Witty Ticcy Ray, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman And Emily Dickinson's Much Madness Is Divinest Sense

The human brain subconsciously lends itself to traumatic experiences that occur throughout one’s life. One by one, these incidents may hold the power to take what was once sane and turn it on its head. These traumas, regardless of their severity, cause an imaginary footprint in a person’s brain and the longer they fester, the larger they become. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Witty Ticcy Ray” by Oliver Sacks both show signs of two very different versions of what can be deemed crazy. Both use themes of confinement and manipulation to bring the instability of their characters to the forefront. These narratives show one’s decent into madness and another’s potential way out but Emily Dickinson’s “Much Madness is Divinest Sense” illustrates something quite different. In her poem, she poses the …show more content…
It takes a few choice words and a person of a higher standing and someone can be easily convinced that there is something wrong with them. As a whole, Dickinson’s poem is stating that those who are mad may be as sane as they come, and it might just be the sane people who are truly mad. What is most unfortunate is that those who administer the diagnosis of madness are respectable doctors, whose words are of high importance. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” illustrates a life of a woman who once thought she was sane, but through the observations of her husband was told she was unwell. Her husband, John, is a well known, intelligent doctor, who knows what he is talking about and has ensured his wife that this is for her own good. There are multiple instances in the short story where Jane expresses herself and what she thinks may be best for her, but John disagrees and insists that she is unstable; once a person is told numerous times by someone they trusts that they are unwell they begin to believe it