An Analysis of Miss Havisham’s Madness Essay

This paper will try to explore the atypical behavior of swing Havisham, arguably the most unforgettable character in Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations. The analysis sh alone be do in the context of the sociable club she was part of and the faces she had been done. MADNESS DURING THE VICTORIAN season During the eighteen hundreds, a common belief was that those who had custodytal illness suffered because they had a disease of the soul (Goldberg, 24). Their strange behavior was attri preciselyed to inherent malevolence and they were do by apathetic solelyy in asylums by naive caretakers who name insufficient judgment of mental illness.They were treated as animals. Patients in these early asylums were kept in cages, given sm every amounts of give awayly unclean food, had little or no clothing, wore no shoes, and slept in dirt. Because the patients could a lot live many eld in such conditions, the caretakers became more confident that these human creations were in actuality closer to animals and so deserving of such abuse (Ussher, 65). Moreoer, exerciseive treatments for mental disorders were unavailable, with the precisely measures macrocosm such procedures as, drugging, bleeding, or purging, which produced few objective results (Carson et al.47). Bleeding, besides known as phlebotomy or blood permitting, was utilized to release bad blood. This was unremarkably the initial treatment. It seemed like a logical solution to restore health based upon the four humors blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Patients were cut with a lance or leeched blood or milk was dripped over a venous blood vessel to encourage the leech to bite and suck from that vein. A doctor often bled a patient until they fainted. Bleeding was performed not just by doctors unless also by barbers.This procedure did very little to help, scarcely did a huge job in regards to weakening the patient. (Krausse) Purging involved big(p) patients heavy doses of laxat ives or emetics to expel poisons from the automobile trunk. It was believed that diarrhea was relaxing the interior of the body while puking was thought to relieve tension on the arteries. (Krausse) Fortunately, in the mid-eighteen hundreds, beliefs ab pop out mental illness began to change and treatments improved. Moral management of asylums was encouraged. alienation was no longer viewed as punishment from God but as a disease of the brain, a biologic event that could be analyze and eventually cured. This initiated a change in treatment of patients they were given beseeming food and clothing. They were released from their shackles and brutal confinements and were treated humanely. Women and mental illness. During the19th degree centigrade, women were deemed to baffle weaker intellectualual faculties than men. It was believed that women were absent in mental strength and, thus, were more susceptible to mental aberrations.It was in the Victorian era that nauseousness was cal led a female malady. These attitudes were reinforce by medical science of that time which defined women in biological terms as naturally passive, dep decisionent, sexually disinterested and born to be mothers and helpmeets to men. These beliefs severely reduced womens freedom of expression and limited their opening to education, employment and ownership of property. Women who rebelled against these codes found themselves beneath attack(predicate) to being diagnosed as mad for exhibiting a wide range of deviant, unnatural and unwomanly behaviors.(Jones) medical examination writing at this time made it clear that doctors believed women uniquely vulnerable to mental instability protecting her involved regulating her sexuality and cycles. Mothers were advised to try and delay menstruation in girls and doctors sought to regulate womens judgements by regulating their bodies. Dr. Isaac Baker Brown pioneered the surgical practice of clitoridectomy as a cure for female insaneness whic h he carried out at his private clinic in Lon wear down.One of his patients was only 10 years old and the dementia of several others consisted of their wish to take advantage of the novel divorce act of 1857. Another young woman was brought to the clinic by her family because she had suffered great irregularities of mollify, was too assertive in sending her visiting card game to men she liked and spent much time in real reading. (Jones) Anorexia, though prominent for many years prior, was wrap upicially accepted as a mental disease in 1873 (Ussher, 77). It flourished during the nineteenth ascorbic acid as women wished to exemplify their femininity.In denying food, a woman could truly be passive and become a weightless accessory for her husband. The physical and sacred ideal of anorexia also became a status symbol for many women. on the job(p) class women had to eat in order to need energy to work. Thus, only middle to upper class women could afford to be anorexic. Cures in cluded being admitted to an asylum where women rested and were excessively fed. The idea of the Wondering Womb also developed in this era, as rabidity was associated with menstruation, pregnancy, and the menopause.The womb itself was thought to mold through with(predicate)out the body, acting as an enormous sponge which sucked the behavior-energy or intellect from vulnerable women (Ussher, 74). As a result, women became synonymous with madness, as they were pronounced to be emotional and unstable. If a woman of the Victorian era were subject to an outburst, possibly due to anger or frustration, she would be pro admited insane. The word rage became the general term for women with mental illness and cures included bed rest, seclusion, placid food, refraining from mental activities such as reading, daily massage, and sensory deprivation.Though these treatments do not seem too appalling, they were comparable to solitary confinement and would often drive a woman to further insanit y. (Frick) MISS HAVISHAMS emotional state sentence Miss Havisham was raised by her wealthinessy indulgent father after(prenominal) her mother died when she was just a baby. She also came to inherit her fathers money after his death. As a young woman, Miss Havisham mow deeply in love with a crook named Compeyson, despite warnings from her first cousin that the man was only after her money, they decided to get married.On their espousals day, Havisham received a letter from her fiance and realized she had been betrayed and jilted. From that endorsement on she refused to remove her wed dress and wears only one shoe because she was on the process of displace on the other when she received the letter. She also had all the clocks in Satis ingleside stopped at twenty transactions to nine, the moment she realized Compeysons deception. After adopting Estelle, she isolated herself from company and remained fickle the mansion in her tattered wedding dress with the remnants of a re ply that never came to be.MISS HAVISHAMS MADNESS Miss Havishams seclusion is declarative mood of psychoneurotic insanity, which Conolly classifies. His definition reads There is a form of malady, more frequent among the wealthier classes than the poorer, in which sheer(a) bodily ailments of a changeful or obdurate character become associated with an infirmity of mind, at first slight and occasional, but afterward more fixed and confirmed. This form of disorder is in the main seen in hysterical women the mind is agitated by any trifle, and every feeling is in excess, and seeks for sympathy with a morbid eagerness.It would seem as if to all the various portions of the brain, some unrestrained energy were directed, producing endless caprices of the mind and ever- changing bodily sensations they are affectionate, suspicious, amatory, cold, and repulsive by turns. Incapable of calm down friendship or affection, or of adherence to any of the duties of common life, they usually, by degrees, concentrate their attention on their own feelings and morbid sensations, and, laying claim to excessive sensibility, are really only regardful of themselves. (Conolly, 77)The fundamental characteristics of hysterical insanity are applicable to Miss Havisham. She has the status of wealth, a brotherly group which Conolly considers vulnerable to hysteria. She is extremely funny. She is pleased with Estellas rapidly changing mood, a copy of her own fickleness. Miss Havishams restless temper parallels her impatient bodily reactions. Whenever berth visits her, he is aware of impatient hunting exp fluctuation of her fingers (Dickens, 146) and her frequent hitting out with a stick in inflammation is equivalent to ever-changing bodily sensations.To Pip as a child, Miss Havishams impatient finger movement is a cue of her whimsical demands to him. She apparently indulges Estella, but her love of her ward is egotistical. At the point of death, she is conciliate with Pip, but she cannot form steady friendship or affection with Estella. Her drug withdrawal into the deserted Satis House is, in other words, the renunciation of the duties of common life, which her wealth permits. Miss Havisham neatly fits Conollys classification. (Takei, 3) Havishams madness is not a alternative. It is the effect of the conglomeration of various aspects in her life.The death of her mother robbed Havisham of a loving presence and a feminine role model, had she grown up with a mother, she could have been taught how to choose men intelligently, and she would have learned how to proceed relationships well. Growing up with a father that employs the Permissive-Indulgent parenting style, in which parents are juicy on warmth but low on discipline and reign over (Carson et al. 104) had made Miss Havisham accustomed to getting her way. This has her fixated on her wedding day, the event of her rejection and humiliation.Children seted with this type of parenting style are also observe d to be manipulative, which is apparent in the relationship between Estelle and Havisham. Also, children of these types of parents grow up to be individuals who right away enter into relationships without much thought, which is exhibited in the engagement between Compeyson and Miss Havisham. interest the unfortunate incident, Havisham has secluded herself from the world. The once magnificent rooms in Satis house has been reduced to ruins filled with dirt and rotting furniture.The air within is moribund and rancid. The garden is desolated and choked with weeds. Havisham has denounced even daylight this contributes to her illness even more. An milieu rife with squalor, painful memories and rotting reminders will inevitably take its terms on her already frayed sensibilities. Another contributing factor is the views of the society during that period. Spinsters were considered mentally unsound, during the 19th century doctors claimed that being without continued male interaction wo uld cause irritability, anemia, tiredness and fussing (Ussher).Havisham could have been initially affected by the opinions of society after she was jilted, the possibility of facing a judgmental and hypercritical herd could have helped push Miss Havisham over the edge. Desertion on the wedding day in the Victorian social climate caused her an irrecoverable social stigma in addition to agony. Her decaying body exhibits social pressure on deserted women Her chest had dropped, so that she stooped and her voice had dropped, so that she spoke low, and with a dead lull upon her altogether, she had the appearance of having dropped, body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow.(Dickens, 107) These factors that were part of her upbringing, social and physical environment, gabardinethorn have contributed to the emotional instability of Miss Havisham. Another proof of Havishams madness not being a choice is the fact that she had sought to set about a way to regain a sort of meaning and inclination to her life when she asked for a daughter she could adopt and care for. I had been boot out up in these rooms a long time (I dont know how long you know what time the clocks pass off here), when I told him that I wanted a little girl to rear and love, and save from my fate.I had first seen him when I sent for him to lay this topographic point waste for me having read of him in the newspapers, onwards I and the world parted. He told me that he would look about him for such an orphan child. One iniquity he brought her here asleep, and I called her Estella (Dickens, 713). This was Miss Havishams original goal, before her mental instability nudged her to manipulate Estelle into becoming a heart-breaker that would wreck havoc on the lives of men as a kind of revenge for what happened to her. Towards the end when Estelle leaves to marry Bentley Drummle.Havisham realizes the extent of damage she had caused with Pips heartbreak. To see her with her white hair and her worn face kneeling at my feet, gave me shock through all my frame. I entreated her to rise, and got my arms about her to help her up but she only pressed that hand of mine which was nearest to her grasp, and hung her head over it and wept (Dickens, 709) Until you spoke to her the other day, and until I saw in you a looking-glass that showed me what I once felt myself, I did not know what I had done. What have I done What have I done And so again, twenty, 50 times over, What had she done (Dickens, 710) Havishams utter remorse and guilt when she realizes that Pip has been through the same heartache she has experienced is proof that the perverse cast she provided Estelle was not done because she deliberately chose it, rather, she had reached emotional instability because of the events in her life that enabled her to do such actions. As soon as she realized the effect it had on Pip, she was horrified and begged forgiveness. She recognizes that she has tormented Pip , whose heart is as vulnerable as her own.Havisham says, I am not all stone (Dickens, 705), her sympathy and the graciousness of a human heart still remains. By her ethical awakening, she recovers her sanity for a short while. Havishams madness was not a choice the events in her life, the environment she lived in, the social interactions she subjected herself too, and her personal flaws, all of these played a part in her mental fragility. Miss Havisham had truly loved Compeyson. This is apparent in one of her conversations with Pip, Havisham exclaims, Ill tell you, what real love is.It is cunning devotion, unquestioning self-humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your whole heart and soul to the smiter as I did (Dickens, 426). The intense craze and complete commitment she had felt for Compeyson corresponds to the utter heartbreak she went through and the unendurable pain she felt over his betrayal. This was the pr incipal event that led to her insanity, inefficient to cope she manages to survive only by retreating into her own mind and withdrawing from the difficulty of moving on with a normal life.She believed her mental illness was necessary for her existence. Works Cited Carson, C. , Butcher, J. , Mineka, S. Abnormal Psychology and new life 11th edition (Needham Heights, MA), 2000. Print Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations, planet PDF format (online publication Planet PDF). Web Ussher, Jane M. Womens Madness Misogyny or Mental disease? (Ameherst, Ma University of Massachusetts Press), 1991. Print Takei, Akiko. Miss Havisham and Victorian Psychiatry, (PDF format) . Web Conolly, John.On Some of the Forms of Insanity (London), 1850. Print. Jones, Claire. Women and madness, Herstoria magazine (Jones5 Publishing Limited) . Web Goldberg, Ann. Sex, Religion, and the Making of Modern Madness (New York Oxford University Press), 1999. Print Summary Mental illness during the 19th century had i nitially been attributed to inherent malevolence or punishment from God it was during the mid-eighteen hundreds that doctors have begun to view it as a disease of the brain, a biological occurrence that could be treated.During the Victorian Era it was believed that females were more susceptible to mental imbalance because of their weaker minds. Society dictated that the roles of women should be strictly confined to household and they mustiness all be under the support of men. Miss Havishams madness was not a choice. It was a result of the conglomeration of various aspects of her life the environment she lived in, the family she grew up with, the events she had been through, the society she is part of and the personal flaws she had.All of these have played a role in her madness. The breaking point had been the apostasy and betrayal of her fiance Compeyson, whom she loved deeply. In her devastation she proceeds to let her life revolve around the wedding day she never had. Havisham wanders the destroy halls of her Satis home wearing the yellowed wedding dress she refuses to take off and using only one shoe because she was in the process of putting on the other pair when she received the letter from Compeyson.She also had all the clocks in her home stopped twenty minutes to nine- the moment she realized she was betrayed. She adopted a girl named Estelle and proceeded to influence her to become a cold and ruthless girl to wreak havoc in mens lives. She saw this as a type of revenge to all men for the pain shes been through. Towards the end of the book Havisham regains sanity for a short while after realizing the pain of heartbreak Pip has been through because of her machinations. Guilty and remorseful, she begs Pip for forgiveness and realizes her mistake.