Catharsis, an essential element of gothic literature, it is the act of releasing repressed emotions and it is crucial for humans to find a way to express their catharsis. In the novel The Asylum by John Hardwood, Hardwood successfully allows catharsis for the reader by portraying emotions created by unrequited love and feelings of isolation. Throughout this novel, Hardwood represents strong emotions in characters, which in result provides a strong cathartic experience for them.
The feelings of isolation, whether emotionally or socially, is represented during multiple occasions, which provides catharsis for the reader, as it is something the reader can relate to. Initially, when Georgina awakens in the asylum, she feels as if she is consummately
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disconnected from herself emotionally. The reader relates to Georgina as she feels as if she is "a stranger in my [her] own body, [it] was a feeling that I was becoming no one at all: not even a stranger; but a ghost in a body that no longer belonged to anyone" (95).
Georgina feels as if she does not belong in her body, which demonstrates isolation within her mind. The reader develops a strong connection with Georgina because they can relate to her emotionally; helping to release similarly repressed emotions and providing a purgative experience for them. Furthermore, Felix Mordaunt has been afflicted with isolation, a common trait in the Mordaunt family, which he shares with Rosina deeply. The reader feels purified as they can relate to what Felix is experiencing, Felix "would sink into a lethargy so profound that even to leave his bed seemed an intolerable effort" (131). Felix displays his isolation from society, considering he finds it hard to leave his bed, which allows the readers to address their own abandoned emotions of feelings detached from society, feeling like an Outsider, producing catharsis. Meanwhile, Frederic constantly yet subtly addresses his feelings of seclusion, creating a deeper bond with the reader. Georgina recommends that Frederic should relinquish the asylum and explore the world, but Frederic knows that he "should …show more content…
go out in the world. But this is all I [he] know[s], and if I have [he has] a vocation, it lies here - or somewhat like this" (253), Frederic feels as if he can't leave the asylum, separating him from the rest of the world, his uncle, Edmund, agrees and believes that Mordaunt blood should die in the asylum. The reader understands his circumstances and can connect to analogous emotions they have felt about being detached from society, unleashing them, consequently providing catharsis. Overall, the continuous representation of isolation and feeling like an Outsider further connects the reader to the characters, resulting in the reader expelling their repressed emotions, allowing them to feel purified. Unrequited love is presented by utilizing an incestuous element, providing a strong cathartic experience for the reader, as they can relate to falling in love with a person, who they should not be in love with whether it is because of society, parents, religion, or anything else.
To begin, Lucia and Georgina displayed an incestuous relationship, but Lucia did not reciprocate those feelings, and only stayed to take manipulate and take advantage of Georgina's love, resulting in unrequited love and a purgative experience for the reader. Georgina understands that Lucia never really loved her and that "Lucia had stolen my name, my money, my heart, and left me here to rot. Everything she had told me - even the name Lucia Ardent - had been a lie, carefully woven to draw me in" (214). Georgina develops a strong infatuation for Lucia, later realizing that Lucia had taken advantage of her love and betrayed her. This is an emotion the reader can relate to, hence delivering catharsis. In addition, Fredric experiences unrequited love as he falls deeply in love with Georgina, even after he is aware that they are cousins, but Georgina does not think of him in that manner, which provides purification for the reader. Fredric knows it is wrong to love her due to their circumstances and Georgina believed that "the discovery would change his feelings for me, but it plainly had not, and the memory of his impassioned declaration hovered between us” (253). The incestuous love that Fredric feels
for Georgina, which is frowned upon in society, is not returned from her, resulting in unrequited love. The reader can connect to Fredric, as a person may fall in love, but society would criticize their love, generating unrequited love and those comparable emotions provide catharsis for the reader. Continuing, Rosina and Felix encounters unrequited love due to society, including Rosina's father, not permitting them to be together and the past history of Felix, providing a purgative experience for the reader. Rosina seems to live a utopian life with Felix prior to the arrival of Clarissa, soon Rosina learns that Felix had impregnated Clarissa before marrying her and she is "frozen by the realization that it was not Clarissa who had deceived me, but Felix" (204). Rosina and Felix both love each other, but due to Felix's past actions with Clarissa, Rosina cannot be with him and society does not allow their love to flourish. This enhances the reader's relation with the characters, encouraging their similar repressed emotions to be released, providing catharsis. The recurrence of unrequited love in incestuous relationships allows the reader to unite with characters, addressing their own feelings of unrequited love, which could arise due to their love being perceived as wrong by someone or society and that contributes to a strong cathartic experience for the reader. John Hardwood does an exceptional job of presenting emotions that the reader can relate to, thus producing an influential cathartic experience for the reader. The reader connects to strong emotions represented throughout the novel, including unrequited love, as well as isolation, consequently providing catharsis for the reader. Catharsis can only be achieved if the reader is able to unite with the characters and their emotions, which the Asylum permits, allowing similarly repressed emotions to be set free.
The main character, Eleanor Vance, can be seen as the victim of the novel. She ultimately commits suicide, like Maria, because of her susceptibility to the supernatural elements and experiences that happen in the haunted Hill House that Eleanor gets invited to stay at with others to investigate this paranormal phenomenon. Eleanor has been isolated from society because she has taken care of her mother for eleven years. This job has led to Eleanor missing out on many experiences and social interactions that has cause her social awkwardness and withdrawal from society. As in the novel, it states Eleanor “ had spent so long alone, with no one to love, that it was difficult for her to talk, even casually” (Jackson 3). This isolation causes her to make what can be considered a reckless decision to take up Dr. Montague’s offer to stay at Hill House. This then leads to Eleanor’s tragic suicide, which closely resembles the circumstances that lead to Maria’s suicide in The Shadow in the Corner as well. The social isolation that Eleanor experiences causes her to come in contact with supernatural forces and become impacted by them on a deeper level than the other characters in the
Misery loves company and in Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener", Bartleby exhibits traits of depression and catatonic schizophrenia as defined in the DSM-IV; however the narrator's other employees also show symptoms of catatonia either influenced by Bartleby or by Melville's own mental state. The theme of mental disorder is prominent throughout the text and a close analysis of specific passages in concordance with the DSM-IV will first reveal how Bartleby exemplifies these mental disorders and secondly show to what extent the entire story serves to personify them.
In the stories “To Set Our House in Order” and “The Lamp at Noon” the authors are both able to effectively communicate that alienation is self-inflicted, while using multiple different techniques. As a result it becomes apparent that each author can take a similar approach to the alienation of a character in the story yet develop the theme in a unique way.
Within the many layers of Montag lay several opposite sides. For example, Montag is a fireman who burns books for a living but at home, spends time reading novels, poetry, and other written material. Although Montag could be called a hypocrite, he does not enjoy both the reading and the burning at the same time; he goes through a change that causes him to love books. Humans have the power to change and grow from one extreme to another, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In addition, when Mildred is with Montag, Montag does not have feelings for her but thinks of her as she is killed by the bombs. He possesses both the knowledge that Mildred does not love him and the heart that truly cares, but he knows not how to deal with this. His feelings are oppressed; it takes a major event (the bomb) to jolt them from hibernation.
Word by word, gothic literature is bound to be an immaculate read. Examining this genre for what it is could be essential to understanding it. “Gothic” is relating to the extinct East Germanic language, people of which known as the Goths. “Literature” is defined as a written work, usually with lasting “artistic merit.” Together, gothic literature combines the use of horror, death, and sometimes romance. Edgar Allan Poe, often honored with being called the king of horror and gothic poetry, published “The Fall of House Usher” in September of 1839. This story, along with many other works produced by Poe, is a classic in gothic literature. In paragraph nine in this story, one of our main characters by the name of Roderick Usher,
For many decades the mentally ill or insane have been hated, shunned, and discriminated against by the world. They have been thrown into cruel facilities, said to help cure their mental illnesses, where they were tortured, treated unfairly, and given belittling names such as retards, insane, demons, and psychos. However, reformers such as Dorothea Dix thought differently of these people and sought to help them instead. She saw the inhumanity in these facilities known as insane asylums or mental institutions, and showed the world the evil that wandered inside these asylums. Although movements have been made to improve conditions in insane asylums, and were said to help and treat the mentally ill, these brutally abusive places were full of disease and disorder, and were more like concentration camps similar to those in Europe during WWII than hospitals.
A lot of thoughts and observations come to mind while watching The New Asylums. This is a documentary about life in prison for people who have mental diseases, so some of the thoughts and observations are actually quite sad. Many of the prisoners shown in the documentary look sad and defeated, and they have a right to, because having a mental disease even in the real world is very hard. In prison, they are allowed to refuse their medication, although at least there are people who will try to help them. Still, it looks miserable, even more miserable than prison looks for people who aren't suffering from a disease like schizophrenia. Mental illness is often used as the punch line of a joke, but like most other punch lines, it isn't that funny because it offends and demeans a whole subgroup of people. Subgroups are actually what stick out the most and make up the previously mentioned thoughts and observations. While watching all of this sadness on the screen, it's hard not to notice that there are some trends. The documentary was filmed in an all-male prison, so trends in gender aren't shown by the movie, but even the casual observer will notice that most of the inmates who are interviewed or showcased are people of color. This could indicate one of two things: there is a higher number of people of color who are affected by mental disorders or there is a higher number of people of color who are persecuted and tried by the law, ending up in prisons such as the one in the movie. Studying criminology is important because those questions matter, not just to the ruling group of the legal system, but to the individuals affected by disease and persecution, to their families, and to their communities. Investigating an obvious trend helps ans...
...f the bad that is going on in her real life, so she would have a happy place to live. With the collapse of her happy place her defense was gone and she had no protection from her insanity anymore. This caused all of her blocked out thoughts to swarm her mind and turn her completely insane. When the doctor found her, he tried to go in and help her. When the doctor finally got in he fainted because he had made so many positive changes with her and was utterly distressed when he found out that it was all for naught. This woman had made a safety net within her mind so that she would not have to deal with the reality of being in an insane asylum, but in the end everything failed and it seems that what she had been protecting herself from finally conquered her. She was then forced to succumb to her breakdown and realize that she was in the insane asylum for the long run.
Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health, but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper which is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
What comes to mind when you hear the words “insane asylum”? Do such terms as lunatic, crazy, scary, or even haunted come to mind? More than likely these are the terminology that most of us would use to describe our perception of insane asylums. However, those in history that had a heart’s desire to treat the mentally ill compassionately and humanely had a different viewpoint. Insane asylums were known for their horrendous treatment of the mentally ill, but the ultimate purpose in the reformation of insane asylums in the nineteenth century was to improve the treatment for the mentally ill by providing a humane and caring environment for them to reside.
In many different readings people feel catharsis without even realizing they have felt it, pity and fear are very commonly felt when reading.
Regardless of what people think Poe did or did not do, he did change the face of literature through some of his short horror stories. Two of his stories that were discussed within this paper are, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Within these two stories Edgar Allan Poe has given it a horror reading, with descriptive places, such as “wet and gloomy” and “evil atmosphere.” Besides the stories giving off a sense of horror, they also contain characters with disturbed psyches. The character with a disturbed psyche in “The Cask of Amontillado” was Montressor. He got revenge by murdering Fortunato, who ruined his self-esteem. He bricked Fortunato in alive in the catacombs and walked away feeling pity on him but knowing what he had done and having to live with it. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Roderick Usher was distracted by his thoughts knowing he buried his sister alive within the vaults of their home. She got out of the encasement, Roderick and the narrator placed her in, and attacked Roderick in her bloody
From the very beginning of the narrator's vacation, the surroundings seem not right. There is "something queer" about the mansion where she resides it becomes obvious that her attempt to rest from her untold illness will not follow as planned. The house is an "ancestral" and "hereditary estate...long untenanted" invoking fanciful gothic images of a "haunted house" (3). The house they choose to reside in for the three...
During his stay at the house of Usher, the narrator finds himself unable to draw his friend out of the abyss of misery in which he has enshrouded himself, both figuratively and literally. Admitting to his sister's approaching death being one of...
Georgina is the wife of Alymer in the story “The Birthmark”. She is very passionate about her marriage with Alymer, and when he talks about how he basically gets disgusted when he sees her, because of her mark, she gets genuinely hurt. Although he is mean to her, she still worships the ground he walks on, and he almost seems like her master, or owner. In the story she says “To tell you the truth it has been often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so” and even with all the men that droll over her beauty and wouldn’t mind dying for the opportunity to touch her birthmark, she still loves Alymer.