Importance Of Isolation In The Mad Woman

Maupassant built his characters through isolating them from others so that the focus is on the one character rather than several. In doing so he can show a more in depth analysis of their actions and the consequences that come with these actions. In “The Mad Woman,” the woman goes insane after the loss of her entire family and in the end she ends up dying for the loneliness and grief that has consumed her life for 15 years. In “Suicides,” the writer kills himself because he is alone and cannot deal with the idea that he has never truly accomplished anything throughout his life. In “The Horla,” the narrator is left alone is his house with only servants to keep him company and eventually he is consumed with this invisible being that is harassing

The main importance is the concept of isolation, going along with the characterization.in each of these stories, the setting is usually away from other people like in “Am I Insane,” which is in the countryside, and “The Horla,” which is in a lonely old house away from town. In “The Mad Woman,” the woman is isolated in her bedroom and then abandoned in the woods, several miles in. For “The Diary of a Madman,” the isolation is what allows the judge to kill out in the empty room, the forest, and under a willow tree by the river. Each of these places are typically thought of as empty and away from society, perfect for the isolating setting. The settings in each story is what allows for the deaths to happen and aids the characterization

Several critics have agreed, especially in the few years before and after he wrote “The Horla,” that it was his own personal life events that may have brought about some of the plots in his stories. He is described as working “with iron assiduity on writing down his hallucinations,” and “lived in a constant penumbra, never quite sure when he was joking and when performing in deadly earnest.” (Ignotus, Pgs. 233-234) Another critic writes that “Maupassant… tried to separate himself from his characters…and, when relating their point of view or their reactions, to subordinate his personality to theirs.” (Sullivan, Pg. 33) The last critic writes that “most critics are disposed to accept as conclusive the argument that stories like “The Horla,” so far from having any foreign origin, are merely the faithful journal of an author whose reason was tottering.” (Moore, Pg. 142) By the time he wrote these stories, during the 1880s, syphilis had already began to take hold of his mind, causing mental distress that could possibly be the reasons behind several of his later stories, especially “The Horla.” “When at the peak of his creative powers he knew there was a madman in him, it was then that he wrote “The Horla”.” (Ignotus, Pg. 244) It was Maupassant’s internal struggle that truly brought out the horrific aspects of his later short stories.
Showing the struggle and mental