'I have one purpose on this Earth, and that is to become a great writer. A husband would put a stop to that...'

Dickinson | A Delightful Soap for that Lovely Literary Soul!

A string of literary soaps for the literary soul – are for grabs right here on any many of these OTTs, for all ye lovely literary souls out there!

Like well, if you’ve read the book version of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, then hey presto! You’ve got the film adaptation of this lovely classic up for grabs on yet another OTT!

Dickinson with her prospective groom...

On a similar note, quite recently, I was fascinated to spot Dickinson – the TV Series based on the life of Emily Dickinson, that has aired over 30 episodes up until 24 December 2021.

The opening episode to this amazing TV Series, foregrounds some of the perennial themes and issues surrounding those high-octane literary women who earnestly wished to take to writing, back then in the 1840s!

A must-watch for all of us who would be studying the 19^th century in literature.

Assumes all the more significance for today’s post, since today also happens to be the birthday of Susan Sontag – dubbed America’s most celebrated woman!

Well, Susan Sontag famously declared - on 03 January 1950 -

I marry Philip with full consciousness and fear of my will toward self-destructiveness. 

He was 28 and she was 17!

Almost a similar take by Dickinson on the institution of marriage!

Well, if Susan Sontag was to 1950, then Emily Dickinson dates back a hundred years - to 1850!

The conditions back then are anybody’s guess!

The opening episode to Dickinson – foregrounds a range of possibilities for the viewer!

Subtly and gently orienting the viewer to the realities of what it was to be a woman, 170 years ago – in America.

It goes thus –

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She lived throughout her life in her father's house. Near the end of her life, she rarely left her own room. Aside from a few mostly anonymous verses, she remained unpublished.

When she died, her poems were discovered. Some of the strangest, most fascinating poems ever written. Almost 2,000 of them, hidden in a maid's trunk.

Emily’s Mom: Oh, Emily, these buckets are half empty. You let it all spill out. You are a useless girl. Useless.

EMILY: Can't we just get a maid?

Emily’s Mom: Over my dead body.

EMILY: We own six horses, Mom. I think we can get a maid.

Emily’s Mom: When your father married me, I said he was getting the best housewife in all of Hampshire County. No, in all of New England. I'd rather scrape the skin off my fingers than get a maid. And I'm bringing you girls up to be just like me. You're gonna make a good housewife one day, Emily Dickinson. Now, you need to go get dressed. We have another gentleman coming to see you.

EMILY: A gentleman? Mom, no!

Emily’s Mom: This man could very well be your husband. So don't pull any of those stunts like you did the last time, when you dropped a dead mouse in that poor man's lap.

EMILY: Like a cat.

Emily’s Mom: You are not a cat, Emily.

EMILY: Tragically, I am a woman.

[Enter George]

EMILY: Hey.

Emily’s Mom: You have already made my daughter's acquaintance?

EMILY: Mom, this is George. He's in the Lit Club with Austin. We hang out, like, all the time.

Emily’s Mom: Well, I was just telling George here what an excellent wife you're going to be.

EMILY: George, can I talk to you for a second outside?

George: Totally.

EMILY: You know I'm not gonna marry you, right?

George: Never say never, Emily. Like you wrote in your poem, "I dwell in Possibility."

EMILY: Nice. I love when people quote me.

George: Why won't you marry me?

EMILY: You don't understand. I'm not gonna marry anyone.

George: But that's not what your mother says.

EMILY: I have one purpose on this Earth, and that is to become a great writer. A husband would put a stop to that!

George: I wouldn't.

EMILY: You say that now. But little by little you would…

Well, well, well, 

that’s all for the teaser part, dear reader! And I’m sure you’d really enjoy the literary journey down the Dickinson highway to meet, to know, to understand and then to admire the legendary Emily! Emily Dickinson!

Happy viewing to thee!

Snapshot acknowledgements due to: Apple TV