Throughout the concerning chapters, Brontë allows the reader to explore their own interpretation of Rochester’s former bride, Bertha, through both the eyes of Jane and the description of the environment in which she inhabits. By creating an environment which has such a tense atmosphere, the reader is encouraged to develop their own opinions on whether Bertha Mason is an object of terror, or in fact, and object of pity. The initial and most obvious interpretation that we obtain of bertha is that we must perceive her as a frightening character in which we should fear throughout the novel. The first act of torment in which Bertha was to commit, was when she attempted to kill Rochester by setting fire to his bed in the early hours of the morning. The horror of the chapter begins when Jane hears a “demonic laugh” which she thinks is aimed “at the very keyhole” of her chamber door.
Caged by the Patriarchal Society Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and “Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria” by Sigmund Freud, both show women who exist (one in fiction and the other in reality) about a hundred years from one another. These women have learnt to survive in a world where rigid structure, manipulation, deceit, and loneliness are caused due to the tight control exerted by the patriarchal society. Dora and Jane struggled to escape this cage that was exerted due to male dominance. Dora and Jane Eyre are both objects of manipulation of the patriarchal society who resorted to forms of male dictated “female hysteria” in order to escape the rigid handcuffs placed upon them. Both Dora and Jane are quiet young when they first encounter some kind of hysteria, or symptoms of hysteria.
The film's title refers to a British feminist writer Virginia Woolf who employs the use of a 'stream of consciousness' that observes the psychological and emotional motives of the characters. This ties in with the film's emotionally draining plot along with the suffering marital discord displayed by the main actor and actress. The title is also a parody of a Disney song in Three Little Pigs named “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” The story is ultimately about a bitter aging couple who with the help of alcohol use a young couple to stir torment and emotional pain towards each other. The old couple named Martha and George are played by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The young couple is played by Sandy Dennis (Honey) and George Segal (Nick).
Vincent Wu Hurston 19 October 2017 AP Literature Critical Lens Essay Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow --A Psychoanalytical Critic of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a campaigning feminist writer in the early 20th century, was primarily concerned with showcasing the societal bonds that imprisoned most women in their marital contracts. Since its publication in 1891, The Yellow Wallpaper has created a huge stir over this often neglected issue. Generally, there are two major psychological critical lenses to examine this work: one that blames the illness of the narrator on the patriarchal structure of the society; and one that looks at medical causes for the depression the narrator suffers from. However, these
Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. In Act 5, it is evident that Lady Macbeth is experiencing somnambulistic attacks, or sleepwalking. She wants to be relieved of her guilt because several suppressed ideas of an emotional nature enter into this scene and are responsible for making her act this way. Lady Macbeth is desperately trying to wash away invisible bloodstains on her hands as it is a reminiscence of her experience with the murder of Duncan. She also refers to the murder of Banquo and Lady Macduff while in her somnambulistic state.
Critical Review Marlene Goldman’s review of “Fifth Business” was very effective. In her piece called “Madness, Masculinity, and Magic in Robertson Davies’ “Fifth Business”: A Tale of Hysteria; or, “the Suffocation of the Mother” she focuses on clearly explaining the themes of madness, hysteria and masculinity throughout the book with evidence from the novel to support her arguments. Goldman’s article focuses on the central themes of madness, hysteria and masculinity in “Fifth Business”. She argues that “women edge towards madness when they fail to balance the roles of true women and ideal mother”, referring to Mrs. Dempster and Mrs. Ramsay. She states that Dunstan’s masculinity is shaped by his experiences in the war and is secured by his heterosexuality.
The narrator’s obsession with the wallpaper that surrounds her bedroom begins merely as intrigue and climaxes to a point where reality and what she imagines within the wallpaper becomes blurred. This climax represents her journey from rationality to insanity as the wallpaper becomes more twisted and alive around her. This wallpaper ultimately represents the oppression of her mind that is being caused by her post partum depression, as well as her husband’s ineffective healing methods. At first she finds the wallpaper being “one of those sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (Gilman 988). This could be a representation of the beginning of her depression which was initially just an annoyance to her which she does not fully understand.
Through representation of symbols in their stories Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Margaret Atwood describe what madness feels like and how symbols can make the invisible visible. Symbols in literature serve as representation of something by association or resemblance. Symbols can further mean, in psychological terms, an object or image representing thoughts, feelings or impulses. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s main character is a young married female, circa the late 1800’s telling the story of her depressive state. The first description she gives of her environment “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house…” suggests a gothic-like setting seemingly dark, gloomy and old (73).
Despite their very different settings and the huge differences between the two murderers, the writers of ‘Perfume’ and ‘American Psycho’ choose, as characterisation, to focus on the victimisation of women through the actions of their main protagonists. Both authors raise the question as to whether the brutality of the protagonists actions are committed due to the fact they are both mentally challenged, or whether the development of their morals stem from a deeper hatred of women. Whilst it may appear that Grenouille and Bateman have much in common, both being murderers of women, one could argue that their motivation comes from different places. Grenouille’s disturbing actions come, perhaps, from a lack of emotional commitment and indeed more of an objectification of women, while Bateman’s actions seem to come more from a sense of hatred and disregard. 'Perfume' tells a story in which the protagonist’s precarious position between olfactory prowess and lack of body odour motivates a string of despicable murders.
William Miller February 27, 2012 “The Yellow Wallpaper” A Critical Analysis Through a woman's perspective of assumed insanity, Charlotte Perkins Gilman comments on the role of the female in the late nineteenth century society in relation to her male counterpart in her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." Gilman uses her own experience with mental instability to show the lack of power that women wielded in shaping the course of their psychological treatment. Further she uses vivid and horrific imagery to draw on the imagination of the reader to conceive the terrors within the mind of the psychologically wounded. The un-named woman is to spend a summer away from home with her husband in what seems to be almost a dilapidated room of a "colonial mansion" (Gilman 832). In order to cure her "temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency" (Gilman 833) she is advised to do no work and to never to even think of her condition.