Dickinson And Whitman: Challenging traditional Gender Roles
Two of America's poets that speak of gender in controversial ways are Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. The work of these poets undoubtedly stands out from other poets because they challenged conventional gender roles of their time. For the 1800's, their poetry was democratic in both its content and its language. Walt Whitman introduced new and forbidden ideas about homosexuality in his Calamus poems, while Emily Dickinson challenged the conventional role of a wife. By doing this, they spoke the unspoken and violated the social and ethical norms of society. These poets express their frustration towards the limitations of their traditional gender role through their poetry. This is an aspect of their poetry that once was ridiculed by society, but is greatly admired today. Walt Whitman had an autonomous style to his writing and introduced things in his poetry that presented a new way of viewing male sexuality in the 1800's. Whitman's writing touches on the subject of homosexuality, and how lonely he was left feeling because of it. He shows how isolated his life style had to be in such an unaccepting society. At the time, being a homosexual was not accepted by society, which Whitman illustrates when he describes how he:
As Whitman's voice takes over it is evident that his desires come into play, as he describes in uninhibited detail, "The beards of the young men glisten'd with wet, it ran from their/ long hair, / Little streams pass'd over their bodies" (210-212). Along with a woman succumbing to the male, Dickinson also suggests that a woman becomes less alluring to the man as the marriage goes on. Looking at a typical woman, and how she assumes the role of wife, Dickinson mocks, She rode to His Requirement--dropt The Playings of Her Life To take the honorable Work Of Woman, and of Wife-- . Whitman again justifies his homosexual feelings to society by redefining their natural essence. 1-4)This suggests that a woman is to obey a man's every whim and command, and to "dropt/ The Playings of Her Life" in order to do so (2). Dickinson recognizes that a woman's exploitation may, "lay unmentioned-as the Sea/ Develop Pearl, and Weed" (9-10), proving that it only seems natural for a woman to lose herself and take on this typical role of "Wife" in a marriage, as common and overlooked as an ocean developing pearls and weeds.
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Acceptance Essays
