restingpoetic device Dickinson employs is that of point of view. She utilizes third person limitedpoint of view throughout the poem, however in the last two lines she speaks of society’spoint of view calling those who “demur... straightway dangerous.” It is not Dickinson whofeels that those who hesitate to conform are dangerous, but society. By expressing Whitfield 3society’s point of view in such sharp contrast with her own, Dickinson makes the readersee that “much madness” really is “divinest sense.” The unity of “Much Madness is divinest Sense” is incredible. In just eight shortlines, Dickson covers and analyzes not only her own ideals, but also compares them tothose of society. Dickinson is able to do this in such a small amount of lines because of hercoherence to the subject matter throughout the poem. She unifies the subject matter ofnonconformity in rhythm, rhyme, and style. Because madness and nonconformity arejagged and asperous, her style reflects that. The style and unification of the poem reflectthe subject matter as well as the content does. Dickinson also uses broken punctuation,piercing her sentences with dashes. Once again, her punctuation illustrates her subjectmatter; as society views the nonconformist as mad and jagged, her punctuation is jaggedas well. Just as a mad man would not be able to think in a fluent way, the poem is brokenand unsteady as his thoughts would be. Her unification of the poem brings the style,rhythm, and rhyme scheme together with the subject matter. Dickinson’s ideals in this poem are very valuable because she forces the reader tocompare his thinking with that of society’s. She makes one self-evaluate if they arejudgmental towards unique individuals and if they themselves are losing their uniquenessby conforming to society which is embracing true madness. It is reason, that I feel “MuchMadne...
