Mental illness is not a modern phenomenon. However, the societal outlook towards mental illness and the individuals battling it have definitely evolved over the centuries. History might tell us about celebrated monarchs or their idiosyncrasies, but a true picture of people’s perception of mental illness can be traced only through the pages of literature.
Ever since English literature began evolving, the issues were not just dealt with by physicians, psychiatrists and psychologists, but were taken up with fervour by poets and writers. Literature reflects an increasing willingness to explore mental health through interestingly created characters, often unusual and eccentric.
Let us take a look at how some of the literary characters, including many of our favourites, who knowingly or unknowingly battled mental illnesses.
The Eccentricity Of ‘Insanity’ In Shakespeare’s Works
Mental health seemed to have a curious fascination for Shakespeare. While melancholy was almost an ailment prone to adversely affect writers and poets; rejected or unsatisfied lovers were often at the risk of mental collapse.
However, romance was not alone responsible for causing what is often referred to as ‘madness’ in Shakespeare. Mischance or trauma, overwork, shock or religious torment could also cause a person to lose their reason. Even though he does not explicitly use the words ‘depression’ or anything else to do with ‘mental health’, these are precisely the reasons behind many of his characters living a mentally unhealthy life.
Take Lady Macbeth for example.
“I still have the smell of blood on my hand. All the perfumes of Arabia couldn’t make my little hand smell better. Oh, oh, oh!”
Perhaps, Lady Macbeth is one of the most haunted minds Shakespeare has created. Haunted by the murders committed by Macbeth, with her instigation prompted by her urge to satiate her irresistible hunger for power, Lady Macbeth suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Parasomnia. PTSD occurs when one witnesses a traumatising event, and Parasomnia includes abnormal behaviour during sleep, such as sleepwalking. Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene is one of the most talked about. The constant washing of her hands to get rid of the imaginary blood shows she was suffering from OCD.
Hamlet’s quest for revenge and his madness resulted in his death. In the beginning, he is visited by his father’s ghost, who tells him that he was murdered by Claudius, driving Hamlet to want to seek vengeance. Hamlet’s ‘madness’, as many would call it, very likely stems from an actual mental illness, perhaps a depressive illness. He suffers from melancholy, and his father’s death worsens the pre-existing condition. He displays pessimistic thoughts and negativity throughout the play. Unable to cope with it, he keeps falling deep into the abyss of depression.
Hamlet’s Ophelia, too, shows symptoms of depression. “I do not know, my lord, what I should think”, Ophelia tells her father Polonius, indicating her unwillingness to have an identity of her own. Her father’s identity was her identity, and the loss of that identity drove her into further depression, ultimately resulting in her death.
King Lear has served as inspiration for psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts. The play deals with Lear’s quest to seek refuge and love with his daughters, and his slow descent into becoming mentally unhealthy thereafter. Interested health professionals today diagnose Lear with mental illnesses like senile dementia, mania, bipolar disorder, and delirium.
These Shakespearean protagonists have undoubtedly portrayed vivid symptoms of some kind of severe psychotic disorder or the other. Lurid representations of their eccentricities by the Bard have gone on to add more flavour, and even romanticism, to his timeless classics.
However, one of his lesser celebrated works goes on to glorify the dangerous practice of gaslighting and manipulation in a relationship, which is considered as two of the key contributors to mental health problems in modern society. The Taming Of The Shrew – where a proud and snobbish Katherina is ‘schooled’ to become a gentle, obedient wife by a highly manipulative Petruchio – reeks of misogyny in every aspect.
Though such trends might have disappeared from modern literature, unfortunately, the practice has not. Even today, many women and men bear the brunt of mentally abusive relationships, where gaslighting often drives the survivor to severe trauma, depression, anxiety and even paranoia.
Mental Illness In Victorian Classics
“What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.”
In Charlotte Brontë’s novel, this is how Jane Eyre describes Mr Rochester’s wife Be…
