Why Emily?
Emily Dickinson is one of the most elusive characters in literary history. Worrall speaks with great certainty--without hesitation--about some of the more controversial details of her life, relationships, works, and death. But, there really is so much that we don't know, will never know, about Emily Dickinson.Dickinson seems almost like a ghost now: that illusive form in white. She lived in isolation. She once wrote, "I never had a mother." She had that "room of her own," but we don't know why she chose that lifestyle. Perhaps her heart was broken; perhaps her father chased her lover away; perhaps she was emotionally damaged; perhaps she was in love with a woman; perhaps she had an abortion; perhaps she was mad or ill; perhaps... There's so much about her life that is uncertain.
Emily's Will
Dickinson's will directed that her letters be destroyed upon her death, so her wishes were carried out. But then, Mabel Todd (Dickinson's friend, and the mistress of her brother) went through her fascicles (collections of poems, stitched together), arranging and standardizing Dickinson's language, while she probably threw away some of the more objectionable works. Of the surviving letters, Todd cut or blacked out whole sections. What could have been that objectionable?So, Hofman chose Emily. As Worrall says, "Much of Dickinson's life is filled with myth, conjecture, and is unsupported by the historical record. Hofman knew he could fill in the blanks." She became one of his masks, a personae, a means to an end. But, while Dickinson faced her inner demons, as she struggled to come to grips with the truths of life and death, "Hofman became entangled in his own web of lies."
