Emily Dickinson's poem "Much Madness is divinest Sense" suggests that those deemed insane by society may actually possess a higher form of reason and understanding. The poem states that what seems like "madness" to most people is considered divine wisdom to those with perceptive insight. It also implies that rigidly adhering to social norms and "sense" is its own form of stark madness. Dickinson questions the judgments of the majority, asserting that nonconformists deemed dangerous are oppressed, like slaves in chains.

1. EMILY DICKINSON
MuchMandness

2. About the author
Emily Dickinson was used to describe abstract
concepts with concrete images. In fact, in many of
her poems abstract ideas and material things are
used to explain each other.
Yet the relationships between them remain
complex and unpredictable.

3. 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 - Molta Follia è il più divino Senno -
A un Occhio perspicace -
Molto Senno - la più assoluta Follia -
È la Maggioranza
In questo, come in Tutto, a prevalere -
Approva - e sei sano -
Obietta - sei subito pericoloso -
E trattato con Catene -
THE POEM

4. Text analysis
The poem I chose: Much Madness is the divinest
Sense— is quite difficult to read while it is
easy to understand that it was directly
inspired by the author's rebel lifestyle.
It's all about how people who seem crazy to
the greatest part might actually be geniuses
with godlike insight.

5. MADNESS
In her poem, Emily Dickinson explains that sometimes a
person who seems insane is actually the only one who
has it all figured out. She is not just saying that crazy
people are smart; she's saying that they're the smartest.
According to her, it’s like mad people are in touch with a
supreme intelligence. So they might forget to put pants
on before they leave the house, but they have a direct
line to what's going on in the larger Universe.
In addition, the author uses the word starkest to describe
the madness of the sensible.
Stark means something severe or bare in appearance or
outline (Oxford Dictionary definition).
So it seems like the rigid, disciplined lives of normal
people might seem sensible, but they're actually totally
insane.
Consequently, she defies the common sense comparing
the brilliant intelligence of mad people to the horribly
banal one of the others.

6. Majority

7. chain
In addition, the author affirms that those people who go against the tide are also
put in chains.
Even in this case, Chain is written with a capital C as to emphasize the severity of
the treatment.
The word Chain also reminds of slavery, and perhaps it may be a critique to the
real madness of that period.
Moreover this word can stand for the oppression of women during Dickinson's
time. In fact back to the XIX century women were fighting for their rights in order
to obtain the emancipation from the prevailing male chauvinist society.

8. …madness now

9. This painting is inpired by the
namesake book and it
represents a chained woman
which is considered mad and
insane by the status quo.
At first sight she looks exactly
that way because of her
expression, but actually she
may be just feeling angry and
fighting for her rights.
…Madness in art
Human bondage: inmates at the Salpêtrière asylum in Paris in 1795, by Tony Robert-Fleury

10. Through the ages there are lots of examples of fights between the majority and
mad, dangerous people (homosexual persecution, Nazi genocide, Isis terrorism…)
but in most cases the roles should have been reversed.
Discriminations are just insane themselves .
An instance is the witch-hunt during the Middle Ages.
Victims were especially women who were burned alive. If you lived in those
centuries and you were a woman, a little girl, an elderly person,
or you had beauty marks or just expired milk or butter in
your house, you were almost dead.
In fact all those kinds of people were considered
insane and sons of the devil.
This is just one of the horrors caused by the majority that
should represent justice and mental health.
My considerations