Religious Context
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Rejecting the rigid and fervent beliefs of her Calvinist community, Dickinson’s poems often
show scepticism towards faith.
Emily Dickinson would have been familiar with the Biblical book of Revelations which
portrays the afterlife as glorious. Many Puritans believed that the moment of death was an
epiphanic experience in which God is revealed. However, Dickinson questions and
undermines the accepted truths of her society and many of her poems show the afterlife as
a terrifying limbo and an eternal expanse of nothingness.
Christians believed that one should succumb to death graciously and willingly, trusting in the
will of God and the glory of the afterlife. Dickinson struggles with this unquestioning, docile
confidence.
Christians viewed the afterlife as a promise of immortality. However, for Dickinson,
immortality seems more terrifying than rewarding.
Social Context
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As a 21st century reader, we might find Dickinson’s poems morbidly preoccupied with death
and dying. However, Dickinson’s concern with the subject reflects the context of 19th
century, in which death from illness, disease and childbirth remained a very real threat.
The close proximity of friends and family to the dying may surprise a modern reader. Yet,
Dickinson lived in a time when death took place in the family home and mourners would
have taken part in ritualistic preparation of the body.
Context of Women
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Lives of women in 19th Century New England would have been highly restricted. We can
sense a frustration at this in many of Dickinson’s poems.
Marriage often meant surrendering any sense of independence. Dickinson perhaps rejects a
romantic relationship in ‘Going to Him! Happy letter!’, instead choosing her art of writing
over her attraction to the man in question.
Philosophical context: Transcendentalism
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Transcendentalism was a German philosophy experiencing a wave of popularity in the 19th
century. It suggests a sense of connection between the universe and the individual person’s
soul. However, Dickinson’s poems can critique this idea as often nature seems
incomprehensible to our human minds and separate from mankind’s own experiences.
Transcendentalists believe that God can be found in places other than scripture, for example
in nature itself. Dickinson often echoes this idea in her presentation of the awesomeness of
nature and its power of revelation.
Emerson (founder of Transcendentalism movement) criticised contemporary society for
unthinking conformity and urged each person to find ‘an original relation to the universe’.
We can evidence of Dickinson similarly questioning blind adherence to worship, instead
forging her own connection with nature.
Gothic context
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The 19th century saw the emergence of the literary Gothic genre, which revelled in secular
ideas of terror, supernatural horror, mystery, awe and the grotesque. Many of Dickinson’s
poems play with Gothic tropes. Often, these are used to show the torment of internal,
mental states.
At times Dickinson parodies the Gothic genre, suggesting that clichéd concepts of ‘haunted
castles’ and ‘headless horseman’ show no real insight into the true horrors existent in
human experience and in the human mind.
Scientific context
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The 19th century saw an explosion in scientific study and experimentation. We see in
Dickinson’s work a fascination with the nature that surrounded here in Amherst. She makes
detailed note of animals and their habitat within her poems, conveying an enjoyment in her
observation and a sense of awe. She suggests that humans will never be able to comprehend
and perceive the sheer magnitude of nature.
Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection cast doubts on the Biblical recount of creation. We
could perhaps posit that Emily Dickinson may have aware of such ideas.
Though Dickinson may explore doubts as to the reliability of Christian precepts, she still
appears to have room for spiritual engagement with faith and the world around her. It is
clear empirical proof and scientific reasoning is insufficient in understanding the world; an
individual intuition is needed when contemplating the workings of the universe.
As a twenty first century reader, we can see elements of what was to emerge as Freud’s idea
of psychoanalysis and the unconscious, in Dickinson’s writing. Dickinson appears keen to
explore the compartments of the human mind and there appears to be a realisation of the
significance of the unknown in the human psyche.
"Faith" is a fine invention
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"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see—
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.
Emily Dickinson