The Student Room Group

Sanity and Insanity in Literature

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bambii
Because I think she's pretty clearly autistic. The fact that she can't distinguish between lies (ie from her father) and reality, and she has an obsession with moths and clocks, a very good memory (lots of autistic people have photographic memories), she doesn't understand other people and their emotions, and a general inability to empathise are all autistic traits. She's very precise in the way she describes things, and doesn't understand how people don't necessarily share the same interests as her.

The doctor spends a lot of time with her as a child, encouraging her to talk to him. And her mother accuses her of ruining her life. She only gets accepted into the school because her sister does, and she can't make friends with the other children there.

Plus there's the policeman's reaction (he seems shocked when he realises which sister she is), and the fact that there's a feeling that she's being taken advantage of with the whole pregnancy thing.

Plus there's a lot of references to "retards", which I see as hints.

I might be wrong, but that was my interpretation of it. I do quite a lot of volunteering with autistic kids/teenagers, so that might be why I see it like that.

Edit: sorry for the essay :smile:


I thought this too when I read it! :smile: xx
bambii
Because I think she's pretty clearly autistic. Obsession with time, order and routine is very much an autistic trait. A lot of autistic people really can't cope with changes to schedules, and have to do the same things at the same time of day, or the same place etc.

Also, she can't distinguish between lies (ie from her father) and reality, and she has an obsession with moths and clocks, a very good memory (lots of autistic people have photographic memories), she doesn't understand other people and their emotions, and a general inability to empathise are all autistic traits. She's very precise in the way she describes things, and doesn't understand how people don't necessarily share the same interests as her.

The doctor spends a lot of time with her as a child, encouraging her to talk to him. And her mother accuses her of ruining her life. She only gets accepted into the school because her sister does, and she can't make friends with the other children there.

Plus there's the policeman's reaction (he seems shocked when he realises which sister she is), and the fact that there's a feeling that she's being taken advantage of with the whole pregnancy thing.

Plus there's a lot of references to "retards", which I see as hints.

I might be wrong, but that was my interpretation of it. I do quite a lot of volunteering with autistic kids/teenagers, so that might be why I see it like that.

Edit: sorry for the essay :smile:


Right, seems logical enough! I'll hand my English degree over to you then. :p: To be honest, it's been several months since I read it and I wasn't reading it with a critical eye so I can't remember many details from it!
Reply 42
Shoot the damn dog by Sally brompton is apparently a very moving life story based on depression.
There's Blue/Orange, which is a play about a Black man suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder and how the system doesn't benefit him at all because of the prejudices against him.

These two are post-1990 I think, so I'm not sure they're what your looking for! Good luck in your extended project tho, sounds very interesting!
Thank you so much everyone, this has been really useful :smile: Obviously I won't have time to read absolutely everything but I'll make a big effort and I'll sparknotes the one's I don't have time to do before my deadline.
Also, thanks for this...
35mm_
You could talk about sexual perversion in relation to 'insanity' and debate whether sexual unconvention (**** wording, I know) is actually a mental disorder. If you take this line, you could talk about Lolita (obviously) and also Annabelle Lee, by Edgar Allan Poe. Then shift it to homosexuality and how that was once considered a mental disorder if you wish, with Wilde's poem Ballad of Reading Gaol, which is quite good.

It gave me a whole other angle to explore in class today :smile: (Looking at how what's defined as insane is reflective of convention etc)
Thanks, you guys are awesome :biggrin:
Reply 44
Pink Bullets
Right, seems logical enough! I'll hand my English degree over to you then. :p: To be honest, it's been several months since I read it and I wasn't reading it with a critical eye so I can't remember many details from it!


haha, sorry :smile:
I only read it maybe a month ago, so I remember it pretty well - hence the essay :P
Just as a note re: Edgar Allan Poe, 2 other key pieces of his that deal with insanity are The Tell Tale Heart:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/POE/telltale.html

and The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Fether, which is a comedy set in a mental hospital. It's different, certainly :lol:

http://www.online-literature.com/poe/2179/


I think most people are mad in Poes stuff though, to be honest!
Reply 46
Foucault's 'Madness and Civilization' might be a useful theoretical springboard for you.
Reply 47
can anyone explain how stevenson uses vivid language to present the charachter of mr hyde in chapter 1 refering to his description ? in jeckyll and hyde

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