Controlling Madness
In learning about the psychological mechanisms of oneself, there isthe added benefit of confronting the fears that confront all humans.Learning what causes fear and understanding how it is connected to theunconscious can help the individual prepare for those situations and, or,avoid certain circumstances which might initiate a disassociative response. In the book, The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman theprotagonist seems to have no control over the disassociative madness thatovertakes her. However, her madness allows her to make sense of her worldin a way that calms her mind. In the short story, A Wilderness Station, byAlice Munro, the narrator is seen to have control over her madness, whichleads her to a confession that allows her to quiet her mind and find an
Nothing about herconfinement, but the wallpaper, seems to bother her. The husband then enters a state ofdisassociative madness and the wife takes control, slowly helping him findhis way past his withdrawal but resulting in a change of personalitywhereby he takes on the personality of the murdered brother. The husband murders the brother in law because he is sadistic in nature andspecifically to his wife. Her mind, in response,withdraws from the reality of her situation and she confesses to themurder. In time, the woman succumbs to the disassociationfocused on the wallpaper and, in an analogy to the stripping away of thewallpaper, is stripped of her sanity and humanity. Under treatment for 'hysteria' the narrator istaken "three miles from the village" (11) to an upstairs nursery of a"colonial mansion" (9), its windows barred and its walls covered in a fadedyellow wallpaper whose "sprawling flamboyant patterns" commit "everyartistic sin" (13). She mustendure the sadistic behavior all over again. The woman experiences a disassociation from her identity as shebecomes obsessed with ridding the room of the wallpaper. She accepts thecontrol by others, the denial of freedom and the loss of her dignity, butshe is unable to maintain her stability under the watchful eyes of thewallpaper. In "A Wilderness Station," which takes place in the early 1850s, ayoung woman is left alone with her new husband and young brother in law. When she realizesshe cannot remove it, she decides to become a part of it - to enter into itso as to be on the other side of the watchful eyes. The result, a quieting of hr mind as well as the relief from hersituation, lends questioning to the amount of control she had over themadness.
Common topics in this essay:
Yellow Wallpaper,
Wilderness Station,
,
Alice Munro,
Perkins Gilman,
yellow wallpaper,
control madness,
disassociative madness,
watchful eyes,
wilderness station,
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