Despondency in the Works and Lives of Emily Dickinson and Louisa May Alcott

Abstract

The Antebellum period (1800 – 1860) in American history is marked by the spirit of despondency, disillusionment and dejection due to socio-political narratives of the age. Louisia May Alcott (1832 – 1888) and Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) are contemporary writers of the aforementioned period therefore exhibit same tendency of rebelliousness against customs of society. The rationale of writing this research is to correlate the personal experiences of despondent conditions of selected writers: unappreciated, uncanny, unhomely, and unloved to the wider arena of male dominant patriarchal society responsible for creating complexed psychological conflicts. The research is divided into two main parts: first part is woven by theoretical framework of Seperate Sphere Theory, The conflict Theory and The Humanistic Theory while second part includes Object Relation Theory, Cognitive Dissonance Theory and The Attachment Theory. The research is qualitative in approach aims to search historical, cultural, political and social approaches to judge the behavioral standards of society and challenging ways of both selected writers. The research paper helps the literary students of English Literature to explore and understand the ways these iconoclast writers tried to bring regeneration through literary contributions.