaded Gun" is useless without the "Owner" there to operate it and pull the trigger.

Dickinson also sees the married woman like the gun, unable to function without the husband there to guide her and tell her what she needs to do.Also this tradition of marriage was immortal itself and something women of the nineteenth century could not escape. This tradition trapped them in this position. It had the "power to kill" (23) any potential life a woman could have on her own and was so strong that women had a hard time escaping because it did not possess "the power to die" (24). Through the voice of a

married woman speaking about the relationship between her and her husband in relation to a gun and it's owner, Emily Dickinson portrays the nineteenth century wife as merely being an object of ownership to be used and dependent on the man for purpose and opinions.