emily dickenson

Emily Dickinson's Master letters are an interesting set of works that embody a unique outlook regarding gender relations. Two of the Masters letters, #248 and #233 are examined in this essay to order to interpret their representation of the authors pure obsession with the addressee, the Master. Both letters contain a bizarre, near masochist content that clearly express the authors feelings for her Master. The letters strange symbolism and erotic meanings have been largely criticized and interpreted …

…crush on the Master is an understatement. Through Dickinson's rhetorical seductions the masochist attitude of Daisy is evident and the Master letters are "just as clearly explorations of the general relationship between male power and female powerlessness, male authority and female dependency, [and] pleas for romantic reassurance from a particular man"(Dickinson 857). The Master letters then, are an obvious submission on behalf of the speaker Daisy to an unequal willingness to a partnership with Master.