There is a "world-weary" female poet in the history of literature, who gradually gave up socializing from the age of 25 and concentrated on poetry creation, leaving behind more than 1800 poems. She's Emily Dickinson.
Dickinson received a religious education from an early age and lived a simple and monotonous life. Pure heart and widowhood allow negative emotions to swell in her body, and she is far away from the world and only enjoys time with her parents and siblings. It was she who chose loneliness, not loneliness that devoured her.
The biographical film Serenity of Passion travels back to the 19th century where Emily Dickinson lived, interspersed with fragments of her poems that present the tranquility and enthusiasm of a legendary poet to a modern audience.
If I hadn't seen the sun, she said, I could have endured the darkness. The death of her parents, the marriage of close friends, the cheating of her brother, the torment of illness, and her life of seclusion that she insisted on for half a life are gradually losing its luster. As the crowd departed, she had to accept the loneliness and darkness that ran counter to the world.
If people at the time had tried to understand Dickinson's solitude, she wouldn't have always wondered why the world was so ugly.
wayward
At the beginning of the film, Dickinson shows his unruly side during his time at Manhelian Women's College. Although her appearance and dress were exactly in line with the 19th-century definition of a lady, she was not as soft as the average girl, she had her own thoughts and dared to refute authority in public.
Faced with the most important issue of spiritual well-being in the eyes of the teacher, some students went to the right, they were willing to become Christians, and another part of the students chose the left, hoping to be redeemed. Only Dickinson did not move, and she stood alone in the middle of the room.
She didn't feel sinful, how could she repent? She did not believe in the existence of God, and she did not expect to be redeemed. The teacher's sigh turned into calm, the camera turned into a scene on the movie poster, Dickinson was independent of the window, the sun sprinkled on her, the light and shadow flickered, the light and dark contrasted, and the beauty of the independence of the world foreshadowed her future path.
Dickinson left school and returned home, starting the best time of her life. She asked her lawyer father to write poetry at night, simply because the darkness made her feel peace of mind. Although in the 19th century, female poets and her works were always suppressed by social prejudices, her conservative father granted her request and helped her contact her friends in the publishing house.
I think this is the reason why Dickinson is reluctant to marry and have his own family, but is obsessed with the life of the original family. Even if we always complain that our parents are harsh and old-fashioned or that they can't think differently across the generation gap, it cannot be denied that most of them will silently tolerate the "irrationality" of their children and try their best to support the dreams of future generations that are not understood. Later Dickinson said that her father could agree to her writing poetry from three o'clock in the morning to early in the morning, but if she was married, her husband would be opposed to it.
Sometimes, however, the ideological divide between parents and children cannot be crossed, and it is impossible to eliminate the traditions and concepts that are separated from the center. The new pastor demanded that the whole family kneel down to hear his sermons, and even the towering father obediently knelt down, but Dickinson did not, believing that her soul belonged only to herself and not to God.
She confronted the priest because she would not be forced to be religious and insisted on sitting alone to receive teachings, and her father was furious about this. In the face of his father's reprimand, Dickinson stubbornly reiterated his point of view, or tearfully accepted his father's pedantic preaching, but she did not agree with him in her heart.
Dickinson is challenging patriarchy in his own way. When her father felt that the plate was dirty, she picked up the plate and smashed it hard, calmly telling him that it would not be dirty, leaving him with a look of consternation.
Perhaps this willful and childish approach will only leave the audience with the impression that Dickinson is very "vengeful". But this is also a microcosm, whether it is in her youth or now, whether it is poetry creation or religious criticism, she has never denied the autonomy of her soul, even if she is regarded as a "heretic", she must express her attitude and belief through words and deeds. Her occasional outburst of emotion was a quiet passion, with a huge amount of energy behind the weakness.
Turning
Dickinson returned home and remained in a state of seclusion, but this did not prevent other friends from visiting her.
Bufan's humorous remarks will make Dickinson laugh, and the cheerful and bright Dickinson next to the female best friend is difficult to think of the gloomy atmosphere she can render in the poem.
The joy of interacting with Bufan encourages Dickinson to slowly open his heart and not to interact with the world. Will she find more beauty in the brave step, or will she find more disappointment?
After hearing Father Wadsworth's speech, Dickinson admired him. She and her sister invited the priest and his wife to the house. Affection grew quietly in Dickinson's heart, and she received Wadsworth's affirmation of her poetry. Although Dickinson had never thought about getting married, the moment she heard his speech, she felt that it might be love. He was able to understand her poetry, and she fit him better than his boring wife.
The film does not follow the "poet does not lend" routine, this unrequited love is just a dream that Dickinson has woven for himself. Wadsworth and his wife went to San Francisco shortly after and did not tell Dickinson. After hearing the news from her sister, she broke down. Back to reality, Dickinson wasn't Jane Eyre, and Wadsworth wasn't Rochester.
Dickinson hid in his sister's arms and cried, accompanied by a sober confession by the narrator: "The love we breed is like everything else, locked in a drawer, and does not appear until the antique exhibition, like the jewelry worn by our ancestors." ”
From the audience's point of view, her feelings are wishful thinking into the beautiful, and reality punctures the gorgeous appearance, and the darkness and bitterness continue to run out. The value of this so-called love is like an antique of time, and the transformation it brings to Dickinson can only be clearly understood in the future. She may be disappointed in love, so the rest of the day she regards writing poetry as the only thing in her life, and no longer pins her hopes on things that she cannot grasp such as "people's hearts" and "feelings".
A very subtle point is that before this, Dickinson would only sob silently even if he was sad or aggrieved, as if he was suppressing his inner emotions and pretending to be strong, and the collapse and crying caused by Wadsworth's departure was a turning point in the movie and a turning point in her life. After this, the people around Dickinson drifted away from her, which was reasonable but sad. Loneliness seems to make people's feelings more sensitive, and the feeling of being enemies of the world is getting stronger and stronger.
retrograde
So far, the way the film shows Dickinson's "enthusiasm" is like a volcano with power, starting with a small spark, and gradually reaching the point of eruption, the secret flow of feelings has finally been given strength, step by step subverting the traditional female image before.
Although Bu Fan is transparent and intelligent, and fits with Dickinson's three views, it has not become another version of Dickinson's unmarried life. After BuFan chose to enter the marriage hall, they also broke off contact. The trajectory of life has changed, and Dickinson's reclusive house is no longer bustling. In addition to the crush on the dusty heart and the parting of close friends, dickinson, who is middle-aged, also has to face the death of his parents. The flowers withered, and Dickinson returned to the loneliness of a man.
Perhaps the successive partings have brought Dickinson too much mental stimulation, and her strange personality tendencies have become more and more obvious. After her father's death, she locked herself in her room for three days. During the family's mourning, Dickinson was the only one who wore a white coat.
In the face of people who come to see her at home, using harsh words to drive away guests is her hospitality, she is not willing to communicate with outsiders anymore, she just wants to indulge in literary creation to numb herself.
Sometimes, aren't we just like her? Pouring too much emotion into others without getting a response, without results, only to understand that it is good to party in your own world. In the eyes of outsiders, a person's world is dark, and for oneself, shrunk in a shell, darkness is sunshine.
Decades of negativity were like a bomb buried in Dickinson's body, and she suffered from The then-incurable Bright's disease. This is also the reason why she always expresses her yearning for death in poetry, living is a mental and physical torture, and death is freedom and liberation.
In addition to the uncontrolled physical pain, the "three views of discord" with her family also made her reluctant to go out of her own world, and seemed to be more and more convinced that no one in the outside world would understand her.
After the death of his father and mother, Dickinson's beloved family was only his sister and brother. Although her sister has been with her to comfort her, a crack has emerged between Dickinson and her brother Austin, who has broken his marital affair and had a big fight with her brother. Dickinson is furious at Austin's double standards in marriage, and he feels that he is right to cheat, but it is unforgivable if his wife is ambiguous with other men.
Dickinson's déjà vu scene with her brother pulls the audience back to the scene of her "talking back" with her division master's father many years ago. Time allowed wrinkles to creep up her face and make her personality withdrawn to extremes, but Dickinson didn't change at all. She is still as rebellious as before, angry at injustice, and does not succumb to the authority and the right to speak in gender decisions. In other words, her passion for controlling her own soul has not diminished.
Dickinson's quarrel with her brother over marital issues is also the final climax of the film, as if she were the last time she spoke hard. Dickinson can clearly perceive that life is gradually exhausted, and the pace of the film is gradually slowing down, accompanying her poems, ending with death.
Will Dickinson regret living in seclusion? I think that when family, friends and love lost the light she was obsessed with, completely indulging in the darkness that symbolized loneliness brought her reflection and more creative inspiration for being alone. When she doubts the world and human nature, the poem gives her the answer, comforting herself that the world is not as distorted as reality. If she had never seen the sun, she could have endured the darkness, but she herself became the sun in the darkness, supporting herself to walk alone.
Some people say that deep affection is loneliness. For Dickinson, this "love" is the true feeling for the people around him, the passion for poetry creation, and the deep affection for guarding his soul. When the truth is no longer there, she returns to the life of "indifferent to mingzhi, quiet and far-reaching", but the passion and affection are becoming more and more intense at this moment. The sublimation of loneliness is the reason why the coexistence of tranquility and enthusiasm in Dickinson is not contrary.
Perhaps we sometimes have the same world-weary and socially fearful thoughts as Dickinson, and we will feel inferior to ourselves and the world around us, preferring to stay on our own isolated island and enjoy quiet time. Faced with such modern troubles, this "Quiet Passion" uses the 19th-century Dickinson as an example to prove the success of the "negative faction".
The legendary poet created by isolation is an example, but the whole film cuts through the inner world of Emily Dickinson and justifies the beauty of loneliness. Choosing loneliness does not mean indifference, and free thinking after calming down will not cool the enthusiasm of the heart, which will make our perception of life more acute, far from impetuousness. Being alone is like a magnifying glass, allowing us to discover details that we have never noticed, or clouds today, or flowers to be bloomed, or epiphanies brought about by inspiration, all of which give the defined meaning of the moment. The triumph of loneliness is like poetry to Dickinson, to all things to you and me.
It is a pleasure to meet you, more wonderful articles welcome to pay attention to self-media: nothing forever, multi-platform with the same name.