The Supple Suitor: Death in Emily Dickinson

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Dickinson's portrayal of death as a masculine figure, reflecting the fact that, during the nineteenth century, masculinity was portrayed as the ruling force both in celestial and earthly terms. By further portraying this power as a devious Victorian suitor, the weakness and naivety of the female speaker is made apparent, especially in poems 712, 1445, and 1053. The writer describes how in these poems the speaker is won over by the charming wiles of her suitor only to be violated and then abandoned by him. This representation of Death as the "supple Suitor" and violator illustrates the balance between the desirable aspects of love and marriage, and the fearsome aspects of sex and childbirth, and probably also Dickenson's personal fears, since she spent her life secluded and unmarried.

From the Paper:

"The largest twist of the poem, however, takes place in the fourth stanza as the atmosphere shifts from that of a sunny afternoon drive in the country to that of a journey into eternity. The speaker seems to have been thrown out of the confinement of the carriage, or perhaps jolted from her conception of "we" - for death is eternally solitary and belongs to no one - and especially not to her. The speaker is abandoned and left exposed to the harsh world of reality, and as the Dews cease to be inanimate, like the fields of grain in the previous stanza, they bring "quivering and chill" to the speaker which easily penetrate her flimsy garments. This personification of dew serves to illustrate the vulnerability and naivety of the speaker as she fails in protecting herself from them, and allows her trust to be violated by all-powerful death."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Thomas H. Johnson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955.
• Dobson, Joanne A. "Oh, Susie, it is dangerous." Feminist Critics Read Emily Dickinson. Ed. Suzanne Juhasz. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983. 80 - 97.
• Smith, Robert McClure. The Seductions of Emily Dickinson. Tuscaloosa: Alabama University Press, 1996.
• Wardrop, Daneen. Emily Dickinson's Gothic. Iowa: Iowa University Press, 1996.

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