Post-colonialism I Started Early I Took My Dog
Post-Colonialism: I Started Early Took My Dog
Written by Erin Hawley
Post-Colonialism is a theory seen in literature. This theory can be seen criticized in many works. This theory deals with the oppressions that European colonizers brought upon the people from whom they stole land from. This effect led to a lot of disarray and continues to have negative effects today. There are still oppressions seen through the social class one may be in, a person's sexual identity, and gender identity. Post-colonialism affects more than just the land overtook from innocent people. This theory also goes hand and hand with other well known literary theories Feminist theory, Queer theory, and African American Theory. Emily Dickinson, one of the most well known poets, criticized Post-Colonial theory through her poems. Emily Dickinson’s poem I Started Early Took My Dog criticizes the Post-Colonial theory through class, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Post-Colonialism has been around since Europe has colonized land. This theory deals with the land and the people who have been affected by the European reign. A big role that plays into this theory is the Colonists Ideology. This deals with the mindset that these people held. "Colonialist ideology is based on the colonizers’ belief in their own superiority over the colonized" (Tyson 265). This mindset is seen through the characters of Emily Dickinson's poem. This poem shows how men over power the speaker who is a woman. We also see a positive connotation of women in this poem with speculation of Dickinson's sexual identity.
One thing that Emily Dickinson wrote about a lot were Sailors and the sea. A reader can see this through many of her poems. The poem, I Started Early Took My Dog has a main theme of sailors throughout the poem. Emily uses gender a lot throughout this poem. She has the speaker (who is a woman), the sailors, and the mermaids. When we are first introduced to the sailors the speaker mentions how they want her. “ The Mermaids in the Basement
4 Came out to look at me
And Frigates—in the Upper Floor
6 Extended Hempen Hands—
7 Presuming Me to be a Mouse— ” (Tyson 326).
A mouse is seen as a weak animal. It is also seen as a pest that is in the way. The man seeing the speaker in this way shows that the men want to be seen as strong and able to take over her. This goes into post-colonialism. The people who were the colonizers were men who thought they were strong and able to take something over. The speaker is something these men can take over. She also writes of mermaids. One thing to note is the mermaids did not try and touch her the way the sailors are described. They just looked. The rest of the poem Dickinson talks about a man following her. She is not warm to this idea. Around this time period in which the poem was written, 1862, she should have wanted a husband and someone to care for her. This also shows how class would play a role in this poem. Women were not allowed to work, so she would then need a man in order to have a well off life.
The sea is also described as strong and taking over her body. Men are seen as strong and can easily take over women. With the time period in mind men were looked at being stronger than women. Women did not have the right to not let a man bother her. In this case the water is also seen as taking over the speaker’s body. Dickinson uses strong details to describe the way the water is traveling over the speaker’s body.
“Went past my simple shoe-
And past my apron-and my belt
And past my bodice-too-
And made as He would eat me up-” (Tyson 326).
The tide is slowly taking over her body without her being able to control. The water tide is also being personified at the end with the pronoun "He". This shows that the tide is a metaphor for a man touching a woman without consent. “Near the end of her life, Dickinson began writing poems that referred to the sea, and particularly to the experience or threat of drowning" (Yothers). The idea of being with a man for Dickinson was like drowning. She felt that she did not have control over her relationships with them. This is what men were supposed to be like in a time like hers. This idea also ties into Dickinson's sexuality. The idea of being with a man felt like she was stuck and drowning.
Emily Dickinson also had a fascination with morality and the sea. This poem deals with both. The sea can be seen as a metaphor for a man controlling a woman, but one can also see it as death taking someone. It takes their body over slowly.
“The sea remains up until her last years a reminder of the limits of human desire and potential and of the necessity of confronting and acknowledging these limits, which not even a benevolent deity offers the possibility of easily transcending by this stage in Dickinson’s career” (Yothers).
Death was not something that was commonly spoken about. It was something that was connected to someone’s religion. Emily was not afraid to write about either, especially speculating about both topics.
A lot of Dickinson’s poems commented on her life and the world she lived in and how it was not her truth. " tension of a relationship between her human intellect and an omnipotent God, seems similar in manifestation" (Gallagher14).This goes against Post-Colonialism because this idea works towards the “traditional” way of life. We see it historically with Emily Dickinson. One of Emily’s dilemmas seen throughout her life is immorality and God. In her poems she comments on this. Dickinson had an odd relationship with spirituality. Manifestation was something people in the 1800s would think of against God. Most of Europe believed in God and the Colonizers brought their religion to the land they stole. Believing in God was the way of life. Post-Colonialism plays into how God impacts a person’s life.
Post-Colonialism deals with the traditional lifestyle. That meaning traditionally a white man and white woman married with kids. Anything other than that is seen as wrong. In Emily Dickinson's case she may not have been a straight woman. A lot of her poems deal with the aspect of love, however; some speculate that these poems were not written for men. "...Kate Scott Turner (Anthon) as the "too-much-loved woman friend" (Bingham's phrase), and in fact as the inspiration for all of Emily Dickinson's love poetry" (Lochridge). There is no secret that Dickinson may not have fallen under doing the "norm" for the timer in which she was alive. This makes her a main poet of criticizing the Post-Colonial theory.
In Emily Dickinson’s poem I Started Early Took My Dog criticizes the Post-Colonial Theory through class, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Emily Dickinson was a complicated person who was both thinking and acting ahead of her time. Her thoughts went against everything that post-colonialism wanted to accomplish. Many of her poems showcase these ideas. Her life also contradicted what the Post-Colonial Theory stood for. She was unmarried and was speculated to be a bi sexual or even a lesbian.
Works Cited
Gallagher, Linda Pergolizzi. Emily Dickinson:, fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau:4286/datastream/OBJ/view/Emily_Dickinson.pdf. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
Lochridge, Dorothy Lynn. “A Study in the Sexuality of Emily Dickinson, the Spider and the Flower : Manifest Homosexuality and Its Significance to Critical Comprehension of the Poetry and the Poet.” , UNCG NC DOCKS (North Carolina Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship), libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/listing.aspx?id=28132. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
Marvelly, Paula. “Emily Dickinson: A Woman before Her Time - the Culturium -.” The Culturium, 25 Mar. 2019, www.theculturium.com/emily-dickinson-a-woman-before-her-time/.
Mitchell, Philip Irving. “The Perplexing Faith and Doubt of Emily Dickinson.” The Perplexing Faith and Doubt of Emily Dickinson | Dr. Philip Irving Mitchell | Dallas Baptist University, www.dbu.edu/mitchell/american-literature-resources/dickinso.html. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
Tyson, Lois. Using Critical Theory. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, (3rd Edition). Taylor & Francis, 2020.
Yothers, Brian. “Going to Sea in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry: Decentered Humanism and Poetic Ecology by Brian Yothers: Dickinson Electronic Archives.” Going to Sea in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry: Decentered Humanism and Poetic Ecology by Brian Yothers | Dickinson Electronic Archives, www.emilydickinson.org/emily-dickinson-lyrical-ecologies-forays-into-the-field/going-to-sea-in-emily-dickinson-s-poetry-decentered-humanism-and-poetic-ecology. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
Strong thesis, you just state it twice. Maybe add a softer opening, rather than just jumping into it, other than that solid work!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good base rough draft. I like how you share examples of the sea from this work and other work Dickinson has done to validate your argument. I also think you did a good job explaining the different branches of postcolonialism theory like feminist and queer theory. Doing this gave the piece a different tone then just talking about different forms of oppression. One thing that would make this piece stronger is to have a clearer historical context for this. Using things like the start of the suffragette movement, the American Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution would elevate this to another level. Good work!
ReplyDelete-I think you're examples are really solid, how a "wave" is a powerful force that overpowers her. I think postcolonial theory is built on that idea of overpowering marginalized people.
ReplyDelete-I think you said you haven't talked about the history yet, but I actually think you have a really good start on that by talking about her views on spirituality. I also think you could mention, since the poem is about men controlling her, her possible identity as a lesbian and how that factors into post-colonial theory and what not.