The main literary strategy in My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun by Emily Dickinson is a metaphor of a gun and its owner which is used to represent a woman and her husband. . This poem is about the objectification and lack of agency of women in the 19th century. The gun/hunter metaphor is the argument. In the poem, the woman is literally reduced to an object that is at the disposal of the hunter/master/husband. In this poem, the reader is faced with the challenge of identifying who the speaker is and who the weapon metaphorically represents (Forman). To help resolve this conundrum, Angela Estes asks, “For whom in the 19th century would pleasure and power be problematic if expressed? » (XX). A female speaker is the most obvious and feasible answer. If the speaker is a woman, Estes asserts that the poem is "the fate of a speaker who depends on the actions of another to unleash his power." Because power and strong will are traditionally characterized as masculine qualities, it would be difficult for a 19th-century woman to express these characteristics without appearing as if she had lost touch with her femininity (Estes, X). Society pushes women to be passive and may look down on women who are strong-willed and powerful. Therefore, women could only express their power and will in conjunction with the power and will of their husbands. This is symbolized by the fact that the weapon can only express its explosive power and will to kill when the hunter pulls the trigger. The weapon is literally incapable of expressing itself or acting on its own because it is an inanimate object. By metaphorical extension, the poem shows us how women are forced to become like inanimate objects, discouraged from expressing their desires... middle of paper... or for the sake of the gun, they are valued for what they are. can do. In other words, they are valued for their extrinsic or instrumental value and not for any intrinsic value. When the weapon metaphorically represents a wife, it implies that she too is only valued for her extrinsic or instrumental value and not for her intrinsic value. If the hunter only values ​​the weapon because it gives him the power to kill, then on the other side of the metaphor, the husband only values ​​the wife for what she can do for him and he don't appreciate her for who she is. and the hunter metaphor is used to represent a relationship between husband and wife where the power dynamic is unequal. By using a metaphor where the woman is an inanimate object, she illustrates her lack of action and objectification because she is represented by something that has no action and is literally an object..