In the years 1858 through 1866, we have seen an increase in women writing which has become known as the American Women’s Renaissance period. This is the peak during which women writers would express themselves more throughout different forms of literature. Although, many women authors have made their marks on literature history, I am going to focus mainly on Emily Dickinson and how the use of her cultural and historical background illuminates our understanding of her. In the book titled, Beneath the American Renaissance, by David S. Reynolds, there are numinous findings on what drove Dickinson to write certain ways. Out of the 1,775 poems she wrote, 1098 were produced during the time period of 1858-66. That is about 62 percent of her poems…show more content… There was many different associations both being positive and negative. For Dickinson, she incorporated both views in her work. “Dickinson’s poems stands out not for any new statement about marriage it might contain, but for its playful fusion of opposing views about the marriage relation that was circulating in American culture” (422). None of Dickinson’s views seem to be new to this culture, but they played a huge role in the fact that they were opposite views. One view she portrayed was that marriage was heavenly and blissful, everything about it was wonderful and gave women such a remarkable sense of power. In a letter to Susan Gilbert, Dickinson stated, “Home is a holy thing—nothing of doubt or distrust can enter its blessed portals” (422). Dickinson also brings up how she enjoys that daily housekeeping activities as a women. On the contrary, in other poems, Dickinson viewed marriage as an “economic deprivation to loss of independence” (422) and caused women to become physically ill. “In the poem, the anti-marriage view is crystallized in subtle images, such as, “soft Eclipse” and “Stop There!,” suggest the termination of woman’s independence in marriage” (422). The effects of the culture norms that were reflected during the time of the American Women’s Renaissance illustrate how Dickinson expressed her personal beliefs in her poetry.
In Beneath the American Renaissance, by David Reynolds the different ways Emily
