Dickinson’s use of dashes between w

Dickinson’s use of dashes between words and phrases leads to several possible explanations of these lines. The lines might mean that the Soul is shutting her “divine Majority” inside with her, behind the door. In this sense, “divine Majority” might represent her own holy or sacred self, which is now no longer present to those outside of her closed door. Another way to read the lines is that she is shutting her “divine Majority” out of her inner world. In this sense, “divine Majority” could mean the social or religious system to which she is no longer present. Indeed, the capitalization of “Majority” might even indicate that she is actually shutting out God, an interpretation that might have seemed blasphemous to 19th-century Americans.