Human Thought and Human Worth
Excerpt 1:
In correspondence with my interpretations of "human thought" and "human worth" (two terms almost as elusive as the word "strawberries" has become during the course of this semester), Dickinson and James seem to reach the consensus that human worth is conceived by human thought, but not comprised of it. In "Best Things dwell out of Sight," Emily calls thought "Germ's Germ. . ." that which gives life to life itself (but does not wholly represent life itself). She makes it clear that thought is not the essence of the power of humanity in poem #581 when she says "I found the words to every thought / I ever had - but One - / And that - defies me - / As a Hand did try to chalk the Sun." As powerful as thought may be, Emily realizes that there is something beyond it, something that cannot be caught and defined by words. James takes the inequality of thought and worth a step further in "The Beast in the Jungle," using John Marcher to prove that human thought (and thus human obsession) can be nothing more than human worthlessness. In poem #1293, Dickinson points out that thought without action in no way contributes to the merit of humans: "The things we thought that we should do / We other things have done / But those peculiar industries / Have never been begun -. . . By Speculation ceded / To Speculation's Son -"
Excerpt 2:
It is in our thoughts that we have the most freedom. No one else can control them. Emily Dickinson recognized this in "They shut me up in Prose -" in which people attempt to physically contain the thoughts and questions but could not control her "Brain - (from) go(ing) round." Since we are the most free in our thoughts, thoughts tend to be what is most true within ourselves. Dickinson's perception of human worth had a lot to do with how closely thought (our true feeling) equaled our words and actions. She writes in "A Deed knocks first at Thought" of the process in which a thought is turned into acts because of the pressure to conform to the norms of society. In "A Charm invests a face," Dickinson writes of how much women conceal within themselves in order to fit the norm. She writes "And wishes - and denies -" to show that many wishes are denied to produce an "Image - (that) satisfies." Emily Dickinson saw the desire for this image as a desire that takes away true thoughts; that takes away who we truly are, and when we lose who we truly are, we lose our worth. In Henry James' "The Beast in the Jungle," it is revealed through the character John Marcher that outside forces are not the only things which disrupt freedom of thought. John Marcher's life is ruined because of his own psychology, which deems him incapable of thinking about anything except the terrible event he is certain will occur. This obsession with one thought takes the worth from his life and he does not realize it until it is too late.