Analysis of Poem 305 by Emily Dickinson Essay Example

ways to establish the dual nature as a woman in society.

As a result the poem is marked by duality and double meanings. Dickinson achieves this duality through poetic elements such as the structure of the poem, the use of the two main similes to create the connection between fear and despair. The poem is broken up into two stanzas, which contributes greatly to the main idea of duality. Dickinson attempts to establish, as a result of connecting two emotions, fear and despair, to being a woman who not only knows her powerless existence, but feels its restriction as well.In the first stanza, Dickinson establishes the important difference between despair and fear through a simile of a wreck. Whereas fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by coming evil or danger such as the “instant of a wreck”(Line 3).

Despair is the loss of all hope or the cause of this loss, such as the despair brought about in the aftermath of a wreck. The use of the dash between the last two lines of the first stanza signifies the idea that the difference between fear and despair is the passing of time. Between the two, fear is instantaneous but despair takes time to settle in and become actualized.This is further established by Dickinson’s opposing descriptions of the “instant” of a wreck and “when” (suggesting time) a wreck “has been. ” The second stanza takes these ideas of fear and despair and applies them to the emotions felt by a woman who must live a double sided life where she sees her social status and knows she is bound to it without the ability or capacity for

change it.

It is interesting that Dickinson uses the term “wreck” to make this connection because it suggests that she is talking about another “w” word, womanhood.Dickinson was known to be a very shut out women. This poem may be speaking directly about her social restraints. The second stanza establishes the duality of fear and despair and its implication for women through another stylistic element of using words that have multiple meanings. The word “contented” (Line 6) suggests that Dickinson accepted her role as a subservient woman in society because she felt unable to change her fate. In this acceptance of defeat, the fear of being a subjugated woman grows into despair after the realization that she could not change her fate.

Dickinson uses this final simile to present the idea that the mind of a woman leads to knowledge of her status, which leads to despair. With the mention of the mind being smooth without motion (Line 5), Dickinson describes the frenzied state of her thinking. Her description of a mind without motion alludes to the act of a mind flying through so many thoughts and feelings, all the while the body is motionless, patient in waiting to single out a thought to process and then elaborate on. Dickinson continues in line 6 with “Contented as the Eye,” where she relates the eye to the mind.Similarly, the eye can flicker on different images and see so many things, but is not always observant. The eye can spin around, looking and absorbing all the visuals in front of it, but it is confined in it’s socket, unable to go out and be part of the world

it witnesses.

Dickinson uses this simile to again emphasize her plight of being a woman and being trapped in the role society set for her. With the end of the second stanza, referencing the contented eye stuck on a bust that knows it cannot see, Dickinson fully realizes her life as a woman.This is when the reader can see the tangible despair Dickinson feels. Though she recognizes the place of a woman and has had to accept it, it depresses her because she wants more out of life.

But instead she stays in her home, being free in her poetry while the outside world goes on without her. Dickinson decided, rather than to be another sheep in society, to close herself off and try to break free of her position with her writing. The eye leads to inaction, which leads to fear.The word “bust” also has more than one meaning. It is a gendered term, referring to women and the lifeless status of a head with eyes that cannot see, like those of the speaker of the poem.

A bust is also frozen in time it is motionless. Dickinson uses the image of the bust as a symbol of despair or fear lasting forever. The speaker, whether is it Dickinson or not, feels not different than a bust watching time pass. This creates more isolation and alienation of the speaker.

Dickinson as a women felt this isolation.Therefore, a woman has contented knowledge that she is weak and powerless but there is nothing she can do. This poem is so perfectly descriptive of almost every emotion a person can have. An emotion that is directed with

the part of your mind that cannot directly analyze what they are seeing, yet actually feeling with the unseen eye. Works Cited 1.

Crumbley, Paul. "Emily Dickinson's Life. " Modern American Poetry. He Oxford Companion to Women’S Writing in the United States. 5 May 2008 <http://www.

english. uiuc. edu/maps/poets/a_f/dickinson/bio. htm>.