For my project, I decided to create a timeline that follows the “Mad Woman in the Attic” trope and how the depiction of women in this trope evolved. I decided to include the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman because it felt relevant. The purpose of this timeline is to showcase how a trope can evolve to match the political and social views at the time.
The timeline shows how this progression happened slowly, over a significant amount of time. Between the publications of Jane Eyre and Mexican Gothic 173 years have passed. In that time, depiction of women in literature overall improved. However, we are looking at one specific trope; “The Madwoman in the Attic”.
“The Madwoman in the Attic” is a woman who has been stripped of agency and locked away due to mental illness “for her own good”. In an article about the trope, Bhavya Saini explains;
“They were deemed unfit of any social interactions and were kept usually locked or confined in a room. The only advised treatment was the ‘rest cure’ which denied any physical activities or social interactions to cure hysteria. Female writers during the nineteenth century identified the problematic nature of the practice and acknowledged the same in their works way before it was scientifically and socially accepted.”
What began as a trope in literature that suppressed women, especially mentally ill women, has evolved into a more complex commentary. What is the standard for a woman to be “deemed unfit of any social interactions”? Why is the rest cure always provided, and what purpose does it serve? Later works like Gaslight, Wide Sargasso Sea, and Mexican Gothic seem to explore these questions in more detail than earlier works such as Jane Eyre or “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
After analysis of the works and a closer look at the timeline, it seems each rendition gets more progressive in their depiction. The works also get more nuanced. The madwoman goes from a crazy, feral animal (Bertha) to a captive victim that regains agency and saves herself (Catalina). The commentary gets more complex as it explores;
- The racial and social climates of the regions (ex. Jamaica or Mexico). The main characters themselves are not white, so the complex racial issues are explored. This is an intersectional layer to the later texts.
- Madness gets increasingly more attributed to mental illness or physical disease. It starts getting treated like a condition as the result of external factors (like crazy husbands) rather than an internal issue. For example, Bertha has an inherent “crazy” disposition in Jane Eyre, but Catalina in Mexican Gothic is being manipulated by supernatural mushroom fungus.
- The ending where the madwoman reclaims her power becomes more commonplace. They get revenge or escape their captors/whatever was making them act strangely.
That brings me to the question of where does the madwoman go from here? How could this theme be explored further? I feel previous scholars have explored the dangers of depicting women specifically this way, the racial intersection, but where else can we go?
If I were to write a work involving this trope in 2024, I might go more of the disability studies route. I think I would like to explore more about why certain mental illnesses or health struggles are deemed as abnormal or make people socially unfit. There is a lot to be said about the treatment of mental illness as it exists today. The trope exists because the treatment at the time was just locking people up. However, today we have better facilities, medication, therapy, etc. How would these treatments play into a commentary about the madwoman in the attic? I wonder if this work is already being done.
I think there is more to analyze and deconstruct about the actual treatment of these women, besides being driven crazy. I think future works with this trope will take more of a disability studies angle, or go entirely supernatural like Mexican Gothic. Saini once again offers insight, saying “It has made the ‘madwoman’ come out of the ‘attic’ and involve in social conversations to be heard and understood in order to heal”. What else could be added to this conversation?
Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Virago Press, 1981.
Saini, Bhavya. “Who is the Madwoman in the Attic? Why is She Still Relevant?” Imperium Publication, https://www.imperiumpublication.com/post/who-is-a-madwoman-in-the-attic#:~:text=A%20’madwoman%20in%20the%20attic,hysteria%20during%20the%20nineteenth%20century. Accessed 8 May 2024
Sprockets and Springes 