Mad Women In Literature: Madness as a Social Construct 

Throughout history, the concept of madness has often been wielded as a weapon against women who dared to defy societal norms. Madness comprises conditions and feelings of insanity, lunacy, hysteria, irrationality, anger, and fury. Less of a medical diagnosis, and more a social construct, it was used to control women who expressed dissatisfaction with the limited roles prescribed to them. Women demanding agency over their lives were perceived as dangerous and a potential threat.  Historically, the fear that women possess a destructive power to challenge established ideologies was used as an excuse to ensure the subjugation of women.

Let’s take a deep dive to understand how the mad woman trope has been portrayed in literature throughout the ages:

Greek Literature: Pandora, The Harbinger Of Evil

Greek myths often associated women with evil, anger, irrationality, and madness. In Hesiod’s “Theogony”, Pandora, the first human woman created by the gods, particularly by Zeus, was sent as a punishment for mankind, after the titan Prometheus gave fire to humans. She was sent with a box that contained all forces of evil and suffering, which she ultimately unleashed on Earth. Gifted with curiosity, she could not resist the urge to explore the contents inside the box. This myth directly associates women with feeble minds (inability to curb curiosity) and portrays the first woman on earth as the harbinger of evil.

Biblical texts: the stigmatization of women

Eve of Eden

In Judeo Christian Torah, God created the first human on earth, Adam, and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate the land. Realizing that Adam needed company, God created a suitable companion for him from his rib, the first woman on earth, Eve. They lived a tranquil life in the garden, which was filled with trees. They were allowed to eat fruits from all kinds of trees except the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

One day, a talking serpent tempted Eve to eat the forbidden and she made Adam eat it as well. Enraged, God put a curse on them, cursing Eve with the pain of childbirth and to always be a subordinate to her husband. This led to Eve, like Pandora, being portrayed as weak-minded and as the downfall of mankind and humankind, and laid the groundwork for the perception that women are influenced by evil forces.

Lilith: Independence and Demonic Legacy

In Jewish mythology, Lilith was the first wife of Adam, placed in the Garden of Eden alongside him. Problems arose when Adam wanted her to be submissive. Lilith was unwilling to succumb to Adam’s demands, as she believed they were equals since both were created from the same earth. Unable to reconcile, Lilith left the Garden of Eden to gain independence and fled to the Red Sea to reside with the demons, procreating with them and ultimately becoming a demon herself. She went on to become the demon queen, killing mortal babies and causing sexual promiscuity.

Where the dangers associated with Eve and Pandora are weakness, curiosity, and feeble-mindedness, those associated with Lilith are her independence and unyielding nature. She is punished and demonized for refusing to be submissive and for possessing qualities that are historically exclusive to men.

These three women demonstrate the historical perception of women as dangerous and irrational creatures. 

Ophelia: Madness and Tragedy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Ophelia, from Hamlet, is the classic archetype of a madwoman in literature. Ophelia is presented as a demure, gentle, and submissive woman, who lacks a strong sense of self and complies with the demands of men in her life. Hamlet, her love interest, shows little regard for her feelings and treats her cruelly, causing her emotional distress. Ophelia finally descends into madness after her father is killed by Hamlet.

Throughout the play, Ophelia is submissive and bears everything in silence, but once she goes mad, she starts singing loud, inappropriate songs. Her behavior becomes increasingly erratic, with emotional outbursts in public. She dies tragically by drowning in a stream, the circumstances of her death are ambiguous, as it remains unclear if she drowned by accident or suicide. Either way, her tale of madness is tragic, marked by the grief of her father’s death, Hamlet’s mistreatment, and the devastating effects of the political chaos that surrounded her. Her despair is labeled as madness.

Hysteria: An Absurd Diagnosis of Women

In the 16th century, women were often sent to the madhouses by their husbands. By the nineteenth century, women outnumbered men in mental asylums. This stemmed from the belief that madness was inherently feminine. This, combined with the lack of women’s rights, led to the first mental diagnosis of women, hysteria. In the Victorian era, hysteria was a common medical diagnosis and symptoms included anxiety, depression and even fainting. The believed causes of hysteria were as absurd as the diagnosis itself – childbirth, religious obsession, engaging in intellectual pursuits, menstrual symptoms, expressing sexual desire, or lack of it, and so on. Instead of removing the root cause of their distress, they were prescribed treatments like hypnosis, rest cure, sedatives, etc.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

In this groundbreaking novel, Bertha is the paradigmatic madwoman.  The wife of Mr. Rochester is confined in the attic because of her “madness”. Bertha is a woman of mixed heritage from Jamaica. Rochester claimed that he married Bertha for her beauty and family wealth and only came to know of her true condition after marriage.

Since Bertha does not have a voice in the novel, it is impossible to verify Rochester’s claims about her. Regardless, he locked her in a room at Thornfield Hall, labeling her a lunatic. Her madness is depicted through various instances like crawling on all fours,  setting the bed on fire, and tearing Jane’s wedding veil. This emphasizes her frustration, anger, and pain of being locked up like an animal.

Bertha’s story demonstrates how women were treated if they did not meet societal expectations, highlighting the prejudice towards women of color during the Victorian era. While Bertha’s final act of setting Thornfield Hall on fire and jumping off the roof can be seen as the height of madness, it can also be interpreted as a confined woman seeking independence and agency, tragically, at the cost of her life. Her erratic behavior may be seen as justifiable rage.

The Yellow Wallpaper: 1st Wave Feminism

The first wave of feminism aimed to achieve equal citizenship and voting rights. This had significant relevance with the concept of madness, as women were forcibly institutionalized and treated by their husbands if they suffered from any mental health problems. This influenced Charlotte Perkins Gilman to write “The Yellow Wallpaper”, one of the most influential pieces of feminist writing.

The novel explores the story of a woman probably experiencing postpartum depression, portrayed through a series of journals. She is confined in a room by her husband who says she has a “temporary hysterical tendency”, a common diagnosis at the time, and given the “rest cure”. This treatment involved isolation, complete bed rest, and refraining from any mental exertion or creative activity. Imprisoned in a room, the narrator becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper, hallucinating that there is a woman trapped behind it, and tries to free her. She begs her husband to let her out but he insists that it is for her own good.

The longer she is trapped and robbed of her autonomy, the more her mental health deteriorates, leading to her complete descent into madness. Unlike the other women discussed above, this madwoman is finally given a voice through her writing.

The Transformation Of The Mad Woman In Literature

All these women were not mad, but simply enraged at being held up in chains and fought the patriarchy in the only way they knew.

In contemporary literature, like The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the mad woman trope has undergone a drastic change. Mental health issues are now depicted as just one aspect of a woman’s complex, multidimensional life, rather than defining her entirely.

To delve deeper into the life of Sylvia Plath, check out The Life Of Sylvia Plath: From Ink To Immortality

Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea retells the story of Jane Eyre from the perspective of Bertha Mason. Modern authors have completely changed the narrative of a madwoman by offering feminist and multifaceted perspectives. In modern literature, Mental health deterioration is no longer depicted as an inherent female trait, but a product of various socio-political factors.

It can be said that the mad woman in the attic has finally escaped her confinement, and no longer needs to endure that yellow wallpaper.

If you’re a literature enthusiast, consider How To Read Classic Literature In 6 Easy Steps.