The Glass Essay

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1994

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Different Meanings of Emily Brontë

Aside from adding to the themes of imprisonment, voices, and heartbreak, Emily Brontë functions as a symbol in “The Glass Essay.” Throughout the poem, Emily symbolizes companionship, fear, the speaker, and competition.

At the start of the poem, Emily symbolizes a friend. The speaker is going to visit her mother, who lives alone. For companionship, the speaker brings “a lot of books” (Line 15). The one book the speaker identifies is The Collected Works of Emily Brontë, while none of the other books are ever named. The Collected Works of Emily Brontë is special—the speaker has a rapport with Emily and speaks to her as if they are friends. “What meat is it, Emily, we need?” (Line 25) she asks her. At the start of the section “THREE,” the speaker portrays Emily as if she is no different from her or her mother, noting, “Three silent women at the kitchen table” (Line 26). It is as if Emily is alive and has joined the speaker at her mother’s house.

Conversely, Emily symbolizes the speaker and, thus, the speaker’s fears. The speaker worries she is “turning into Emily Brontë” (Line 21). The similarities between Emily and the speaker make her anxious: Both are in a tranquil domestic environment surrounded by a moor, and they each have intense thoughts and feelings. The speaker questions whether Emily’s life was fulfilling, as it is not the life she wants for herself. “She didn’t have friends, children, sex, religion, marriage, success, a salary / or a fear of death” (Lines 139-40), says the speaker about Emily.

While the speaker does not necessarily want all those things, she does want some of them, including sex. The speaker’s last night with Law demonstrates that she’s a sexually active person, in contrast to Emily’s ostensibly inactive sex life, which unsettles the speaker. “I find myself tempted / to read Wuthering Heights as one thick stacked act of revenge / for all that life withheld from Emily,” admits the speaker (Lines 798-800). In symbolizing the speaker, Emily embodies the speaker’s fear of leading a lonely life, devoid of physical intimacy.

At times, Emily symbolizes competition. It is as if the speaker and Emily are battling each other in a game of violent imagery. In Stanza 77, the speaker includes an excerpt from Wuthering Heights where Catherine compares her love for Heathcliff to “eternal rocks” (Line 261). In Stanza 79, the speaker concocts her own rock imagery. She compares Catherine and Heathcliff to “pores blown into hot rock / and then stranded out of reach / of one another when it hardens” (Lines 268-70). The continual intense imagery makes it seem like the speaker is determined to one-up her opponent.

Glass, Vulnerability, and Visibility

The first time the word glass appears in the poem is in the mother’s kitchen. After reading a violent passage from Wuthering Heights, the speaker remarks, “It’s as if we have all been lowered into an atmosphere of glass” (Line 42). Glass is breakable, and the penetration of the mother’s banal words symbolizes its fragility. “Now and then a remark trails through the glass,” says the speaker (Line 43). Glass here represents the vulnerability of the speaker and Emily Brontë. In addition to her mother’s comments, the speaker is susceptible to Emily and inner turmoil. She is subject to visions she cannot turn away from, and she finds herself in a generally fragile state due to her break up with Law.

The glass symbolizes fragility in part because it leaves one open to inspection. The speaker tries to will herself to stop thinking about her past with Law, “No, I say aloud” (Line 202). The memory “jerks to a halt like a glass slide under a drop of blood” (Lines 204-05). A glass slide is needed to examine the blood sample under a microscope, and likewise, glass is required to examine the lives of the speaker and Emily.

The speaker says Emily’s soul is “trapped in glass” (Line 897), an image which symbolizes the strength and weakness of glass. Glass has the power to imprison and confine her soul, and yet, glass is not strong enough to keep people away from her life. The glass leaves Emily vulnerable to inspection. It allows biographers, critics, and the speaker to view her life, just as it permits the speaker to interrogate her own life.

Trying and Failing

The word essay has multiple meanings. Merriam-Webster defines it as an “analytic or interpretive literary composition,” as well as an “attempt” or “effort.” Trying is a motif in “The Glass Essay,” whether successful or not.

Failure is not always a bad thing; it is a part of life. Throughout the poem, the speaker tries to make sense of her life, from the failed relationship with Law, to her visions and affinity for Emily Brontë. Despite her efforts, she never seems to make any progress in healing and moving on from her heartbreak. Epiphanies and definitive conclusions are out of reach, and she declares, “I am my own Nude” (Line 916). The speaker does not fully explain what that means, instead claiming “I want to speak more clearly” (Line 925). What follows remains opaque, with vivid but abstract descriptions of the Nudes. It is as if the speaker is trying to reveal something profound, but she struggles and falls back on the Nudes.

The speaker’s shortcomings relate to Emily Brontë. Emily helps the speaker compensate for her failures. When the speaker does not feel like talking further about her agony, she pivots to Emily. The speaker says, “It pains me to record this” (Line 224) about her Nudes. Two lines later, the speaker switches to Charlotte’s evaluation of Emily. Ultimately, “The Glass Essay” does not necessarily lead to a greater understanding of either Emily or the speaker, ending instead with Emily’s death, and an enigmatic image of a universal Nude that “walked out of the light” (Line 1020). The final nude seems to leave the spotlight with unfinished work, just as the speaker’s emotional struggles in the poem remain unresolved as well.