Paradox: Much Madness is divinest Sense

"Assent-- and you are sane--
Demur-- you're straightaway dangerous--
And handled with a Chain--"

Dickinson uses a paradox as the central focus of her poem: madness is sense. At first, it seems that this in itself is madness. How can madness be sense? But, the message that Dickinson tries to communicate is that it is insane for people to act as if the madness in the world is no big deal and to let it go in order to keep oneself from being criticized. Often people agree with social policy, despite whether they actually believe the fundamentals of it or not. It keeps them out of trouble. Dickinson is bringing to light the insanity of this idea, that people can just let illogical and unreasonable actions take place before their eyes without questioning them in order to save themselves. She says that this sort of "madness", developing one's own opinion and expressing it, is really true sense. Though it is treated as madness to question society, it is this questioning that makes us humans, that makes us logical and reasonable. Without it, society becomes lacking in justice and meaning.