Theodora V.W. Ward

Editing Emily

Graphology

The sample is one of the most unique handwritings I have ever seen. It is written in caligraphy, more of an art form than handwriting. The strokes are more pastose than average. The letter strokes are often stenciled, which means split letters, and there are a multitude of curls in the middle zone. The spatial arrangement is very wide between letters, words, and lines. The left margin is sinuous, and the right margin is very narrow.

The middle zone is dominant, and it is at the expense of the lower zone. The upper zone is also muted, but not as badly as the lower zone. The slant of the sample is extremely rightward. Long and powerful t-bar crossings are present, and they float above the stem. The baseline is stepped downhill.

Emily was a hermit. [extra wide spatial arrangement] She is completely disconnected from society, for all but perhaps a few friends and relatives.[there are huge spaces between letters] She is pedantic, and flaunted herself to other people.[overly flourished, caligraphic writing] Emily is selfish and self centered. She would throw fits over being jealous, and her emotional outbursts were quite a sight. [severe and extreme right ward slant] She was so needy, and demanded the attention of all others around her. [excessive curls on all lower case, middle zone letters] She was pretentious and bossy [excessively long t-bars], and would spend time worrying about her image, rather than being upfront and sincere. [persona and artificial writing] Few people could stand to be around her; she was sarcastic, anti-social; [wavy, sinuous left margin] and prone to severe hysterical emotional outbursts. So she eventually found herself all alone for the rest of her life. She became untrusting and maybe even paranoid. [huge and empty ponds of space, wide spatial arrangement, artificial personna]

Dickinson was a severely depressed woman at the time she wrote this letter. But even so, she was aware of this. She tried very hard to constantly lift herself out of depression, but as of this writing, she was failing. [strongly stepped downhill baseline] She never married, and that is understandable considering her personality and behavior. Dickinson withdrew into a world she created for herself. In her solitary life, she created the poetry she is famous for. [creative calligraphic forms]

Emily didn't enjoy life. She was always reaching for unfullfillable goals; then blaming others when those goals weren't met. She wasn't the type to put much effort into her aspirations; she was busy making everything around her look neat and tidy. There wasn't any time left for more important work to be done. [slow writing for appearances, long t-bars pointed to middle zone, t-bars way above the stem]