many of her ideas from traditional ways of life, but she does realize that she needs to defend her perspectives, for they are very different from traditional ways of life.
"It might be lonelier" has the same way of incorporating traditional religious beliefs with the beliefs she has developed. Dickinson recognizes "…the intricate drama of nature while inspiring her to seek-and question-correspondences between science and God," (Eberwein 34). She questions those beliefs that she has been taught to believe about God while clearing a place for herself poems like "It might be lonelier" and "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church" where only she seems to belong.
Dickinson fully recognizes that she is a contrary person and accepts it. "It might be lonelier Without the loneliness," (Hillman 54). If Dickinson was not so unique, maybe she would not be the same person she is and perhaps she would not have the same elements to offer the world. She sees the point in the existence of loneliness but it still burdens her. Dickinson often questions why she is the way she is and why the world has to be the way it has to be, but if she has to be lonely in order to find God, she will do so, which is one way Dickinson specifically lets the reader know that part of the reasons she rejects the church is for herself.
One critic, Elaine Showalter, claims that some of the language Dickinson uses in the poem "It might be lonelier,"(36) conveys a sense of disillusionment on the part of Dickinson for organized religion and its leaders. Showalter interprets that certain language in the poem is "addressing the speaker's struggle with religious authority," (Showalter 80). It is believed by her that Dickinson, in general does not respect authority, especially of a religious sort. Showalter, in her comments, suggests a tone of resentment set forth in this poem by Dickinson for those who go to church and lead it.
In both "It might be lonelier," and "Some keep the Sabbath going to church," Dickinson conveys that a church is simply not where she belongs. She does not belong under the leadership of church clergy. Dickinson has found her own way of being with God. The main difference between these two poems is that while in "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church," she appears to still respect the church structure, as she capitalizes religiously affiliated words such as "Sabbath" and "Clergyman"(Hillman 36)," she appears to have a certain disdain for the church as a whole in "It might be lonelier. Just because Dickinson does not belong within the confines of a church in "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church" does not mean she "struggle(s)" (Showalter 30) with it like she does in "It might be lonelier." Nowhere in "Some keep the Sabbath going to church" does she insult religious institutions. She simply acknowledges that she has found her own way of being close to God, and she provides examples as to why her way is just as viable as the way of traditional religion.
In "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church" and "It might be lonelier," Dickinson is looking to be validated, but not necessarily praised by them. She continually works hard in her poems to figure out who she is in relation to God. "In her search for meaning, it is clear to Emily Dickinson that revelation will not be granted to a passive I. Rather, the self has to participate actively in the process of world discovery," (Eberwein 233). If Dickinson did not question and analyze the validity and meaning of God and church, she would not feel totally connected to God. In understanding God, Dickinson connects more to him. Dickinson wants every person to find God for himself. The point of the poems she writes about God, are to give her perspective on who God is.
God is a very important subject to Dickinson for it is an ongoing theme in many of her poems. "Her religious attitudes, in all their bewildering variety, permeate the bulk of her verse," (Pfalzgraf 385). Questions concerning God and what God means are questions that Dickinson want to find ultimate answers to, but instead, never really does, as her poems are very different from each other in conveying what Dickinson believes God to be. In fact, some poems are even direct opposites of others. "The transcendent questions about God, immortality, eternity, and the divine order haunted Dickinson but did not force from her any definite answers," comments Gudran Grabher (Eberwein 233). "It might be lonelier," and "Some keep the Sabbath going to church," are two poems where it can be seen that Dickinson is always searching for what God really does mean to her and the world in general.
Dickinson does not disrespect others' ideas of God, but rather, she simply creates her own vision of who she is in relationship to God. In "Some keep the Sabbath going to church," Dickinson says, while "I keep it staying at home"(Hillman 36). She has her own way of being with God and connecting herself to him. While some may follow God by going to a church and praying with others, Dickinson stays at home and follows God her own way. Elaine Showalter comments, "In her poetry she contends with God and what he stands for, seeking a space for her independent study and inquiries," (Showalter 30). All Emily Dickinson wants from God and her writing is a place where she belongs. If she doesn't belong among others, in "loneliness," (Hillman 54), she must belong with God, or so Dickinson likes to believe. She is willing to dedicate a large number of her poems and thoughts to the subject of God and what God means. Dickinson is on a search to find out who God is.
Alfred Kreymborg, a critic, does not however believe that Dickinson was seeking what God was, but what she wanted him to be. He says, "…The god she made in her own image…is the most intimate and irresistible democrat who has ever come down with Christendom. No church or schism could hold her delirium," (Kreymborg 194). This suggests that Dickinson was more on a quest for herself, rather than God. It also implies that she was looking for some one or something to relate to, so she decided to create God into what she wanted him to be. She was too good for church or too progressive for church, is what Kreymborg thinks. According to Kreymborg, Dickinson is a liberal minded person, meaning that she rebels against tradition and makes her own rules. In rebuttal, it can be said that while she followed different rules than most did at that time, but did not create those rules. The rules were sought. Dickinson questioned the church because she did not see God in it, not because she had a problem with authority and tradition. It is however difficult to tell whether Dickinson seeks God or creates him, but it could very well be a combination of both or one or the other in each of her poems concerning God.
Other opinions go in other directions suggesting that Dickinson did not create God in her own image, but rather, in the image of a combination of feelings and subjects not only having to do with herself, but others as well. Rica Brenner says, "Emily Dickinson was not irreverent. She did not discard her ancestral deity, it is true. But she worshipped her God, a tender, loving God," (Brenner 293). Most critics, including Brenner and Kreymborg agree that Dickinson does not believe in the church structure. She does not believe she needs to go to church on the Sabbath or listen to a preacher in "Some keep the Sabbath," in order to be with God. Brenner discusses another poem in which Dickinson says, "The Bible is an antique volume/Written by faded men" (193). In this poem, as opposed to "Some keep the Sabbath," the reader can see the disapproval Dickinson has for the general church structure. It is her way of disconnecting God with the church. To Dickinson, the men that control the church structure and who wrote the bible are outdated and irrelevant to what God is to her. She did not like the idea of having to go through the bible or a clergyman in order to find God. She didn't feel God in situations concerning those subjects and therefore looked elsewhere for a God she could feel. Especially in many of her later poems, "she criticized the terrors of orthodoxy," (293). Dickinson not only disagrees with the church structure, but she is frightened by it. She doesn't see God in it. Dickinson does not have an easy time finding God to be a loving being after being taught of the traditional God in the church. One of the ways she deals with this issue, suggests Brenner, is with humor. She says, "Colored by that humor, her God was no longer a distant cruel omnipotence," (292). Brenner does not suggest that Dickinson makes fun of God or that she fails to take him seriously. Dickinson simply tries to think of him as a loving, joyous figure in order to feel him and understand him. Brenner goes on to say, "…she endowed Him with her own most precious possession, a sense of humor," (293). Dickinson valued humor and found it to be a gift from God or a character trait of God. Perhaps if Dickinson did not take the problems of the church and her problems with understanding God so seriously, she could feel closer to God and knowing him.
God can be seen in so many of Dickinson's poems, even those that are seemingly not written about God. Her view of God can be seen in so many of her poems even if the subject of those poems may not even be God. She expresses "grace" and a style of writing that combines so many factors of what life and God is to Dickinson. Joyce Carol Oates analyzes Dickinson's style, which she praises by saying, "Dickinson's greatness as a poet…lies in the amplitude of her poetry. She is the celebrant not only of hazardous states of the psyche, but of the psyche's possible wholeness, that mysterious integration of the personality that has its theological analogue in the concepts of grace," (Oates 13). By tying together all that she knows, is, and perceives, she is finding God, finding herself and even being a good poet, according to Oates. In order for Dickinson to be at peace, life's matters have to tie together to create something emotional. Being a whole person, part of a whole world, under a whole God, are the subjects that her poems are about.
Dickinson finds grace by writing, especially about God. Perhaps the reason she writes so many poems about God is because she feels that God is art and creativity for those things cause people to feel. In the harmony of her spirit and mind, she writes poems that explain what God really is to her. In doing so, she answers her own questions.
"Characteristically, she is both doubter and quester, probing the mysteries of death, immortality, and eternity," (Pfalzgraf 285). Dickinson is constantly attempting to tie together the orthodox God with the progressive God that she has found.
The compromise Dickinson finds between the God that is in church and the God she has discovered can perhaps be explained by a comment by Elaine Showalter: "Her strong religious interest took the form, rather, of constant challenges to a patriarchal God who she could believe in but never obey." Dickinson is willing to believe in the God that exists between church walls, but she won't obey Him. The idea that Dickinson creates a God to suit herself, as Alfred Kreymborg said, can be further analyzed in relation to the idea that Dickinson believed there was God in the church, but didn't want to listen to Him. From these two comments it can be said that in her poems, she makes herself into a righteous being by creating her own version of God who would make her so. That is a generalization however, that does not relate to all of her poems, as they are very different. Specifically, in looking at "It might be lonelier" in relation to "Some keep the Sabbath going to church," it is seen that while she is on the defensive, proving her way of following God in "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church," she isolates herself and becomes lonely in order to find God in "It might be lonelier." True, the loneliness that Dickinson chooses and is able to deal with, it still conveys sacrifice on the part of Dickinson. "I'm so accustomed to my Fate," she says (Hillman 83). Yes, Dickinson is accustomed to being lonely, but it is still a "Fate." She was willing to sacrifice for God, so she couldn't have made him in the image of herself.
Dickinson sacrificed for God, not for herself for she had no reason to. It wouldn't have gotten her any closer to sanity or happiness. "Emily Dickinson's vision of God was tortured. On one hand, his life was rare, and his paradise held infinite beauties for those who achieved it. On the other hand, he could be made of flint," (Farr 67). This implies that Dickinson believed in God, just in case there really was a heaven. True, she most likely wouldn't have sacrificed if she didn't think she was going to go to heaven, but she believed in God, and he was not in her own image. If she did create God in her own image, she would have understood better what she believed about him. Instead, she was always wrestling with the quest for who God was and if he even existed at all.
The question as to what Dickinson's view of God is never definitively answered in her poetry. As the reader discovers what Dickinson believes about God, the speaker discovers as well. God remains a mystery in the poems of Emily Dickinson.
