Much Madness is divinest sense

Theresa Tegdesch
Saba Khan
Dana Oslin

“Much Madness is divinest sense”

The theme of “Much Madness is divinest sense-“by Emily Dickinson is experiencing things that the majority may consider madness. The poem says “Much Madness is divinest Sense- To a discerning Eye-“, Dickinson is telling us here that what some people may see as madness, a discerning person who looks closely will see that it really does make sense. The next line reads “Much Sense-the starkest Madness-‘Tis the Majority.” Dickinson is saying that living by the rules, and only doing things that “, make sense”, according to the majority, is boring and actually does not make sense. Why should we live our lives only doing things that the majority says are okay? It makes more sense to get out of the box and experience some new things. Also, this poem causes it’s readers to question why the majority is who defines sanity and madness. Each of us need to decide for ourselves what is sane, and what it not, instead of going along with the majority and never considering things for ourselves. She goes on to say that those who do agree with her idea of getting out and experiencing “madness” are really the sane ones. As the opposite, those who disagree with her idea are really the dangerous ones who will live their lives on a chain, only experiencing life as far as their “sanity” will allow. Emily Dickinson wrote this poem in 1862 which was the time when women weren’t given as many privileges as men were. Women had few rights; it was presumed that the men would handle everything. It seems like Dickinson was struggling, and she is going against what the majority thinks and she is rebelling against what was accepted. This may have been the reason why the theme of this poem is madness versus sanity.

Works Cited
Dickinson, Emily. "Much Madness is diviniest sense." Literature Across Cultures. 5th ed. Gillespie, Sheena, et. al. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008. 866.
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