I’M WIFE I’VE FINISHED THAT

The poem “I’m “wife”-I’ve finished that-“was written by Emily Dickinson in 19th the century. It got published in the collection: “POEMS”. The first line of the poem is taken as the title of the poem.

Table of Contents

• About
• Theme
• Summary
• Conclusion

About

• The rhyming scheme of the poem “I’M WIFE I’VE FINISHED THAT” is AABBCCDDEEFF
• The poem was written in the 19th century by EMILY DICKINSON
• It was published in the collection – “POEMS” in 1890
• Emily Dickinson was never a married woman but she wrote this poem through her experiences and observations. And imagined herself to be married.
• In Emily Dickinson’s poems, we can usually see that, she never gave the titles to her poems, so the first line of her poems is taken as titles.
• In this poem we have seen, the poetess used a lot of hyphens (–) and inverted commas (“”) to represent the anger or frustration of the poetess toward the patriarchal society. That is, how they force women to get married to protect themselves.

Theme

• How a spinster need to get married to get protection in the society
• Journey of a girl from spinsterhood (unmarried) to a married woman.
• Sacrifice of her freedom

Summary

I’m “wife” – I’ve finished that-

That other state-

Here the poetess wanted to say that, now she is the wife, that is, she had finished being a spinster (stage of unmarried girl). Here, the word “wife” had been used to satirize the traditional people for their stereotypical thinking.

I’m Czar-I’m “Woman” now-

It’s safer so-

Here, Czar means- “Russian Ruler” or “King“. Here, “Woman” has been used as a symbol of maturity. She is not married but mature enough to fight her battles and struggles by leading her life like a king, with her experiences. And as she is married now she is safe from society’s taunts and odd behaviour.

How odd the Girl’s life looks-
Behind the soft eclipse-

Here, the poetess has described the life of an unmarried girl, who had to face, the odd behaviour, manner, and treatment of society. Their life is as dark as the eclipse, but married life is like a “soft eclipse” for the woman as they get protection from everywhere. Most of all they don’t get judged for anything happening in their life.

I think that Earth feels so

To folks in Heaven-now-

Here the poetess had compared the unmarried girls with “Earth” and married woman to “Heaven”. Emily says that Heaven (married life) is a glorifying place where women enjoy every right, freedom, and protection from the ill-treatment of society. Whereas, at the same place the spinsters (unmarried girls) have to fight daily for their rights, freedom, and taunts of society. Earth is represented as a harsh reality of the unmarried life in this patriarchal society, whereas, Heaven is represented as a saviour of women, that is, by getting married.

This being comfort-then

That other kind-was pain-

These lines are the continuation of the above para, where the poetess says that being married is comfortable to achieve a respected life and save their images from the eyes of the patriarchal society. And being unmarried or a spinster is a painful situation for them as their life becomes really difficult to live, they had to face humiliation, taunts, and odd behaviour of society.

But why compare?

I’m “Wife”! Stop there!

In the last lines, the poetess says, why compare her now, she is a “Wife” now. And she had finished being a spinster. So she says, “Stop there“, as she had stopped every means to get criticized by the people of the society. As she is married now.

Conclusion

In this poem, EMILY DICKINSON talks about the odd behaviour that society does with the spinster. The taunt, humiliation, and ill-treatment, they have to face in their day-to-day life. So to control that, the woman had to get married. But the question arises here, do they get freedom? The answer is no. As maybe, they are seen in a respected way and get protected from the eyes of society, but their freedom to study, to achieve something, to become employed, or to do something in life gets snatched from them. They don’t get to share their point of view. So, in the end, after getting married too, they had to sacrifice their dreams. So, lead your life according, as people will judge you anyway.