Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and Emily Dickinson's Much Madness is divinest Sense - Essay Example

There is a huge contrast between the entirely logical, human and normal person that salesman Gregor is in his mind, and the horrific insect body that he suddenly acquires. The story explores what this disfiguring transformation means for him as a person, but also what the social implications are of his monstrous physical appearance. Emily Dickinson’s very short poem “Much Madness is divinest Sense” starts off likewise with a startling first line, which also forms the poem’s title. The poet brings together two opposites, “madness” and “sense” and proceeds to explain that paradoxically they are both one and the same thing in many cases.

There is a single main idea in this poem, namely that other people, who are referred to as “the Majority” (Dickinson, line 4) are the ones who define what is normal, and that the individual, who is addressed directly as “you” just have to accept the judgement that is made, whether it is correct or not. Clearly the poet thinks differently, and the implied message of the poem is that the Majority use their power to force their view of the world on the minority, but in fact the minority who think outside the narrow confines of accepted social patterns, have just as much right to their point of view as the majority.

Although these two literary works are very different in form, one being a narrative prose piece and the other a loosely rhyming poem, they both deal with the dislocation that occurs when a person, for whatever reason, is marked out as different from all other people in the vicinity. In the case of Kafka’s character Gregor, whose suffering is related by a matter of fact third person narrator, there is plenty of insight into the mental anguish that accompanies the physical transformation that has occurred.

In fact it is the mental anguish that causes Gregor the most distress. He grows accustomed to the physical sensations of his new body quite quickly and learns to change his food preferences and daily habits to suit his new identity as a bug. Even hiding under the sofa or climbing up the walls begins to seem normal to him, and the reader has sympathy for him, even though the whole situation is preposterous. He appreciates the labor of his faithful sister, and even as a bug he displays an emotional attachment to the art in his room, and he violin music his sister plays.

This shows that he is a man, and not really a monster. Likewise, in the case of Emily Dickinson’s poem, there is a strong indication that the normality that the majority of the people cling to is just an illusion, and that the world is much more complex, and less predictable than people think. Judgements that people make are just a matter of perspective, and the reader is encouraged to think more deeply about the labels such as “sense” and “madness” that are applied unthinkingly and with profound consequences to individuals.

The theme of madness is very obvious in Kafka’s novel, not so much in the way that Gregor behaves, since he remains relatively calm despite his novel situation, thinking his way through the implications of not being able to go to work, or support his family financially. Relying on the device of the locked bedroom door, Kafka portrays the reaction of the onlookers as being first of all a reaction to the change in Gregor’s mental state, since Gregor’