1. How is this a poem about Isolation/Alienation? Individualism and its Loss?
2. This poem uses a whole lot of paradox. Can you make sense of the apparent contradictions? Consider what she might be saying about the power of majority opinion on all of us.
Emily Dickinson's poem " Part One: Life" is a powerful poem tackling the affects of conformity and individualism in society. The poem starts with " much madness is the divinest sense To a discerning eye" this madness is a symbol for diversity in society, and by an individual(a discerning eye) it is seen as excellent ( divine). This means that the perspective of each of us on our own, society would be a place of freedom, uniquenessand acceptance, but from the eyes of the majority( the community as a whole) these non conformists are seen as crazy. In the new rules you must "assent, and you are sane." People must be like everyone else to be accepted. Once poeple show who they are and stand out they are shunned and avoided. They are " handled with a chain" , they are beaten down by words of hatred and embarrassment, until they are forced to be someone they know they are not. These chains hold people hostage, unable to break loose from society's strangling hold(chain).
ReplyDelete“Part One: Life”, by Emily Dickinson, is a short yet powerful poem regarding the conformity in our society. The poem has powerful paradoxes, the ones I will be analyzing are introduced in the first few lines. The poem starts by saying, “Much madness is divinest sense / To a discerning eye” (Line 1). This line means to an individual with good judgement (“to a discerning eye”) most madness seems delightful. The next line states, “Much sense in the starkest madness / ‘Tis the majority” (Line 2). This line says, that the most sense comes from complete madness to the majority, in this context I perceive the majority as being society. These 2 lines are paradoxes or contradictions, as logically we don’t expect excellence or logic in madness and we certainly don’t expect sense from madness. I perceive that these paradoxes mean, individuals with good judgement or their own sense of judgement see the “divinest sense”, in what society perceives madness. And what those individuals perceive as madness, the society perceives as logical. The next few lines connect these paradoxes to the real connotation of these paradoxes, specifically lines 4 and 5 which state, “Assent, and you are sane / Demur – you’re straightway dangerous”. These lines put society on a pedestal, as if individuals who agree with their beliefs will be considered normal and those who object are considered dangerous. This again exemplifies the polarity in judgement between a free thinking individual and the society, as free thinking individuals are considered insane or dangerous and all members of a society must adhere to a fixed mindset no matter how insane it actually is.
ReplyDelete- Parth Tyagi (7th Period)