Going to Him! Happy Letter - Example Essay

Discuss ways in which Dickinson uses personification in “Going to Him’

One of the recurring images in Dickinson’s collection is that of the personification of inanimate objects, and the separation of body parts from her and how they have grown there own independent features. This is shown in poems such as; “What mystery pervades as well,” were we see the snake shown as a “narrow fellow”, which could be seen as a representation of a phallic image, which could further portray Dickinson’s fear of being entrapped by men, and her inexperience where men are concerned. It is also shown in “I heard a fly buzz,” we see how she portrays the fly as a symbol of the Devil and how he is coming to get her, “I heard a fly buzz- when I died-“ in this poem we see how she fears the fly stealing her away when really she has no place in hell, and how God is unforgiving and does not wish to fight against the fly to prevent him taking her. One of the most prominent uses of personification is that of “eyes” and how they are constantly watching and judging her, an example of this is in “Going to Him! Happy Letter!” in which we see how the eyes within the letter start to judge her and threaten to tell the gentleman that Dickinson is sending the letter to how inexperienced she is, “You guessed—from the way the sentence toiled—“ This is an indication of her constant paranoia and again shows her fear of rejection by society and also individuals. 

In the poem “Going to Him! Happy Letter!” the main use of personification is the letter as being happy. We see how Dickinson, at the start of her letter, is very joyful and is excited about finally being able to write a love letter to the man that she loves, and we see how her happiness is then passed through to the letter and how the inanimate piece of paper is feeling, “Happy Letter!” In the eyes of Dickinson the piece of paper is less of a piece of paper but more a messenger that will recite the message to the man when, and if, it is received. This is why we see that she has a rather deep and almost friendship like relationship with this piece of paper. “And you—got sleepy—and begged to be ended—“ this also most brings that back to a teenage or child like state, as if they are having a sleepover and have been telling secrets, which is the contents of the letter, and then one has become to tired and had “begged” to go to sleep. This relationship is a contrast to the other relationships that are present in her other poems, an example of this would be in “The last Night that She lived,” in which we see how she feels more jealousy than sorrow at the loss of her friend. We see how she wishes that she was the one to die, but as we see in all her previous poems she is unable to die even though it is her main wish in life. “While She must finish quite/ A Jealousy for Her arose” this could be seen as another indication that she fears the rejection of others and so she seeks relations with items that can not refuse her friendship, which takes from in this poem as the paper.

Nonetheless, we also see how the letter goes from being her friend to just another set of eyes that are there to watch and criticize her every move. “And then you wished you had eyes in your page—“ As we can see from her other poems, “eyes” bring nothing but panic and fear as she does not like to be belittled by others. Also the use of detachment, rather than it being people watching her it is simply their eyes, this shows that she had no emotional connection and cannot connect with the person in anyway. This also makes the image more intimidating for her, as if there is not way that she can escape the eyes and there is no compaction from the heart of the person, as there is non. It also makes the idea of being watched eerier, eyes are meant to be the window to the soul and these “eyes” clearly have no soul and so could be a reference to them as almost demon like with more soul or compaction. This image of the ‘eyes’ is also shown in “I heard a fly buzz” in which rather that having a room of mourners as she passes away, we see how they are just eyes, “They Eyes around” Once more we see how the eyes bring her distress, and that she has no emotional connection with them they are simply there. It also says that the eyes “ha wrung them dry—“ showing that the eyes are no longer crying, this could have two different meanings; one the ‘eyes’ in the room know that this is what she wanted, that she has always wanted to die and to move on to the next life, or secondly it could mean that they feel no compaction towards her, they will no miss her and are happy that she has gone and will no longer darken their days.

The poem is written in a trochaic meter, which contrast to her other poems, which are written in tetra and tri meter, which leads to the poem having the feeling that it is missing something. We also see another comparison in this poem, in this poem we see how she is feeling strong and overwhelming amounts of emotion of joy and love. Instead of speeding up due to the overriding sense of joy, which is what we commonly see her doing in her other poems, we see how the joy causes her to slow down, and to taking a breath and her time when delivering her message to the “Happy letter!” Her excitement is also shown in the use of anaphora, with the reputation of “Tell him” which indicates her rising excitement and how she is also most becoming breathless at the thought of all the things she wants to tell him, “Tell him the page I did n’t write;” This again could show how she has been fully consumed by the emotion of love that she is feeling towards him. Also on the line “So you could see what moved them so.” the repetition of “so” gives the line a palindromic quality, giving the line a cyclic quality so she will always end up where she started meaning that she will never have the confidence to be able to send the letter, “Tell him just how she sealed you, cautious,”

In conclusion we can see how Dickinson using personification to bring across to the reader her fear of being judged and her constant paranoia that everything, even inanimate objects are watching and passing judgment upon her. We also see with the use of personification the close relationships that she has with her positions, her relationship with the letter is not like a friendship than her simple writing a letter, and this then highlights her inability to have any form of relations with other people as she has the constant fear of being rejected and neglected.