"Much Madness is divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson, 1862

Ilaria Venezia, VA.
Liceo Scientifico Dante Alighieri.
Fulbright ETA Program
Emily Dickinson Project

Emily Dickinson’s “Much Madness is divinest Sense,” No. 435

Much Madness is divinest Sense -
To a discerning Eye -
Much Sense - the starkest Madness -
'Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail -
Assent - and you are sane -
Demur - you're straightway dangerous -
And handled with a Chain –
c. 1862

As we can notice analyzing E. Dickinson’s life, she was always on the fringes of society, a recluse. In many poems she refers to her loneliness and to her need of finding someone (No. 249). Very often, because of her ideas, she was excluded by the Society which tried to chain her way of thinking, a Society which didn’t understand her and would have never accepted her. This concept is very topical, in fact nowadays, even if we are members of a Democratic System, free speech isn’t sometimes preserved.

In “Much Madness is Divinest Sense,” thanks to the opening alliteration of the “M”, the Poet makes us realize which is the keyword, “Madness”(1). Paradoxically, she identifies “Madness” with “Sense”. She actually says, using superlatives, that the “starkest Madness”(3) is the divinest
Sense” (1), because the “Sense,” which we can translate into “consciousness” or “reason,” straps down men to the reality whereas the “Madness” lets men climb over the wall of the grim reality
making them free. So, thanks to this, we can link E. Dickinson to the Metaphysical Poets of the 17th century who analysed the connection between the Known and the Unknown. Only one who has “a discerning Eye”(2), i.e. a keen “Sense”, can understand this and go beyond the shallowness of common people. “Eye” can refer to the single human being or to God who knows everything and owns the universal truth.

Talking about the word “Majority” (4), there are two main meanings. If we consider “Majority” as Society in general, which “in this, as All, prevail” (5), most people can’t understand what the Poet is saying because they follow the social ideology like sheeps. It’s enough to “assent” (6) and to be compliant with the laws and to the ideas of Society ”and you are sane”(6), otherwise, if you dare to object and to “Demur” (7), you are “straightway”(7) denounced as “dangerous” (7). So the Majority wins and overpowers its opponents and “handle[s] [them] with a Chain” (8) . As a matter of fact, the same word “Chain” has a metaphorical meaning: it refers to the Society which chains up people’s minds who aren’t free to think. This leads to the homologation of everyone and everything.

But is E. Dickinson between the ones who “Assent”? Of course not. She was brave to shout to the world her way of thinking and her view of the woman. Nobody, or a few, has understood her, and in spite of this she was always by herself.

If “Majority” refers to the male majority, it’s easy to understand that the male world leaves out women. In fact, as the philosopher Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) believes, talking about the myth of Pandora [1], women are “dangerous” elements in the Society because they can upset the male order.

This poem is very topical. Not to be accepted is a widespread thought between poets, especially the Decadent ones. The same Charles Baudelaire(1821-1867), considered as the father of the Symbolism and as the forerunner of the Decadent movement, feels like an “Albatross” which
overflies a world that doesn’t belong to him, a world that, on the other hand, rejects him. The idea of homologation, supported by Society, led to a lot of problems, such as the totalitarianism of the XX century. Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), an Italian writer, politician and philosopher,
was imprisoned by the Fascists because “Bisognava impedire a questa mente di pensare” (It was necessary to forbid this mind to think). So Emily Dickinson in this poem (No. 435) goes into relevant topics and she is very far-sighted; she goads us into breaking all the chains which don’t allow us to expose freely our true thoughts.

Footnotes

[1] In Greek mythology, Zeus gave Pandora a jar which contained all the evils of mankind. Because of her curiosity, she opened it, leaving only Hope inside once she had closed it again.

Works Cited

“Much Madness is Divinest sense”:http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182156
Abbagnano, Nicola. Foriero,Giovanni. La filosofia. Paravia, 2010.
Aviérinos Labouret Prat. Alinéa. Zanichelli, 2010.
Giappichelli Marcello, Polcri Andrea, Fusi Stefano. Ieri e Oggi. Cappelli, 2009.