Summary Of Emily Dickinsons Much Madness Is Divinest Sense

The greatest irony of the social construct of madness is its inherent lack of a coherent logical basis and a stable, fixed image. Whether in life, on screen, or in print, madness–that concept that minds under the strain of neurological disease lack discernment and order–struggles and ultimately fails in all its vagueness to establish not only the line at which a person becomes mad, but what happens to their mind and personhood once they cross that imagined threshold. In Emily Dickinson’s poem beginning, â€Å"Much Madness is divinest Sense,† the poet critiques this social construct, portraying the artificiality of its basis and the discernment for â€Å"divine† sense which the â€Å"mad† are granted through their oppression and exclusion from society,†¦show more content†¦In the next line, â€Å"To a discerning Eye -,† we see Dickinson’s hierarchy of scale at work again, with â€Å"Eye,† a word of personal import ance to Dickinson due to her own experiences with ophthalmic disease, here being capitalized not only due to these personal experiences, but due also to its importance in the poem. Here, â€Å"discerning† is not given the same treatment, denoting its being of less importance than the â€Å"Eye† itself–the individual eye, perhaps Dickinson’s own, which discerns, in its madness and through divine gift, that which might be considered sensible. In the final line of this first section, reading, â€Å"Much Sense - the starkest Madness -,† Dickinson reaffirms the proximity and equality of Sense and Madness, stating that the, â€Å"discerning Eye,† is capable of finding not only a divine sense in madness, but a sense of proximity between these two traditional extremes. If these two seemingly disparate parts are indeed one, the question then becomes who, or what, maintains their continued separation. We see Dickinson’s reply to this question in the second â€Å"section,† which reads, â€Å"’Tis the Majority / In this, as all prevail -.† Here, she suggests, that the social Majority, here capitalized to denote its power and relevance to the matter at hand, prevails in its perpetuation of this the constructShow MoreRelatedEmily Dickinson Research Paper1928 Words   |  8 Pages Dickinson Research Paper Emily Dickinson is one of the most influential poets of all time, and has a unique way of using literal imagery to paint a picture in the readers mind. The best poets are those that excel at using their words to create clear, concrete images and intrigue their reader. Dickinson began writing poetry around the year 1855, and prospered for another 10 years. Some of her most famous poems include â€Å"I Taste a liquor Never Brewed†, â€Å"Success is Counted Sweetest†, and â€Å"Wild nights