WHAT MYSTERY PERVADES A WELL
An interesting webpage: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/oct/04/poem-of-the-week-emily-dickinson
THEME: ENTRAPMENT, DESPAIR, MEN VS WOMEN, HOPE
An interesting webpage: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/oct/04/poem-of-the-week-emily-dickinson
THEME: ENTRAPMENT, DESPAIR, MEN VS WOMEN, HOPE
SYMBOL
-
“well”, “jar”
o
well stores and contains water; water: yonic
symbol = women (purity, innocent) ;
water in a well: female being entrapped in this patriarchal society
-
“residing in a jar”
o
as “a neighbour from another world”, women are
alienated from the society, they are treated as the same as men
o
made to appear trapped and domesticated in the
man-made “well” by the judicious image of confinement
o
“residing” –suggests a cosily domestic home
ownership, as though the water had chosen to live in the jar
-
“glass”
o
life is transparent, under scrutiny® another entrapment symbol
-
“lid of glass”
o
jar has been a deception, from another
perspective, this gives the observer an illusion of control and knowledge;
below the level of the well, the water spreads out limitlessly.
-
Domestic imagery of opening is dispelled by the
juxtaposition of “like looking every time you please” with the closing phrase
“in an abyss’s face”
o
Instead seeing reflection of the self, which
confirms self-knowledge and identity, the word “ abyss” has an implication of
hell® therefore besides
representing the unfathomable depth of underground water, it suggests eternal
damnation.
-
begins with
the juxtaposition of the abstract and the physical – the “mystery” and the
“well”.
-
contrasts a man made well with natural sources
of wate
o
both are unfathomable. The well is a
mystery because of its depth and potential for danger, it is compared variously
to “a neighbour in a jar”, a “lid of glass” or the ultimate
horror; “an abyss”.
Nature is also unknowable, inexplicable or inscrutable because even those
who are closest to it are overwhelmed by its complexity. Nature is “a stranger yet” - compared to a “haunted house” or “ghost”.
-
Nature appears much more serene and tranquil;
the grass shows no sign of fear while the sedge betrays no timidity to stand so
close to the sea.
STRUCTURE
-
solid rhyme: “far” , “jar”
o
solid rhyme again when mentioning nature® she feels calm in nature:
“most”, “ghosts” ; “regret”, “get”
-
no rhyme “glass”, “face”
o
rhyme is lost®
she is panicking, spends too much time worrying, incapable in constructing
normal rhymes
-
Iambic tetramentre and trimetre
o
Symbolic “frame” that is entrapping the poet® the structure serves as
the “well” that is encapsulating her freedom
-
Enjambment, elongation
o
“floorless”®
when things become “floorless”, they break the “well” and is able to flow to
the next sentence
FEATURES
-
“grass does not appear afraid…he”
o
nature itself is always feminine in Dickinson’s
poems® but creatures within it
like the snake in “there’s narrow fellow” and “the bird that came down the
walk” are frequently masculine
o
she purposely anthropomorphises them, marks
their difference and independence from humanity
o
here, the grass is untroubled by what is a
source of fear to the writer
o
could also be seen that due to his male
identity, the grass would not be isolated and entrapped
-
“awe to me”
o
her surrender to the male superiority
-
“those who know her, know her less”
o
respectful approach to Nature acknowledges her
power and mystery
o
possible to see this from a feminist perspective
– nature, gendered female, is assumed to be subject to male authority, but is,
in reality, like the water more subtle and mysterious.
-
Exclamatives
o
Aiming at the audience
o
She pleads the audience to listen, yet ironic :
never show this to anyone
o
Her claustrophobic lifestyle: isolation herself
from the society
-
“floorless”
o
her ideal world, elimination of confinement in
her world, desires to escape from entrapment; sounds like flawless, life
without entrapment will be “floorless”
-
“abyss”
o
suggests profound danger – the boundary between
ecstasy and horror, between life and death, between heaven and hell
-
“haunted house…ghosts”
o
The haunted house and the ghost bring up the
question of death's relation to nature, which is further explored in the last
stanza. There are possibly two different, but not necessarily contradictory,
ideas here. Perhaps in the last two lines Dickinson is saying that the more an
individual knows about a complicated subject such as nature, paradoxically the
less he knows because he becomes aware that there is so much more to know and
that there is so much that it is impossible to know. But it is more likely that
Dickinson is suggesting that the closer a person comes to death, which is an
aspect of nature, the fewer resources he has left to understand it because of
waning powers of mind and body. Dickinson implies that to know nature fully is
to be dead, which seems to be a more regrettable state than the pitiable state
of ignorance.
-
Men are afraid of female power® they do not know how to get along with nature, and is
fear of the potential power of it ® keep the water in a jar in order to gain
sense of control and authority
CONCLUSION
Man is not the “well”, but the “timidity”
of women and the contagious, ingrained
concept of patriarchy is the chief “ghastly haunted house” for all.
MAIN QUOTATIONS
MAIN QUOTATIONS
-
“well.. residing in a jar”
-
“an abyss’s face”
-
“lid of glass”
-
“awe to me”
-
“never passed her haunted house, nor simplified
her ghost”
-
“know her less, the nearer her they get”
-
RHYMES
-
no rhyme: “glass”, “face”
rhyme in harmony: “most”, “ghost” ; “regret”,
“get” 
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