Студопедия

Главная страница Случайная страница

КАТЕГОРИИ:

АвтомобилиАстрономияБиологияГеографияДом и садДругие языкиДругоеИнформатикаИсторияКультураЛитератураЛогикаМатематикаМедицинаМеталлургияМеханикаОбразованиеОхрана трудаПедагогикаПолитикаПравоПсихологияРелигияРиторикаСоциологияСпортСтроительствоТехнологияТуризмФизикаФилософияФинансыХимияЧерчениеЭкологияЭкономикаЭлектроника






The Soul selects her own Society






(1862)

This poem is often read as an expression of exclusivity strongly rooted in antidemocratic class privilege. Readings that support this interpretation draw heavily on Dickinson’s biography, citing her family’s social position and the financial affluence that enabled Dickinson to live an unmarried, solitary life in the family home, where she enjoyed the support of domestic servants. The “Soul, ” who is described in the first stanza as “select[ing] her own Society” and “shut[ing] the Door” to all others, does indeed lend credence to such assertions of exclusivity. This sense of detachment is then invested with distinctively political significance when the Soul affirms “her divine Majority, ” thus appearing to assume the divine right of monarchs, further elevating her above the will of America’s democratic masses. Dickinson’s use of aristocratic language in the second stanza appears to reinforce these opening assertions of privilege by presenting the Soul as “Unmoved” even by “an Emperor... kneeling / Opon her Mat”. The repetition of the word Unmoved in lines 5 and 7 further magnifies the Soul’s detachment. The concluding stanza then builds on this growing sense of the Soul’s isolation by presenting her as selecting the smallest possible society: “I’ve known her—from an ample nation – / Choose One – ”. Here, the lifting of one from “an ample nation” seems an unmistakable rejection of America’s democratic veneration of the common man. The final lines then seal the Soul in isolated splendor by describing her as vanishing behind “Valves” that close with the finality of “Stone”.

Alternative readings of the poem arise from thinking about the speaker’s precise relation to the Soul and carefully considering the tone appropriate to the language of extreme indifference that the speaker projects onto the Soul. Close examination of the final stanza clearly reveals that the speaker may in reality be entirely separate from, and perhaps even hostile to, the Soul. To have “known” the Soul to “Choose One – / Then – close the Valves of her attention – / Like Stone” suggests the sort of knowledge that results from being left on the outside. This perception opens the possibility that the poem is not a celebration of the Soul’s majesty, but rather a critique of economic privilege or even the prerogative of the romantic artist, whose single-minded quest for spiritual truth necessitates a disregard for others. The speaker’s repetition of the word Unmoved in the second stanza can now be read as expressing an attitude of extreme displeasure, a displeasure that results from being repeatedly excluded from the Soul’s presence. According to this reading, the poem performs as a condemnation of social privilege precisely because such privilege yields an aristocratic disdain for the ideals of democracy.

 


Поделиться с друзьями:

mylektsii.su - Мои Лекции - 2015-2024 год. (0.006 сек.)Все материалы представленные на сайте исключительно с целью ознакомления читателями и не преследуют коммерческих целей или нарушение авторских прав Пожаловаться на материал