19 pages • 38 minutes read
Emily DickinsonMuch Madness is divinest Sense—
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1890A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“We never know how high we are” by Emily Dickinson (1870)
In this lyric poem, Dickinson’s speaker merges with the majority through the plural pronoun “we.” As in “Much Madness is divinest Sense,” the speaker remains critical of human beings, suggesting that people are too afraid to reach great heights. Conversely, the speaker allows for doubt: People don’t know how high they are until they’re there. In “Much Madness is divinest Sense,” the speaker doesn’t doubt that the majority mislabels senselessness and sense.
“The crowd at the ball game” by William Carlos Williams (1923)
As with the majority in Dickinson’s poem, the crowd at the baseball game in this poem by the 20th-century American poet William Carlos Williams is somewhat odious. Williams describes the diverse, rambunctious crowd as unthinkingly cheering on the home team. Similar to Dickinson’s poem, Williams’s lyric links to the frightening power of the masses and their capacity for conflict.
“The Crazy Woman” by Gwendolyn Brooks (1960)
Brooks’s speaker goes against the majority in her lyric poem and sings a “gray” song in November instead of a happy song in May. To punish her deviation, the majority says, “That is the Crazy Woman / Who would not sing in May” (Lines 11-12). As with the majority in Dickinson’s poem, the majority in Brooks’s poem possesses the power to label someone senseless or sensible. Since the female speaker would rather commune with the melancholy fall/winter than the joyous spring, she goes against popular sentiments and receives a punishment: The multitudes label her “crazy.”
Further Literary Resources
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
Brontë’s famous coming-of-age novel centers on the eponymous Jane and her path to empowerment, which goes through the broody and mysterious Edward Rochester. As Jane discovers, Rochester married a woman, Bertha Mason, who’s behavior he deemed preposterous, so he kept her locked in the attic. Bertha’s predicament is how Gilbert and Gubar got the title for their book, The Madwoman in the Attic, and it shows how majorities function in smaller groups. It’s not as if there are millions of people keeping Bertha restrained—it’s mostly Edward and domestic workers. Once Jane finds out about Bertha, she does nothing to help her, indicating that Jane, though critics regularly portray her as independent, sides with the majority.
Night by Elie Wiesel (1956)
Wiesel’s autobiographical account of how he survived the Holocaust as a teen reveals the tragic consequences of majority-think. Before the Nazis occupy Wiesel’s community, the majority ignores Moshe the Beadle’s warnings about the brutal murders he witnessed. On the way to the notorious concentration camp Auschwitz, the majority dismisses the cries of Madame Schächter, who spots the fire from the crematoriums. The rise of the Nazis also reveals what happens when people uncritically follow someone or something.
My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich by Ibi Zoboi (2019)
As with Dickinson’s speaker, Ebony-Grace, the hero of Zoboi’s novel for young readers, is singular and doesn’t get along with the majority. Zoboi shows how uniqueness can be a kind of cruelty that oppresses people, as Ebony-Grace struggles to leave her infatuation with outer space and engage with the young people in her Harlem community. In Zoboi’s story, neither Ebony-Grace nor the majority is all good or bad—instead, they’re all a bit imperfect.
Listen to Poem
Listen to a person read Dickinson’s poem as a part of Mended Maple Poetry’s 60 Days of Emily Dickinson, and notice how the reader has fun with the diction and juxtaposition.
Related Titles
By Emily Dickinson
