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emily dickinson literary criticism
emily dickinson literary criticism
emily dickinson literary criticism
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How ironic is it that Emily Dickinson’s poems are given titles by the majority that she so criticizes? In “Much Madness is divinest Sense”, Emily Dickinson questions the credibility of majority opinion and presents “Madness” as the truth, one not tampered by the hardened shell of sugarcoated public approval. Dickinson, herself a recluse in her later life, creates a speaker who conveys that it isn’t the status quo that defines the inherent purpose of something, that popularity doesn’t justify conviction. The poem pulls the curtains off and, under a gossamer veil of contempt, shows that perhaps it isn’t the commonly upheld belief that withstands the erosion of time, but rather the unprecedented, the radical, the insane, that preserve human integrity.
To start us off, the speaker throws us off balance by juxtaposition of the first line. How can “Much Madness” be the golden view of which we revere if it is indeed madness? Perhaps “Madness” isn’t synonymous with insanity; instead “Madness” is challenging the depth beyond what we see on the surface, we as the majority because the dissenter may be the one who truly makes “Sense” of reality.
In the second line, the speaker reveals the view’s beholder. In contrast to what we believe, it isn’t the ignorant or the deranged that give light to this perspective; it’s the perceptive, the insightful, the “discerning Eye”, who extol this view of “Madness” as the truth.
Once again, the speaker gives us a contradiction parallel to her first argument. How can “Much Sense” be prisoner to a straightjacket, “the starkest Madness”? In this regard, sense isn’t the truth, but rather a perception of what “the Majority” claims to be true. Sense, then, isn’t the consequence of reason or logic, but con...
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...the word that came before it. Examples of this include the dashes after “prevail”, “dangerous”, and “Chain”, where the dash serves to reflect upon what came before it.
In just eight lines Emily Dickinson manages to send such a powerful message about the sins on society. Maybe what we all perceive as the truth is but the history written by liars. Maybe the wisdom spoon-fed to us since birth are nothing more than exaggerations of the truth, contorted to give benefit to the one telling the story. Dickinson, isolated from her contemporary society, reveals the inner thoughts of a mind not perverted by the convictions of others. And through this, Dickinson, the “dangerous”, the recluse, the one who dared “demur” from society’s conventions, frees herself from the chains of timid feminism and immortalizes herself against the entropy of father time.
The Narrator has a manner of speaking that is repetitive. For instance on page 523, “but why will you say that I am mad?” and “You fancy me mad.” He continues to repeat this throughout the story. As the story progresses, the desperation in The Narrator begins to eat at him, wearing away at his cool exterior. On page 523, “Madmen know nothing,” and then providing more and more examples to prove his cleverness. The Narrator is so set on convincing us that he is not insane, but what is the reason behind all of his defenses? The reason is simple. The Narrator associates being insane with having low intelligence and clings to what he believes is “sanity” because he is afraid to admit or even consider otherwise.
The sickness of insanity stems from external forces and stimuli, ever-present in our world, weighing heavily on the psychological, neurological, and cognitive parts of our mind. It can drive one to madness through its relentless, biased, and poisoned view of the world, creating a dichotomy between what is real and imagined. It is a defense mechanism that allows one to suffer the harms of injustice, prejudice, and discrimination, all at the expense of one’s physical and mental faculties.
In line with these questions, Durrell emphasizes that the inability to understand often leads to fear. Moreover, with little or no knowledge of an event or concept, people tend to feel powerless and out of control. Without this necessary understanding, they are unable to have any influence on the situation. One such situation is madness, which is little understood, and the source of madness virtually unknown. People often fear madness, and try to avoid others who seem "weird," different, or exhibit some sign of madness. The people who fear are "poor cattle, they do not understand" ("Zero" 266), and "they will never discover…for they have no faith" ("Zero" 264). Durrell encourages them to put away their fears and stop looking for a logical explanation to "madness": "Come. Enter into the creative activity in which you do not need your understandings. Do not mistake truth for the possessive process any longer – ratiocination, knowledge" ("Zero" 252; emphasis added). Durrell believes that not everything needs a "rational" and "logical" explanation. Furthermore, though "madness" cannot be completely explained, it does not need to be feared. The old man in the asylum attempts to understand, "look[ing] profoundly cautious, asking questions, and gathering the answers" ("Zero" 268), and he comes close to understanding the narrator. However, his fear keeps him from grasping the truth: "For the first time there is an understanding in him, but it is hidden in fear" ("Zero" 258).
Approaching Emily Dickinson’s poetry as one large body of work can be an intimidating and overwhelming task. There are obvious themes and images that recur throughout, but with such variation that seeking out any sense of intention or order can feel impossible. When the poems are viewed in the groupings Dickinson gave many of them, however, possible structures are easier to find. In Fascicle 17, for instance, Dickinson embarks upon a journey toward confidence in her own little world. She begins the fascicle writing about her fear of the natural universe, but invokes the unknowable and religious as a means of overcoming that fear throughout her life and ends with a contextualization of herself within both nature and eternity.
A hidden madness would appear to refer to either the bodily type of the disease or the mark of madness in one’s actions springing from, or imparted through the mind. The theme of madness in literature can refer to both writers who have endured a certain mental illness and are known to be insane, or it can merely refer to the abnormal characters in literature. The Canadian postmodernist writer Timothy Findley examines madness by studying the history of madness and the development of psychotherapy. Typically, those marked as ‘mad’ in Timothy Findley’s novels are often individuals who perceive aspects of the world truthfully and rebel against or defy civilization on behalf of the natural world. In Timothy Findley’s novel ‘Pilgrim’ and his two short stories ‘Lemonade’ and ‘Out of the Silence,’ the theme of madness is illustrated similarly through self destruction, the power of silence, and one’s desire to escape.
Within the article Stephen King continuously states that we humans all have insanity within us. In the article,
The controversial topic of insanity manifests itself commonly in Romantic writing, and has been one much disputed over time. Some say that people who seem crazy are so above our own level of thought and understanding that we can’t possibly begin to identify with them and that we can find genius in the form of ordinary lunatics who connect to God and divinity in ways “normal” people don’t comprehend. Throughout works such as “The Cask of Amontillado and “The Castaway”, the authors question insanity with ideas that show the possible outcomes when one looks deep inside themselves for a divine spark or intuition. Both of these stories address madness in different forms, and madness itself is Godly experiences gone wrong; the person who receives the divine vision is unable to handle its raw truth.
What we see is not the truth, but rather our interpretation and distortion of the things we struggle to perceive. Our imagination, ideologies and perceptions fuse with our conception of reality, as we transform the world around us, give meanings to abstractions, and find order in a world programmed by madness. We are prone to madness, to nature, to the metaphorical forces that influence and envelop reality. In order to understand the metaphysical realm, we conceptualize these divine, omnipotent forces through our uses of symbols, thus creating an understandable world defined by rationality and philosophy thinking. Philosophical thinking and rationality enable us to both understand our world metaphorical and define what humanity is. These ideas
...reader to gain inside thought into how bad the mental condition is affecting him as his behavior allows for further indication of craziness as a result from the schizophrenia. The evidence presented in this play for the scientific explanation of this literary classic is quite prominent as it gives an insight into what a schizophrenic acts, thinks, and behaves like.
Dickinson was unique and the “exception” in creating a private relationship with her self and her soul. In “Emily Dickinson and Popular Culture”, David S. Reynolds, a new historicism critic, wrote that it 's no surprise that the majority of Dickinson 's poetry was produced between 1858-1866, “It was a period of extreme consciousness about proliferation of varied women 's role in American culture.” It was a time where women were actively searching for more “literary” ways of self expression” (Reynolds 25). Dickinson was able to express her ideas and beliefs as a woman, something that was scandalous during this time period.
Emily Dickinson, who achieved more fame after her death, is said to be one of the greatest American poets of all time. Dickinson communicated through letters and notes and according to Amy Paulson Herstek, author of “Emily Dickinson: Solitary and Celebrated Poet,” “Writing was the way she kept in touch with the world” (15). Dickinson’s style is unique and although unconventional, it led to extraordinary works of literature. Dickinson lived her life in solitude, but in her solitude she was free to read, write and think which led to her nonconformity and strong sense of individualism. Suzanne Juhasz, a biographer of Dickinson, sums up most critics’ idea of Dickinson ideally: “Emily Dickinson is at once the most intimate of poets, and the most guarded. The most self-sufficient, and the neediest. The proudest, and the most vulnerable. These contradictions, which we as her readers encounter repeatedly in her poems, are understandable, not paradoxical, for they result from the tension between the life to which she was born and the one to which she aspired” (1). Dickinson poured her heart and soul into over 1,700
Emily Dickinson was one of the greatest woman poets. She left us with numerous works that show us her secluded world. Like other major artists of nineteenth-century American introspection such as Emerson, Thoreau, and Melville, Dickinson makes poetic use of her vacillations between doubt and faith. The style of her first efforts was fairly conventional, but after years of practice she began to give room for experiments. Often written in the meter of hymns, her poems dealt not only with issues of death, faith and immortality, but with nature, domesticity, and the power and limits of language.
Intelligence is often mistaken for brilliance, and conversely genius is mistaken for madness. Some of the greatest minds have been misconstrued in there time, and it is not until their whole life is taken into observance from the outside looking in, that their genius is realized and appreciated. Websters dictionary defines madness as "the act of being foolish or illogical." Ironically this form of thought has prompted some of the greatest advancements in government, science, and technology. It was the thought that every common man and woman should be included in his or her respective governments that prompted Democracy, a form of government unheard of before the signing of the Magna Carta. It was scientists and inventors thinking outside of the lines that inspired the cure for Small Pox and the invention of the computer. It can clearly be seen that serious thought is often the by-product of irrational thinking, this is also true for literature. It is while in madness, both feigned as well as sincere, that the characters in William Shakespeare's Hamlet are able to practice true mental clarity and express themselves in a manner free of treachery and falsehood.
Emily Dickinson was an intricate and contradictory figure who moved from a reverent faith in God to a deep suspicion of him in her works. (Sherwood 3) Through her own intentional choice she was, in her lifetime, considered peculiar. Despite different people and groups trying to influence her, she resisted making a public confession of faith to Christ and the Church. (Sherwood 10) She wanted to establish her own wanted to establish her own individuality and, in doing so, turned to poetry. (Benfey 27) Dickinson’s poems were a sort of channel for her feelings and an “exploration” of her faith (Benfey 27).
"Arguing with herself, Dickinson considers three major resolutions for the frustrations she is seeking to define and to resolve. Each of these resolutions is expressed in negative form: living wither her lover, dying with him, and discovering a world beyond nature. Building on this series of negations, Dickinson advances a catalogue of reasons for her covenant with despair, which are both final and insufficient. Throughout, she excoriates the social and religious authorities that impede her union, but she remains emotionally unconvinced that she has correctly identified her antagonists." (Pollack, 182)