19 pages 38 minutes read

Emily Dickinson

Much Madness is divinest Sense—

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1890

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Background

Authorial Context: Debating Emily Dickinson’s “Madness”

As one of the most famous poets in Western culture, many people have written about Emily Dickinson, and their portrayals put her in the center of the battle of “Madness” Versus Sense. There is debate among scholars as to whether Dickinson’s decision to live in isolation starting in her mid-twenties—speaking only to close friends and family, and sometimes only behind closed doors—came from an intense dedication to her work or instead from a mental health condition like social anxiety or agoraphobia. In “Neither Mad Nor Motherless” (Charyn, Jerome. LitHub, 2016), Dickinson scholar Jerome Charyn notes John Cody’s book After Great Pain: The Inner Life of Emily Dickinson (1971). Charyn says Cody “presents Dickinson as a mental case whose only manner of survival was writing her cryptic and very private poems.”

He also quotes from Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic (1979)—a canonical text about female writers from the 1800s. They call Dickinson “truly a madwoman (a helpless agoraphobic, trapped in a room in her father’s house)” (Gilbert & Gubar, 1979). As Dickinson didn’t “[a]ssent” (Line 6) to “the Majority” (Line 4), living a life other than the one expected of her—socializing, marrying, and having children—critics put her in a figurative “[c]hain” (Line 8) and posthumously bind her to a still unknown and unproven mental health condition.

Related Titles

By Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

A Bird, came down the Walk

Emily Dickinson

A Bird, came down the Walk

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

A Clock stopped—

Emily Dickinson

A Clock stopped—

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)

Emily Dickinson

A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)

Emily Dickinson

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Emily Dickinson

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

"Faith" is a fine invention

Emily Dickinson

"Faith" is a fine invention

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)

Emily Dickinson

Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

Hope is a strange invention

Emily Dickinson

Hope is a strange invention

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers

Emily Dickinson

"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I Can Wade Grief

Emily Dickinson

I Can Wade Grief

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind

Emily Dickinson

I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain

Emily Dickinson

I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

Emily Dickinson

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

If I should die

Emily Dickinson

If I should die

Emily Dickinson

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

If you were coming in the fall

Emily Dickinson

If you were coming in the fall

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I heard a Fly buzz — when I died

Emily Dickinson

I heard a Fly buzz — when I died

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

Emily Dickinson

I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

Success Is Counted Sweetest

Emily Dickinson

Success Is Counted Sweetest

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

Emily Dickinson

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

The Only News I Know

Emily Dickinson

The Only News I Know

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

There is no Frigate like a Book

Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book

Emily Dickinson