Lavinia Dickinson

**Lavinia Dickinson** is one of the main characters in *Dickinson*. She is portrayed by Anna Baryshnikov.

## History

### Biography

Lavinia grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, in the 19th century. She is youngest of the Dickinson siblings and daughter to Edward and Emily Dickinson.

## Throughout the Series

### Season 1

Lavinia is upset that her parents aren't attempting to find her a suitor. She has her eyes on Joseph Lyman. Lavinia hires an artist to paint a portrait of her. When she is displeased with the results she makes her own attempts to sketch herself.

At the end of the season, she gives Joseph a nude sketch of herself.

### Season 2

In Before I got my eye put out, Henry Shipley, a college dropout and classmate of Austin’s becomes a boarder at the Dickinson home. Ship is all consumed in his hypermasculinity and insists that Lavinia become his wife because he believes that Vinnie will make a meek, submissive, and dutiful wife.

In Fame is a fickle food, it becomes more and more clear to Lavinia that she is not the kind of obedient, homely, and submissive girl that Ship is seeking as a wife.

In The only Ghost I ever saw, after a church sermon, Ship tells Lavinia that she would make the perfect wife: prim, proper, and obedient. He also tells her about his wild ex-girlfriend, Lola Montez, who had even shot him once. This leaves Lavinia conflicted, and along with her sister Emily decide they need spiritual guidance from the spirits themselves.

In The Daisy follows soft the Sun, Lavinia finds herself loving the forbidden aspect of her relation with Ship. Ship, however, is not pleased. “I’m starting to feel kinda used.” But all Lavinia can think of is his ex, Lola Montez. All of a sudden, sack is placed over her head which reveals itself to be an elaborate proposal. “You vandalized my parents’ barn… I literally thought I was being kidnapped,” she tells Ship, who’s using the element of surprise to get her to say yes. Lavinia seems to have her doubts.

In Forbidden Fruit a Flavor Has, Ship continues to believe that Lavinia is a prim and proper woman, and Lavinia continues to tell him she's not. They roleplay from The Scarlet Letter, and Ship realizes that Lavinia is different from how he remembered her.

In Split the Lark, Edward decides that the whole family will be seeing what the whole opera craze is about. While Lavinia is excited, her parents could not be less enthused.

In Forever - is composed of Nows, Aunt Lavinia takes the female members of her family to the spa. There are mudbaths, massages, and cold water baths. Lavinia attempts to make conversation, and Emily reveals that her internal torment is over a boy. Lavinia is initially shocked, thinking her sister wa “over” things like boys, but she’s more helpful than Sue and gives Emily an ego boost by telling her sister that she’s her hero.

In I'm Nobody! Who Are You?, while t the breakfast table, Lavinia reads Emily’s poem out loud; she and Ship remark how good the poem is. Mrs. Dickinson agrees and asks who wrote it, Lavinia tells her Emily did and Mrs. Dickinson panics. Lavinia and Ship argue about the poems meaning and Ship abruptly leaves the table. Later, Lavinia enters the kitchen and Emily stands by and watches as Lavinia and Ship argue and break off their engagement, with Ship leaving with his suitcase and declaring he’d rather be tortured by Lola’s “erotic spider dance”. The mention of Lola and her spider dance shakes Lavinia and she attempts to perform said dance, while Emily looks on helplessly.

In I Like a Look of Agony, after seeing Lavinia’s mother perform the role he wants in Lavinia herself, Ship re-proposes. “The country is on the verge of war and I don’t want there to be any conflict between us.” But Lavinia has doubts and makes him prove his love by putting on her Lola Montez fantasy.

In You Cannot Put A Fire Out,Lavinia discovers that Ship plans to move to New Orleans — and has already bought a house there for them to live in! With the Civil War on the horizon, she has no desire to move south. “I am a shrew Yankee witch — respect that,” and they break things off once again. This time for good.

### Season 3

In Hope is the thing with feathers, Lavinia learns that Joseph Lyman is dead, along with her ex-fiancé Henry Shipley.

In It feels a shame to be Alive, Lavinia realizes along with Sue that Austin has point, and she cries after realizing that everyone she's ever loved is dead.

In The Soul has Bandaged moments, Emily and Lavinia host a sewing circle to support the troops with help from Amherst’s finest seamstress, Betty. Granted, the event springs more out of Lavinia’s own feeling of impending spinsterdom than altruism, and it’s not exactly certain whether their efforts will actually have any impact.

In This is my letter to the World, it turns out that Lavinia brought fleas in from the barn, where she slept after trying to bury herself.

In Sang from the Heart, Sire, Lavinia has chosen a vow of silence as this week’s act of self-serving activism.

In A little Madness in the Spring, Lavinia, still reeling over Henry Shipley and Joseph Lyman’s deaths during the ongoing war, finds solace in another woman grieving over the latter. Shocked to discover they both mourn the same lover, she takes pleasure learning that Lyman only really had eyes for her; that is, until she remembers that he is dead.

In The Future never spoke, Lavinia and her sister Emily end up receiving a chance to go to the future, where they meet Sylvia Plath, who explains to the duo that it’s “common knowledge” that Emily was a lonely, “miserable, dried-up spinster” who wore white and cried. Increasingly frustrated, Emily and Lavinia insist that what Sylvia says is not true, but Sylvia remains convinced.

In My life had stood - a loaded gun -, Emily hallucinates that a double-tracked Lavinia blames Emily for her spinsterdom.

In Grief is a Mouse, Emily makes Austin agree to give her and Lavinia freedom as they will not be another item of property. He agrees on the condition that Vinny gets rid of her cats. Shortly after George Gould finds out he will fighting in the Civil War, the youth of Amherst unite to make what could be George’s final night in Amherst a memorable one. Along the way, Lavinia performs something she calls “Sheep No More,” where she stares at a sheep and thinks of death.

In This was a Poet -, everyone waits downstairs for a poet who no longer needs approval. They share details about her with Austin referring to Emily as “the crazy one,” right before Lavinia calls that into question with a demonstration of her performance art.

## Physical Appearance

Lavinia has curly, silky blonde hair which she often wears pulled back. She has bright blue eyes and pale skin.