Emily Dickinson and Henry James

The 1898 horror novella, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, focuses on a governess who, caring for two children at a Bly, a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. This text can be said to revolve around a nucleus of silence (Cubedo pg. 101). A silence that Virginia Woolf revealed picking up on, as she expresses: Perhaps it is the silence that first impresses us. Everything at bly is so profoundly quiet (Henry pg. 179). The silence in James' work revolve around absence of speech, vacant rooms, still weather and nature atmospheres, and of course, ghosts. Comparatively, this same theme echoes throughout the work of Emily Dickinson, for she too often demands a hesitation in her reader, as she isolates vague, yet profound syntax with punctuation, typically a dash. Dickinson tends to leave her reader in the realm of silence by stating a phrase or word that is dense with possible implications, thus leading our minds to complete the mental and visual exercise, as her diction echoes through her pauses in punctuation. To provide context, The Turn of the Screw portrays a story from an old manuscript written by a former governess who is now dead, according to Douglass, the man reading the manuscript aloud to a crowd. The manuscript tells the story of the governess, who name is never revealed. She is persuaded by a handsome bachelor to look after his niece and nephew in Bly, the isolated estate, for the previous governess died from reasons unknown (Henry). The text itself, the manuscript in Douglas's position, is essentially kept silent, for it is in a locked drawer, sealed away unread for many years, which implied by it being covered in dust(Henry). The text contained in what the narrator calls a long silence, which, when it is uttered, had broken a thickness of ice, and emerges through the surface, coming to life again, as the narrator shifts from Douglas to a live, first hand perspective of the governess (Henry). Comparatively, Emily Dickinson's poems were primarily unrevealed until after her death -- only fewer than a dozen of her poems were published out of her nearly two thousand during her lifetime. And while a collection of poetry is a different form of expression than a fictional story, Dickinson's abstract portrayal of her inner dialogue, through the art of poetry was also contained in a long silence-- unread for years. After her younger sister, Lavinia discovered the collection of nearly 1800 poems, Dickinson's first volume was published four years after her death. This metaphor of recalling a story from the past represents an itinerant pattern within the text, concerning the diffusion of knowledge and information, for when it arises, it is only partially exposed; some part of it still rests below the surface, which arouses ambiguity, for any potential clarification of the poetry or manuscript cannot ever be confirmed by the one who produced it. Moreover, once The Turn of the Screw enters the realm of the manuscript, the nameless governess and the servant, Mrs. Gross, evidently often refrain from articulating speech, in fear of discussing anything remotely taboo. This arouses readerly skepticism over what the characters are truly experiencing. Both characters are constantly breaking off in the middle of a phrase, leaving words unsaid, and filling in sentences for each other. For example, towards the end of the novella, Mrs. Gross and the governess discuss the possibility of coming across the ghosts -- Mrs. Gross hints towards admitting she believes the governess in seeing them for the first time. However, both character's sentence nonetheless remains interrupted, causing the reader to flounder in the realm of ambiguity -- assuming we know what they are talking about, although never having it confirmed. The governess explains you mean that, since yesterday, you have seen”? To which Mrs. Gross replies, I've heard from that child”horrors! There! Mrs. Gross exclaims there! as if she truly admitting to some deep forbidden secret, yet in reality, she hasn't explicitly admitted to anything. Mrs. Gross is explained to close her speech with a sigh of tragic relief, further convincing the reader that she has taken a burden off her chest. However, the absence of specific information in her speech leaves an echo in the reader's mind, as we attempt to fill in the blank with inevitable confusion, which is interrupted with Mrs. Gross sudden sob, as she gives way to all the grief of it. The sob distracts the echo of silence we the reader have yet to make any sense of, which prevails nonetheless. Similarly to the fragmented, ill-defined dialogue in The Turn of the Screw, Dickinson's poetry portrays diction and phrases that are accompanied by a punctuation of various pauses, tones, and rhythms, that extend, modify, and emancipate her words -- highlighting the silent place in which language erupts and leaves an echo in the reader's mind. Her words are emancipated in the sense that they are released from their definitive, commonly understood meaning. Instead, they are isolated with punctuation and paired in unconventional ways, leading the reader to wonder what they truly are saying about the poem as a whole. Her syntax more often than not, evokes instantaneously a broad range of images, memories, and associations of ideas, without the necessity of subordination to grammatical and logical categories. A prime example of Dickinson's use of ellipsis and ambiguity, which in turn covers a large scope of references and images, is poem 212: Least Rivers”docile to some sea. My Caspian”thee. In this case, the image begins small with rivers, which perhaps are ready to accept control of some sea, which is then broadened to a wider scope with the magnitude and greatness of the Caspian Sea, the largest inland body of water in the world. There is no verb, and in the second line, the oblique and archaic form of the pronoun (thee) complicates the interpretation of the poem, which potentially could symbolize the speakers complete devotion and feeling of superiority towards Caspian, a metaphor for a dominating person in their life. However, poetry is always up for interpretation, especially the fragmented and unfixed syntax of Dickinson. Therefore, comparatively to the incomplete dialogue in The Turn of the Screw, Dickinson too suppresses most of the logical linking elements in such a way that the reader must decide and/or add those connections -- they must complete the silence, as each word echoes the possibilities within the ambiguity of a phrase. When we talk of ambiguity, we likely have to talk about other concepts directly derived from it, such as paradox, enigma, pun, puzzle, riddle or conceit. The tension of the contraries and the counterposition of ideas is also a very useful technique. Furthermore, both James's The Turn of the Screw and many of Dickinson's poems utilize nature to enhance the skepticism of what is unknown in their works, and therefore, creates a sort of echo in their readers mind, for any written text or dialogue is inevitably amplified throughout a quiet atmospheres that both writers portray. For example, the governess recalls first seeing Quint, the ghost, on the tower, in which she expresses: I can hear again, as I write the intense hush in which the sounds of evening dropped. The rooks stopped cawing in the golden sky, and the friendly hour lost, for the minute, all its voice. The sudden silence effectively creates an atmosphere in which her thoughts are cast are the main focus, there is no noise around her to muffle them. This creates a haunting effect, as the silence leaves space for the text to echo throughout the empty, still, or quiet scene. Stillmore, Dickinson's work echoes this same notion. In a number of her poems, she uses nature as a metaphor for something separate from the self, ultimately exposing an elusive and invisible borderline. The qualities of the natural world she identifies and interprets are represented in varying tones through interesting symbols and word choice. She mirrors the ambiguity of nature in her own writing by leaving much unsaid and unexplained to the reader. She uses the uncertainty to her advantage in her sustained search for nature's many revelations. For example, in her poem ( ), she relays the haunting and mysterious qualities of nature: But nature is a stranger yet; The ones that cite her most Have never passed her haunted house, Nor simplified her ghost. In this excerpt, nature is used to symbolize both a haunted house, as well as the ghost that inhabits it. While nature might be portrayed as an inspirational harbor, it can also embody alarming qualities. The word haunted, originally meaning to be visited by a strange form of a spirit, may imply that nature is haunted by an unidentified ghost. Perhaps this unidentified ghost is nature's inner truth: it can never be revealed to man, though it has many outer aspects to be observed and to make a man imagine what they stand for. Nature never permits simplification by Dickinson. In addition, the notion of a home, where one resides, should be comforting. However, the home that nature provides is an unsettling rather than reassuring environment; in fact, this dwelling's occupants are figures of death. Dickinson concludes the poem with an ironic statement that shows the knowledge of nature is actually lessened as one becomes more aware of its greatness: That those who know her, know her less / The nearer her they get. Even though the reader is given a succinct message at the end, it doesn't dilute the speaker's quest for understanding already presented. According to this poem, the mystery of nature will continue to evolve and increase as an individual becomes more intent on scrutinizing its mysteries. Under nineteenth-century patriarchy, women were generally expected to be still, a woman in public, and therefore, a woman in publication must affect passivity and a semblance of gentle silence. And both The Turn of the Screw and Emily Dickinson's poetry mimic the constraints that were placed on women during this time. In The Turn of the Screw, it is evident to the reader that the governess is floundering about in silence -- a silence that is forced upon her by her employer, who instructs that she is not permitted to contact him under any circumstance once he leaves her with his nieces. The employer's in The Turn of the Screw's last command had, after all, been not a word; when Mrs. Grose asks her what she will say in answer to the letter from the headmaster, her answer is nothing, whereupon she congratulates herself for being wonderful. Clearly, there is a virtue of the heroic kind in silence. Speech, especially from a woman, is positively ill-bred. This results in the governess' thought to silent taunt her, as she feels she cannot speak them into sound. Yet, since the governess has passed, none of our question regarding the manuscript can ever be confirmed, leading the reading to flounder in our own internal, silent concerns This some notion of your own silent thoughts being daunting is echoed in Emily Dickinson's poem, 1004: "There is no Silence in the Earth ” so silent / As that endured / Which uttered, would discourage Nature / And haunt the World." Dickinson admits that the negative thought percolating in one's head are often the most frightening and therefore, must remain silent, for if it's uttered into speech it will disrupt the society around you. Furthermore, Emily Dickinson expresses how children were shut up in houses and closets and similarly women were shut up in prose: They shut me up in Prose ” As when a little Girl They put me in a Closet ” Because they liked me "still”. Clearly, Dickinson is very aware of the patriarchal role placed on females, even from a very young age. Yet, she used poetry as a device to free her silence. While it is confirmed that Emily Dickinson endured a lot of physical pain, in her lifetime, beginning with her eye problems, was likely iritis, an inflammation of the fine muscles of the eye, to her apparent Bright's disease, no discussion of the poet's health is complete without mentioning her increasing withdrawal from normal social situations, which began in her mid-twenties, prior to her having Bright's disease. Based on her poetry, is evidence that she is very conscious of mental suffering, however, nonetheless, she passed before anyone the world was provided with an outlet into her subconscious -- poetry, leaving us yet again, floundering in the silence of her ambiguity.

Cite this page