Depictions of Female Madness in Contemporary Literature - Book Report/Review Example

An inquiry into depictions of Female Madness in Contemporary Literature A probe into Female Madness in Contemporary Literature convinces one of the myriads of intense mental and psychic experiences that women had to undergo; how far the depiction of female madness in literature is in proximity with real life is to be explored and unearthed. There is no doubt that literature deals with the life of man whether it be real or imaginary; human experiences of various era have contributed to various types of literature. The treatment of human madness or insanity in literature can be traced back to the very origin of the latter itself. One can find traces of the theme of madness in the Bible, myths and in the early Greek literature. Towards the 19th and the 20th century, depiction of female madness in literary texts assumed greater significance partly because of the increase in the complexities of women’s experiences and because of the spread of feministic trends in the world of literature. Similarly, the various forms of female madness depicted in literary texts tell tales of the human society to which they belong. This is very well echoed by Lillian Feder when the author remarks that “In literature, as in daily life, madness is the perpetual amorphous threat within and the extreme of the unknown in fellow human beings. In fact, recurrent literary representations of madness constitute a history of explorations of the mind in relation to itself, other human beings, and to social and political institutions. The mad man, like other people, does not exist alone. He both reflects and influences those involved with him. He embodies and symbolically transforms the values and aspirations of his family, his tribe, and his society, even if he renounces them, as well as their delusions, cruelty, and violence, even in his inner flight”. (Feder 1983, P.4-5). A critical analysis of the depiction of female madness in literary texts offers one with both the male and female readings of the factors that contribute to female madness; consequently, what essential difference constitutes the male and female readings on female madness in literary texts offers scope for further research in this regard. The paper tries to make a probe into the depiction of female madness as depicted in Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, one of the major representative female authors of the 20th century and the hypothesis of the study is that the text mirrors the then contemporary society where females suffered from mental, psychological and social constraints due to marginalization, victimization and stereotyping. Studies show that there have been considerable shifts in the depiction of madness in literature towards the 19th century. Whereas the Greeks and ancient literature conceived madness to be something evil and devilish, the improvements in the field of medical sciences and psycho analysis studies made writers to present madness as a psychological or medical problem. The era witnessed romantic poets like Shelly who associated madness with creative imagination and there were writers like John Clare who unleashed their own autobiographical experience of insanity in their writings. Two basic trends dominated in the depiction of madness in the 19th century fiction: “authors strove either for psychological realism, or they sensationalized madness, using it as a tool to bring about a certain effect on characterization or plot” (Madness in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Introduction). A shift from John Clare to Woolf presents one with a changed understanding of female suicide- the influence of culture and society on the victims. Donald. C. Roberts emphasizes on the role of culture in shaping madness in Woolf’s novels. He despises the medical model of curing madness and explicitly states that madness cannot “be located solely within the individual” (Roberts 1985, p. 15). Woolf’s own autobiographical amenity with the central character Septimus provides the novel an intense touch of credibility and the effective use of the inner monologues and the stream of consciousness techniques, in fact, reveals the mental agony of the novelist herself. As Roberts rightly observes: “Septimus’ perpetual sensitivity, his mercurial oscillations between heaven and hell, and his conceptual intensity are residues from his creator’s madness” (Roberts 1985, p. 18). Thus, it can be concluded that Mrs. Dalloway tells the tale of a potential writer who has experienced the myriad forms of madness by herself and has also understood the society’s response to her eccentric ways and hallucinations. Thus, one can notice inter-sensory experiences, hyper sensitivity of perceptions, and the use of images and scenes rather than the use of a structured plot in her works. Roberts attributes the peculiar writing style of Woolf to “her psychic make up and madness” and he believes that “the influences that went into the formation of her style created a constant tension between fragmentation and unification, between her perception of modernity as an unconnected series of transitory experiences and her search for a binding force in this “loose drifting material of life” (Roberts 1885, p. 23). In the novel, the society perceives Septimus Smith’s madness as physiological disorder that needs medical treatment. Both Holmes and Bradshaw, in the novel, fails to grasp the actual reason for the so called madness of Septimus, just as the society never could accept that it was culturally induced. Septimus lives in his world of literature; his culture is shaped by his reading of Shakespeare and his image of Miss Isabel Pole and this culture enables him not to get carried away by the death of Evans. The inner self of Septimus is adversely affected by the war and even his marriage with Rezia does not diminish his alienation from the society. To conclude, Septimus, like his creator, experiences the unknown and the unseen; he perceives images and hears sounds that others cannot experience and the socially accepted norms of culture can see them as only signs of madness. This incongruity between the social culture and the innate self of the protagonist leads him- as it lead Woolf- to his doom; he can only save himself by escaping from the world through suicide. Bradshaw, in a way, does not try to cure Septimus; in fact his attempt is to convert Septimus to cultural sense of proportion and according to Woolf conversion “feasts upon the wills of the weak, loving to impress, to pose, adoring her own features stamped upon the face of the populace…offers help, but desires power” (Woolf 1964, pp. 110-111). It is this fear of being converted to the social or cultural norms that causes mental break downs in the central character of the novel; he likes to keep his individuality intact in the same way Woolf preserved her personal integrity. For Roberts, “Septimus, like the many other mad figures in literature, lacks identification with any social, political or religious or philosophic counter-culture movement. His sense of alienation is fueled by a number of factors, among the most prominent of which is the pressure to be converted, to see the world once again as everyone else does” (Roberts 1985, p. 34). Thus, Septimus’ madness can be understood as a fight against culture and social norms; he wins in his resistance to oblige to culture even though he falls a victim in the process. A psychoanalytical (Freudian) and feminist reading of the depiction of madness in Mrs. Dalloway also is worth discussing. According to Susan Bennett Smith (1995), the novels of Virginia Woolf, “both autobiographical and fictional, offer a critique of this transition and describe a post-Freudian form of grief work. In Mrs. Dalloway Woolf tells a cautionary tale of the fatal results of the feminization and medicalization of grief, but offers no viable alternative” (Smith 1995). In Freudian terms the disease or mental imbalance of Septimus is melancholia, extreme grief from which he could never save himself. However, the gender difference prevented Septimus to find outlet to his grief by mourning; instead he is offered with the prospect of a rest cure and in the novel Woolf makes it clear that rest cure is “only an instrument of repression” and that it “relies upon the principle of control and that the physician functions as a moral agent”. (Smith 1995). Thus, the physicians in the novel can be held partially responsible for the tragedy of Septimus. Clarissa is the only character in the novel who is capable of identifying the exact nature of Septimus’s problems, probably because of her own need for rest and seclusion. Her secluded attic bedroom is suggestive of her preparation for rest or rather death. The feminist undercurrents of the novel are brought out through the memories and the mental impressions of Clarissa. Clarissa in a way undergoes mental imbalances in her relationship with her husband Richard Dalloway, her lover Peter Walsh and her feeling of empathy towards Septimus. The madness and tragedy of Septimus is highlighted in the novel and Clarissa stands behind the curtain. A much more comprehensive view on the depiction of the female madness in the text is expressed by Jeffrey Berman in his seminal book Surviving Literary Suicide. The experiences of both Septimus and Clarissa Dalloway haunt him and he rightly confesses that it has become hard for him “to separate Septimus/Clarissa /Virginia”. (Berman p. 67). It is the description of suicide in Clarissa’s mind that frightens him all the more as he knows for certain that even though Septimus is dead he is even more alive in her imagination. Apparently one cannot breathe too much autobiographical touch to Septimus’ madness; however there are many like Berman who hold the view that Septimus “is among her most autobiographical characters, the one who comes closest to illuminating the wildly fluctuating moods of maniac depression” (Berman, p. 82). Even though there have been many theoretical explanations regarding the suicide of Septimus in the novel and how it has affected the life of the titular protagonist Clarissa Dalloway, it is evident from the literature reviewed that the suicide was the result of the intervention of external forces on the individual self of the person. Shields provide a clear explanation of this fact: “If Clarissa were, like Septimus, to commit suicide, her action would be one of desperation, for she would be acknowledging the meaninglessness of her own life and of life in general. In her perception of Septimus’ suicide, however, Clarissa comes to realize that although it was a desperate act of affirmation and not of negation. Septimus throws himself from the window not because he no longer believes in the value of his own life, but because he believes in it strongly. Significantly, when Septimus commits suicide he is sane, not insane, but he jumps because Bradshaw and Holmes have made his life intolerable-they have tries to violate the sanctity of the individual and have tries to force his soul. (Shields 85-86, Quoted in Berman 1999). To conclude, it can be apprehended that Virginia Woolf depicts female madness in Mrs. Dalloway not only through the titular character’s experiences; Septimus, in the novel acts as the spokesperson of the author’s own views on female suicides. However, the author creates a strong emotional bond between Septimus and Clarissa in the novel even when they never meet each other. That is why Clarissa is reminded of her own isolation and seclusion when she hears the death of Septimus. Thus Woolf wants to convey to her readers that it is because of the pressures of the social and cultural factors that a person, who values his individuality and inner self, starts of committing suicides. Therefore, for Woolf, the suicide of Septimus or for that matter any females, “is a rejection not of life itself but of the dehumanizing forces antithetical to life” (Berman, p. 85). . Annotated Bibliography Berman, Jeffrey. Chapter 3: Virginia Wolf and the “Embrace of Death”. Surviving Literary Suicide. University of Massachusetts Press, 1999 Published in 1999, the book undertakes the study of the treatment of suicide in the lives of four major writers who themselves committed suicide later in their lives. They include Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton. The book also analyses the theme of suicide in the works of Kate Chopin and William Styron. The book is of high relevance to the research as it offers one with the various theoretical explanations associated with the suicide of Virginia Woolf and her fictional hero Septimus. Feder, Lillian. Madness in Literature. Princeton University Press, 1983 Published by the Princeton University Press in 1983, the book clearly makes an investigation into the depiction of madness in literature of the various periods. The author moves from the early Greek tragedies and myths to the contemporary literature and makes clear how the theme of madness was treated by writers of various eras. The book is significant for the study as it offers various shifts in the treatment of madness in western texts and this provides the researcher with fresh insights for further study on the topic. "Madness in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Introduction." Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Suzanne Dewsbury. Vol. 76. Gale Cengage, 1999. eNotes.com. 2006. 1 December 2008, 2008 The article provides a list of the major trends of depicting female madness in the 19th century literature. It points out how there has taken place a shift in the treatment of madness in the 19th century literature due to ‘the growth of the scientific and medical study of insanity’. The article also shows how the 19th century novelists like Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville depicted human madness in their novels and this clearly provides a strong background for the study of the depiction of madness in Tony Morrison and Virginia Woolf. Roberts, Donald C. Madness And Culture: A Study of Madness in the Works of Woolf, Chekhov and Fitzgerald. Simon Fraser University, 1985. The thesis clearly points out the interrelated connection between psychiatry, madness and literature. The author unearths the relationship between culture and madness in the works of Virginia Woolf, Chekhov and Fitzgerald. The paper is highly relevant for the study because it deals with the various aspects of the madness of Septimus and brings out the autobiographical elements that affected the writing style of the novel under consideration. Smith, Susan Bennett. Reinventing Grief Work: Virginia Woolfs Feminist Representations of Mourning in Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. Twentieth Century Literature. 41, 1995 Published in 1995, Smith’s journal article challenges the age old myth of female mourning and she establishes the difference between the mental agony of Septimus and Clarissa. The article is also significant as it throws light on the Freudian interpretation behind the madness of Septimus. The article also tells the reader of the various feminist understandings of grief and mourning. Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1964. Published in 1964, the book is a classical example for the use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness technique. The book deals with the story of the titular character Clarissa Dalloway and portrays how her life is affected by the other characters in the novel. The madness and the tragedy of Septimus is vividly pictured in the novel and in a way Mrs. Dalloway’s life runs parallel to that of Septimus. Read More