Emily Dickinson Madness And Sense Analysis

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19th century poet, Emily Dickinson was seen as a scandal in that she had chosen to live in a different manner than others of her time – socially reclusive, spending her years in solitude, she never got married, nor had any children, and as so, her voice was unheard. In justification of her societal seclusion, poem 435 is a defense on her behalf for the majority that see her as a misconduct. Dickinson’s view of madness and sense serve as a metaphor for the differentiating line between sense and sanity. Dickinson spent a majority of her life living in solitude in Amherst, to which the majority saw as insane. The first stanza of the poem: “Much Madness is divinest sense,” expands on the idea of sense by stating that insanity is sense, stating

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