`Much Madness Is Divinest Sense'
Was Emily Dickinson a genius or just bonkers?
Dickinson's struggle with mental illness was not confined to this period of intense creativity, however. After the death of a friend when she was an adolescent, Dickinson suffered from "fixed melancholy" so severe she dropped out of school. During her 20s, she began to be reclusive, hiding when someone knocked on the door to her father's house. Eventually she didn't leave her home at all, leading many to conclude that she suffered from agoraphobia.
For feminist scholars, McDermott's analysis touches on a particularly sensitive point. Why is a woman's genius so often explained in terms of madness? Male artists are hardly exempt from being crazy. Van Gogh cut off his ear; the composer Robert Schumann died in an insane asylum. But male artists are typically viewed as transcending mental illnesses through their art, while women's genius is a mere byproduct of illness. Jeanne Holland, professor of English at the University of Wyoming, says: "You could give the same reading to T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, but Dickinson is always invoked when someone goes on the psychoanalytic trip. The power of her talent and her sheer hard work tend to be overlooked."
In the final analysis, the greatest cautionary statement may come from Dickinson herself, who wrote: "Much mad- ness is divinest sense / To a discerning eye. / Much sense the starkest madness; / 'Tis the majority / In this, as all prevails / Assent and you are sane-- / Demur--you're straightway dangerous / And handled with a chain."
Or, today, with a diagnosis.
advertisement
