Sanity and Insanity in Literature

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Hamlet and Macbethhhhhh

Can I just say, these are all really good suggestions.

I wish I had a little panel of you lot to help me with ideas for projects. See you when I do my FMP! =]

Reply 22

Ah.Cheesecake.

Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde
Lord of the Flies
Great Expectations (Mrs. Havisham)
The Shining

Here's a website.. http://www.librarything.com/tag/insanity

Reply 23

Poppy_Ki

we need to talk about kevin- lionel shriver

Reply 24

LiterallyInsane

Looooooool Am Loving The Title ..Of This Thread :P

Reply 25

Madjackismad

The Trick Is To Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trick-Keep-Breathing-Janice-Galloway/dp/0749391731/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267369149&sr=8-1

American Psycho
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A Clockwork Orange
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Crime and Punishment
Hamlet and Macbeth
Catch 22
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe.

Reply 26

bambii

Pink Bullets

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys

You should think about narrowing it down to a specific genre, time period, or aspect of insanity. It seems too broad as it is...

The Behaviour of Moths is more about someone with learning difficulties than insanity though isn't it?

I would definately say the Bell Jar for a good dose of depression :smile:

Reply 27

bluesky42

blanche in a streetcar named desire- tennessee williams
i love that character :biggrin:

Reply 28

username330427

These have pretty much all been suggested, but yeah. :awesome:

Hamlet
Macbeth
Anything Sylvia Plath wrote, basically
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Michael Henchard is pretty dotty in that, and the guy who wrote the introduction suggested he had features of bipolar disorder in his behaviour
Franny and Zooey - Franny goes a bit mad spiritually, so you could get a religious perspective in there
The Yellow Wallpaper
Birdsong - shows how lots of things cause insanity, tbh
There's a poem Simon Armitage wrote called I Say I Say I Say, which is about suicide - that could work
Beloved - that crazy spirit in the house causes them all to go mad
There's a lot of insanity in Sartre - probably most existential literature, in fact
Uncle Vanya sees the eponymous character go a bit nuts? Maybe have it as a lesser comparison
Sarah Kane's work is all pretty mental unstable as well, if you can stomach the brutality of it

There are probably loads more: I'll edit this once I think of them. I'm also doing something similar for my actual English coursework, involving the three texts above, so yeah. I'm liking this thread. :biggrin:

American Psycho.

Lass Than Zero - a modern day copy of Catcher in the Rye but the main charactor handles his mental illness better.

Reply 31

andreavivan

I think that the karamazov brothers would be quite a good source :smile:

Reply 32

Noodlzzz

I have a mahoosive list of books with mental illness if your interested? Not necessarily insanity however, just your bog standard depressives, self harmers borderlines etc. haha

Reply 33

situationostrich

Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
1984 - George Orwell
Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Merry Men (short story) - Robert Louis Stevenson

Reply 34

Pink Bullets

bambii

The Behaviour of Moths is more about someone with learning difficulties than insanity though isn't it?

Umm.. I don't think so. Why do you say that?

I mean, murdering a family member usually points more to mental illness than learning difficulties, doesn't it? :p:

And certainly the main character's obsessiveness about time, order and routine would point to mental illness.

Reply 35

Angela_Beth

A Streetcar Named Desire, of course.

Also The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe and maybe Hamlet or King Lear.

Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath were fairly unstable, so you could give them a go as well.

Reply 36

Artymess

Lit2010

Catch 22 (never read it, but doesn't the guy pretend to be insane? Correct me if I'm wrong)

he doesnt really pretend to be insane, just ill. the idea is that sanity and insanity are part of catch-22, a no-win situation. for example if someone is insane then they dont have to fly more missions, but by requesting to stop flying they're showing regard for their personal safety and are therefore sane, and so must fly more missions :smile:

on the subject of insanity i'd go with 1984 by george orwell, especially near the end with Winston's "rehabilitation", maybe ophelia in hamlet. certainly heathcliff in wuthering heights

Reply 37

Lit2010

Artymess

on the subject of insanity i'd go with 1984 by george orwell, especially near the end with Winston's "rehabilitation", maybe ophelia in hamlet. certainly heathcliff in wuthering heights

Thanks for clarifying that :smile:

And you've just given me an idea to raise in my psychology essay, so thanks for your unintentional help! :biggrin:

Reply 38

Artymess

Lit2010

Thanks for clarifying that :smile:

And you've just given me an idea to raise in my psychology essay, so thanks for your unintentional help! :biggrin:

you're welcome i guess :smile:

happy to help

Reply 39

bambii

Pink Bullets

Umm.. I don't think so. Why do you say that?

I mean, murdering a family member usually points more to mental illness than learning difficulties, doesn't it? :p:

And certainly the main character's obsessiveness about time, order and routine would point to mental illness.

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: