Bellevue Square In Bellevue Square, Michael Redhill use Jean and her “doppleganger” the main character to represent the relationship between identity and insanity. Jean Mason and her supposed doppelganger, Ingrid share a relationship that renders readers unable to distinguish between reality and paradise. Ultimately, one's loss of ability to tell reality from illusion leads to the emerging of identity and insanity. Insanity is the being in the state of mind of mentally ill. Redhill illustrates insanity through the people of Bellevue Square and Jean Mason. The three important settings, Bookshop, Kensington market, and Bellevue Square, is all related and emerge together as a place of paradise for Jean and the people referred to as, …show more content…
In Bellevue Square, Redhill does not show much of Jean’s personality which is supposed to build her identity, and this is the implication that Jean does not have an existing identity. Her description of the personality of the people of Bellevue Square is also just a description of her own personality. She dislikes the gluehead and thinks they are worse than the addicts as, “the glueheads, specifically, burn off their personality,”(24) this signifies that insanity eats away or burns away the identity of an individual. After waking up in a mental hospital, Jean or Ingrid is unable to make out what was real and what was not before here. The audience knows that Ingrid Fox is not real because in the first book when she is talking about Cullen her “most regular informant,”(29) she talks about his Ingrid. Ingrid is supposed to be her doppelganger but Cullen claims he has seen her and, “his Ingrid shops for fruit, weighing oranges in her hand and knocking melons, but never buying.”(29) Cullen is not someone that can be trusted as he is also a patient from CAMH. A barometer is an object used to predict changes in air pressure by putting a glass tube upside down in bowl/glass of mercury and the more air pressure there is the more mercury rises in the tube. Jean uses it as a way to measure someone's sanity to her, “the volume of a person’s voice appeared to be a barometer of their sanity,”(23) and this is illustrating the fact that the more pressure that gets put on someone the more insane they will go. The volume of their voice is significant because when someone gets angry it is because of something that happened, and this is Jean’s way of saying that she has gone insane. She talks about her anger issues and how she has had therapy for it; she has also talked about how she can not remember the faces of people she knows and how everything is supposed to be in
Madness, madness, madness. It is but a word, yet those who possess it are capable of doing the most amazing or terrible of things. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, madness is defined as “a state of severe mental illness.” Perry Edward Smith is the best individual to depict this characteristic. Throughout Truman Capote's novel “In Cold Blood” the main character, Perry Smith, as Dr. Jones says “. shows definite signs of severe mental illness” (Capote 296).
Jean agrees to meet the Other Woman even though she does not know who the woman is and what her relationship is with Gordon. Jean however knows very clearly that she does not know anything about the Other Woman at all, so she chooses to make a very broad guess of “You must be—his friend” (20) in the hope that she can collect some information from the Other Woman as she goes along with her lies such as how “Gordon mentioned [the Other Woman]... [and] said: tell her that I love her… [before] he turned his face away and died” (21). Jean is obviously telling lies because first of all, the audience all know that she did not even talk to Gordon at all; and second of all, Ruhl uses many dashes in Jean’s monologue, especially when Jean tells the Other Woman that Gordon “said that other women seemed like clocks compare to [her]—other women just—measured timer—broke the day up—but that [she]—[she] stopped time... just by walking into a room” (22), to show that Jean is actually improvising all her lies as she speaks. Based on the fact that Jean is meeting and telling the Other Woman some made up lies, it is obvious that Jean is not aware that what she has done is socially unacceptable and is crossing the social boundaries. Another example of Jean’s telling lies is demonstrated when she presents the fake “presents for
Within the article Stephen King continuously states that we humans all have insanity within us. In the article,
Through the use of insanity as a metaphor, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, William Blake, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, introduced us to characters and stories that illustrate the path to insanity from the creation of a weakened psychological state that renders the victim susceptible to bouts of madness, the internalization of stimuli that has permeated the human psyche resulting in the chasm between rational and irrational thought, and the consequences of the effects of the psychological stress of external stimuli demonstrated through the actions of their characters.
Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.
What is madness? Is madness a brain disorder or a chemical imbalance? On the other hand, is it an expressed behavior that is far different from what society would believe is "normal"? Lawrence Durrell addresses these questions when he explores society's response to madness in his short story pair "Zero and Asylum in the Snow," which resembles the nearly incoherent ramblings of a madman. In these stories, Durrell portrays how sane, or lucid, people cannot grasp and understand the concept of madness. This inability to understand madness leads society to fear behavior that is different from "normal," and subsequently, this fear dictates how they deal with it. These responses include putting a name to what they fear and locking it up in an effort to control it. Underlying all, however, Durrell repeatedly raises the question: who should define what is mad?
Insanity (legal sense): A person can be declared insane if they are conscious while committing the crime, committing the criminal act voluntarily, and had no intent to inflict harm. A person declared insane lacks rational intent due to a deficit or disorder, which inhibits their rational thinking
...to identify with the narrator, one must follow the nature of the narrator who links herself with the supposed woman in the wallpaper (122-123).
How is that even possible? The dictionary definition of the word insanity is the state of being seriously, mentally ill (“Definition of the Word Insanity”). Insanity is also classified as a medical diagnosis. Insanity came from the Latin word insanitatem (“History of the Word Insanity”). People started using this word in the 1580’s. The Latins interpreted insanity as unhealthy Modern day society uses the word insanity too loosely. Although the dictionary definition of insanity is not wrong, several cases that prove having “insanity” does not always mean “being seriously mentally ill” has came to surface.
Her tense mind is then further pushed towards insanity by her husband, John. As one of the few characters in the story, John plays a pivotal role in the regression of the narrator’s mind. Again, the narrator uses the wallpaper to convey her emotions. Just as the shapes in the wallpaper become clearer to the narrator, in her mind, she is having the epiphany that John is in control of her.
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.
She was no longer able tell one from the other and does the change of role with her double. Double, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is “ having two different roles or interpretation, especially in order to deceive or confuse” (“ Double”). Throughout the story the narrator termed the ‘woman’ as the woman behind the wallpaper but at the end she regards it as I. “I 've got out at last," said I, " in spite of you and Jane? And I 've pulled off most of the paper, so you can 't put me back!” (Stetson 656). At this point, the narrator has completely gone insane as she has begun to describe inanimate objects as though they were living beings and she is not able to differentiate between herself and the woman behind the wallpaper. Freud explains this double as one transferring mental processes from the one person to the other also called telepathy so that the one possesses knowledge, feeling and experience in common with the other and identifies himself with another person (Freud 9). She wants to be free so desperately that she begins to see this woman getting out and sneaking around as she knows it is forbidden for her. An empty mind is a devil’s workshop so it is no surprise she started envisioning a woman trapped behind bars fighting to be
What is "insanity" and why is this subject of much controversy? Although I do not have a clear definition of insanity, most socially recognized authorities such as psychiatrists, medical doctors, and lawyers agree that it is a brain disease. However, in assuming it is a brain disease, should we link insanity with other brain diseases like strokes and Parkinsonism? Unlike the latter two, whose causes can be medically accounted for through a behavioral deficit such as paralysis, and weakness, how can one explain the behavior of crimes done by people like Hinckley? (2)
Both legal and mental health professionals have long struggled to establish a clear and acceptable definition of insanity. Insanity is a legal term, not a psychological or medical one. The Sarasons prefer to use the term “maladaptive behavior” instead of insane or insanity. Maladaptive behavior is, “behavior that deals inadequately with a situation, especially one that is stressful” (5). Adaptation is the way people balance what they do and want to do, and what the environment/community requires of them. Successful adaptation depends on a person’s stress (situations that impose demands on him or her), vulnerability (likelihood of a maladaptive response), and coping skills (techniques that help him or her deal with difficulties/stress) (5). Consider the recent school shootings as an
Jean is a wife of a powerful man. Based on her husband word and actions, image and work are his primary concerns. In the beginning, Jean say that " Rick spent dinner on his phone most of the night and not showing Jean an attention." He Mentions that he thinks Jean is jealous of Karen, who works closely with Rick. Later, while Jean is extremely emotional and upset because rick doesn't take her seriously and shuffles her off to bed so he can work on his image and how voters will respond to the robbery. Moreover, this shows that Jean does not have any responsibilities or any true friends throughout the film. The character of Jean Cabot allowed her past to interfere with her life during the whole movie. For example, when Jean and her husband Rick SUV was stolen by two black men with guns; Jean wouldn't let it go she always had something to say about it. Jean was the type of character that try to make others feel how she feel and also try to make others characters feel sorry for her. Most of Jean's fear would come from her personal problems. However, Jean's blind fear, anger and her emotions are a result of how alone she feels. For the most part Jean does not even exhibit interpersonal immediacy with others. Therefore, Jeans perception with herself is consistent with the way others see her