Becoming a storm cloud...

"Mount Holyoke toughened Dickinson, who worked hard and did well and at one point became 'much interested' in chemistry and physiology."

"One of the questions to be decided was: how would the father Emily took with her, and the father in her mind, shape her adjustment to the close-knit female world she had entered?"

Emily struggled to stay away from the religious influences of the college. "... she had a painful conviction that she ought to 'give up and become a Christian.'"  Emily felt no interest in becoming a Christian.

"Dickinson was becoming a dark storm cloud, with a rising electric potential that would have to declare itself."  Dickinson is given so much power by this author.  Comparing her to a storm cloud is comparing her to a power that is uncontrollable, and also, a power of nature - not a power of humanity.  I think this is a significant comparison to note.  Dickinson herself seems closer to nature through her scientific studies.  Also, the description makes her seem harmful, damaging, destructive - normally poets are thought of as "creators" not "destroyers".

Dickinson seemed to show a general obedience to the law, "As it is, two things stand out in her response - her snapping resentment, and her determined acceptance of 'the law.'"

Many scholars attempt to find a connection between Dickinson and the Women's Rights Movement.  However, this author claims that Dickinson would have not been against the movement, "... was not disposed to see women as an oppressed class or to feel that they must organize themselves in order to free themselves."  However, Dickinson seemed to express little interest in anything which she was not directly affected by.  I find it hard to believe she would have ventured into the political world.  

"All can write autographs, but few paragraphs; for we are mostly no more than names." - B.F. Newton

Dickinson was lent Jane Eyre.  It may have influenced her greatly.

"The double punctuation at the end seems to catch her in the act, disguising her risky opinion as a question deferentially presented to a man almost ten years her senior."

"Nineteen-year-old Emily was in a state of eruption, throwing off the rules her elders had pounded into her."