madness in literature

In all three texts there is clear evidence that love is the cause of destruction or destructive behaviour by its characters. The protagonists from these texts are all affected by the destruction brought about by love. For example Cathy and Heathcliff harm themselves when they are forced to be separate, Ophelia goes mad, and Stanley uses his destructive behaviour as a way of controlling Stella and Blanche.

In Wuthering Heights Cathy’s behaviour becomes destructive when Linton, her husband, forces her to choose between himself and Heathcliff. Cathy starves herself and after she finally eats she exclaims to Nelly “I’ll die – he’ll be glad –he does not love me at all”, here she’s attempting to show how Edgar doesn’t love her as he hasn’t come to her aid yet. This suggests how love has caused Cathy to exhibit self-destructive behaviour. The point is then furthered by the events of Chapter 11 when Cathy has an incredibly heated argument with Heathcliff and Edgar, when she is described as acting erratically and in a mentally unstable way, Nelly Dean describes how she “She rung the bell till it broke with a twang … it was enough to try the temper of a saint, such senseless, wicked rages! There she lay dashing her head against the arm of the sofa, and grinding her teeth, so that you might fancy she would crash them to splinters!” This extract shows just how extreme the self-destructive behaviour from Cathy is and she shown as physically hurting herself by hitting her head and grinding her teeth, so much so that blood drips on her lips. This self-destructive behaviour has been caused by Cathy becoming this distraught after Heathcliff returned and they had an argument in which Heathcliff claims Cathy has wronged him by marrying Edgar, then ...

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...ples thriving on the excitement of dangerous or violent behaviour in the relationship between Heathcliff and Isabella, as seen in Heathcliff hanging Isabella’s dog. He suggests that Isabella, in some way, appreciates his behaviour as she interprets it as a sign of jealousy and love for her. Evidence of this is seen In Heathcliff’s statement “she’d thank nobody for dividing us - if she desired to go she might – the nuisance of her presence outweighs the gratification to be derived from tormenting her.’

This same opposition to change seen in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ is also in the play ‘Hamlet’ as Hamlet is angry with his mother, Gertrude, for marrying his uncle, Claudius, so soon after his father has died. Hamlet show’s his feelings regarding his mother’s new marriage quite plainly in Act 3, Scene 4, in which he mistakenly kills Polonius thinking it is Claudius.