'A Discussion Of Insanity' By Emily Dickinson

661 Words3 Pages
Insanity (A Discussion of “Much Madness is divinest Sense-”) Over time, the concept of what true madness is has been contemplated to the breaking point. Every single person has a somewhat altered perception as to the guidelines of insanity. Is there really one single definition? Or is it open to interpretation? Each person has their own definition of what madness is, however Emily Dickinson gives an interesting perspective to this. Although I agree with her message, I only do so to a certain extent. I only find slight disagreement in the fact that people can’t choose to be normal or eccentric, they are born that way; also, there is a difference between insane people and free, creative, and innovative thinkers. To begin with, Emily Dickinson believes that conforming to normality is madness. She also states that the majority of any cause will prevail. In this case, she views the majority of society as the deemed normal people. On page 635, in “Much Madness is divinest Sense-”, lines 4 and 5, Dickinson tells, “‘Tis the Majority In this, as All, prevail-”. She then goes to say that those who decide to join the normal people are safe. However, those that disagree are deemed dangerous and kept isolated from society.While, I…show more content…
A misunderstood genius, or any other human with a different perspective of the world generally does so in a positive way, only planning to improve or help the world. On the other hand, a truly dangerous insane mind can cause incredible harm to innocent people. So to an extent, there is reason for some of the worlds truly insane to be, as Dickinson says on line eight of “Much Madness is divinest Sense-”, “Demur-you’re straightway dangerous- And handled with a Chain-”. Those that were deemed crazy throughout history, yet changed our perspective of the world were isolated, yes. However, they weren’t crazy in the sense of longing to harm
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