Born in 1830 in rural Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson spent her entire life in the household of her parents. Between 1858 and 1862, it was later discovered, she wrote like a person possessed, often producing a poem a day. It was also during this period that her life was transformed into the myth of Amherst. Withdrawing more and more, keeping to her room, sometimes even refusing to see visitors who called, she began to dress only in white—a habit that added to her reputation as an eccentric.
In their determination to read Dickinson's life in terms of a traditional romantic plot, biographers have missed the unique pattern of her life—her struggle to create a female life not yet imagined by the culture in which she lived. Dickinson was not the innocent, lovelorn and emotionally fragile girl sentimentalized by the Dickinson myth and popularized by William Luce's 1976 play, the Belle of Amherst. Her decision to shut the door on Amherst society in the 1850s transformed her house into a kind of magical realm in which she was free to engage her poetic genius. Her seclusion(隔离) was not the result of a failed love affair, but rather a part of a more general pattern of renunciation through which she, in her quest for self sovereignty, carried on an argument with the puritan fathers, attacking with wit and irony, their cheerless Calvinist doctrine, their stern patriarchal God, and their rigid notions of “true womanhood”.

Born in 1830 in rural Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson spent her entire life in the household of her parents. Between 1858 and 1862, it was later discovered, she wrote like a person possessed, often producing a poem a day. It was also during this period that her life was transformed into the myth of Amherst. Withdrawing more and more, keeping to her room, sometimes even refusing to see visitors who called, she began to dress only in white—a habit that added to her reputation as an eccentric.

埃米利*狄更生于1830年出生于美国马赛诸塞州艾摩斯特市。她在父母的房子里度过了她的一生。人们后来发现，在1858年到1863年这段时间，狄更生痴迷于写诗，几乎是每天一首。也是在这段日子里，她的生活成为了艾摩斯特市的奇谈。她从越来越多的俗事中抽身，只是待在她的房间内，有时甚至连拜访她的人都不愿意去见。她开始只穿一袭白衣，这样的习惯使她蒙上了怪人的名声。

In their determination to read Dickinson's life in terms of a traditional romantic plot, biographers have missed the unique pattern of her life—her struggle to create a female life not yet imagined by the culture in which she lived. Dickinson was not the innocent, lovelorn and emotionally fragile girl sentimentalized by the Dickinson myth and popularized by William Luce's 1976 play, the Belle of Amherst. Her decision to shut the door on Amherst society in the 1850s transformed her house into a kind of magical realm in which she was free to engage her poetic genius. Her seclusion(隔离) was not the result of a failed love affair, but rather a part of a more general pattern of renunciation through which she, in her quest for self sovereignty, carried on an argument with the puritan fathers, attacking with wit and irony, their cheerless Calvinist doctrine, their stern patriarchal God, and their rigid notions of “true womanhood”.


那些传记作者们绞尽脑汁，要把狄更生的一生往俗套的浪漫情节中引。但是，他们却忽略狄更生生命中独特的地方——她怎样努力去创造一种女性生活，一种她所处的社会想都未想的生活。狄更生不是那种单纯的失恋女子们，情感脆弱，为狄更生的谜样人生而感伤，也不是 William Luce1976的作品 Belle of Amherst中的人物。她在1850年与当时社会划清界限的决定，让她的家成为一方圣地，在那里，她可以更自由的发挥诗歌才华。她的与世隔绝并非因为风花雪月之事，而是更广大意义上的放弃。放弃，亦是在和神父们抗争，用她的智慧去讽刺他们阴郁的加尔文教义，刻板的德高望重的上帝和他们对“真正女性”的严格定义。