These two parts of argumentation will be demonstrated through the analysis of Allan Ginsberg’s and Robert Lowell’s writings. First of all, one can say that madness is an important theme in post-war U.S. writing because when the author decides to write about it, it is mainly due to the fact that madness is present in his life. Mental illness is usually in creative people themselves or in... ... middle of paper ... ...iography Baker, C. Crawford, P. Brown, B. J. Lipsedge, M. and Carter, R. Madness in Post-1945 British and American Fiction (Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan 2010) Ginsberg, A. Selected Poems 1947-1995 (London: Penguin 2011) Kerouac, J. "Aftermath: The Philosophy of the Beat Generation" Esquire magazine (March 1958) Lindsberg, G. The Confidence Man in American Literature (Oxford UP, 1982) Lowell, R. Life Studies (London: Faber 1978) Morgan, B. I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg.
Throughout Victorian literature we see many prominent themes; however, one theme that really stands out, is the prevalence of sin, violence and crime. While at times we have to look deep into the written work to see the sin and or crime that is taking place it also can be presented quite clearly. Some works that have a clear presence of this theme include Robert Browning’s poems My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover. Other works comprised of sinful deeds are Goblin Market and The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point. Lewis Carroll’s, Through the Looking-Glass and Alice in Wonderland, provide us with extreme cases of violence, which is pushed upon a child.
Themes in Works by Edgar Allan Poe Horror stories seem to provoke a certain feeling inside all of us. They can make us scared, nervous, or even just amazed. If a horror story is told well, it can make just about any reader cringe. There are certain elements that must be in a horror story to really make it frightening. Some of these elements include the setting, the characters, a feeling of suspense, foreshadowing, and unexpected events.
The creation of a stressful psychological state of mind is prevalent in the story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, as well as, Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Ophelia’s struggles in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and the self-inflicted sickness seen in William Blake’s “Mad Song”. All the characters, in these stories and poems, are subjected to external forces that plant the seed of irrationality into their minds; thus, creating an adverse intellectual reaction, that from an outsider’s point of view, could be misconstrued as being in an altered state due to the introduction of a drug, prescribed or otherwise, furthering the percep... ... middle of paper ... ...oke about is the consequence of a man gone insane. He truly wanted to kill Fortunato but in a way that wouldn’t leave blood on his hands, so he cemented him into a small corner of the wine cellar. It was an evil act that displayed the ugly face of revenge. Through the use of insanity as a metaphor, authors such as William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, William Blake, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, have utilized the extreme feelings of fear, love, hate, anger, and revenge to illustrate: 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.
By Jane Austen's time, the genre had a clear enough definition of itself that her narrators rarely occasioned to intrude like Fielding's. Her first novel, Northanger Abbey contains some intrusive passages, though, even as a novice, she was developing a far more subtle approach to commentary. Austen argues for the novel without lengthy interruption, but like Fielding, forgoes authenticity in the process. By exposing the author's process and methods, Northanger Abbey and Tom Jones both concede the inherent fictionality of their work, but more importantly, they ... ... middle of paper ... ...iece, with lengthy, persuasive essay-like chapters throughout the text. Austen compresses her commentary and the narrator does not dominate the discussion.
In the late 1800s, a lot was not known about mental illnesses and due to this the unnamed narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper suffers from this ignorance. The Yellow Wallpaper was written by Charlotte Perkins Stetson in 1891 for the New England Magazine as the author had suffer from a similar situation as the story’s narrator. In the short story, we are introduced to an unnamed woman who seems to be suffering from some sort of mental illness. The narrator's husband, who is a physician, forces her to do nothing to try and help her condition, but ironically this has the opposite effect on the narrator's condition. The narrator is driven slowly mad by a yellow wallpaper in her room which instead of helping her condition it makes things worse.
Virginia Woolf was an english writer and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. After undergoing the rest cure Virginia wrote a savage satire of it. She was not cured by the rest cure and eventually died from depression when she filled her overcoat with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse near her home. Gillman also faced the rest ... ... middle of paper ... ...per”” N.p., n.d. Web 11 Mar.
Have but two hours intellectual life a day. And never touch pen, brush, or pencil as long as you live” The supposed ‘cure’ almost drove Charlotte mad. She wrote The Yellow Wallpaper to show just how destructive attitudes to women could be. In 1932 Charlotte found out she had cancer and committed suicide. We can not tell what is wrong with the woman because she is mentally ill and some of her views do not make sense.
In horror literature, the degradation of a protagonist’s sense of reality is commonplace. In Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Lovecraft’s “The Temple”, and King’s “Survivour Type”, each protagonist’s rational psyche deteriorates due to their surroundings, behaviours, and emotions. The surroundings in which the narrators find themselves is the first domino of a complex web that is inadvertently knocked over, creating toppling effect within their minds that can rarely be reversed. A person’s behaviour, their actions, and/or their disposition would unequivocally affect their psyche. The narrator’s perceptions and thoughts are affected by behaviours in such a way that slowly drags them into an inescapable psychosis.
He is known for his wonderfully twisted tales involving such characters as an unstable brother with a mysterious ailment (The Fall of the House of Usher,) a methodical murderer (The Tell-Tale Heart,) and an enraged, revenge seeking, homicidal maniac (The Cask of Amontillado.) Through analysis and citations of the tales listed above, in conjunction with the opinions of literary critics, the reader will clearly see the oft repeated theme of madness and insanity hard at work. Madness seems to inject itself into Poe’s tale, The Fall of the House of Usher, from the very beginning. The narrator of this tale begins by using extremely detailed comparisons and descriptions of the home of Roderick Usher, to relay the “insufferable gloom” and “utter depression of soul” (654) he feels when he first sees the place. He describes the outside, with its “vacant eye-like windows,” and “white trunks of decaying trees” (654).