Dickinson:Believer or not?
While attending Amherst College, Emily Dickinson became fascinated with Dr. Hitchcock's philosophies. Dr. Hitchcock was the originator of the American Scientific Association and President of Amherst College. Dickinson loved to read "Flowers of North America," along with other works by Hitchcock. She would attend his lectures, not knowing that one of his sermons would change her views on Christianity for the rest of her life. Pollitt writes that "In Dr. Hitchcock's philosophy of a natural religion as opposed to the purely scriptural doctrine, Emily's mind took it's first stride"(Pollitt 34).He believed that 'the spiritual body will transcend the natural body; that it will have means of receiving knowledge far more delicate, certain, and rapid; that it will be possessed by an activity incapable of fatigue and eminently fitted for abstraction; that the memory will be perfect... an organization so exquisite as never to mislead or allure from duty... There will be recognition in heaven, all marriage vows dissolved, and the lover and his beloved will become but angles of God (Pollitt 35).Such a sermon was too convincing and too striking for her to ever forget it. Two of Emily Dickinson's cr
It seems evident that Dickinson believed in the orthodox deity when it was convenient for her, but when her prayers went unanswered the "authenticity of the Heavenly Father became suspect and eventually eroded her faith"(410). She tells how faith is lost in this poem. Growing up, Dickinson was forced to attend church; however, "she rejected all that made man insignificant and helpless before the crushing force of God" (Molson 404). Dickinson takes biblical and devotional texts and makes her own original versions. Dickinson's absorption in the concept of eternal life was merely heightened by love, and she seeks baroque equivalents of the courtly or religious image-mingling the two-to express the fact. The Congregational minister once declared Dickinson a sound Christian, although she was always afflicted by doubts. Dickinson "at times accepted it, at times undermined it, and at times frankly expressed bewilderment ranging from humorous to the tragic"(Wells 145). Dickinson was also forced to accept God. The answered prayers then established his credibility, which with her was very few. At first Dickinson was willing to believe in Christ only if he would answer her prayers. Although she acknowledged no leader, religion itself appealed to her as one of the deepest aspects of man's life. (Dickinson 465 line 9-12) Dickinson's quest for God is identical to her battle for personal integrity. Her ambiguity as a poet for whom religion was a major theme along with her gained knowledge from school and reading definitely caused her to lead her life as an individualistic person.
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Acceptance Essays
