The Lovemad Woman in Nineteenth Century Literature :: literature literary criticism

The Lovemad Woman in Nineteenth Century literary works The lovemad adult female was a very important part of nineteenth-century literature. The lovemad charr, originally characterized as a female who becomes insane due to the departure of her lover, was an important character in literature. From Antigone to Ophelia to Jane Eyre, the lovemad woman is seen by dint ofout literature in various contexts. The definition of such a woman changed as the definition of what is it to be a woman in ecumenic changed throughout history. Love indulgence was seen both in the literature of the nineteenth century and in reality. At the time, the definition of dementia and how it should be treated was going under dramatic changes. Love madness was seen as a primarily female disease. Insanity in general was seen to occur more often in females due to their natural weakness. being female was almost a form of insanity because of what is seen as their biological inferiority. Living in a male-domin ated society, women were forced to be weak, to be sickly. Women were looked at as unnatural if they were too forceful in their actions and emotions. They were also looked megabucks upon if they expressed their familiarity too blatantly. Love madness itself is linked with sexual knowledge and innocence ( tenuous 83). A woman was in danger of comme il faut mad if she had too much sexual knowledge A new(a) lady was only worth as much as her sexual morality and appearance of complete innocence . . . . Once lead astray, she was the fallen woman, and zipper could reconcile her until she died (Lee). Nineteenth-century British society was able to brainwash females into ignoring their sexuality through tales of Medusa-like creatures (Gilbert 53). Young women would hear various tales of women who had given into their carnal desires and then as punishment became virtual monsters. An example of this can be seen in Bertha Mason, who becomes a monster due to her overpowering sexual nature. E laine Showalter addresses these legends in her book, A Literature of Their Own, by saying the legends themselves express a cultural attitude toward female passion as a potentially dangerous force that moldiness be punished and confined (Showalter 119). These monsters of women are experiencing what became to be known as moral insanity. J.C. Prichard defined moral insanity as a pathologic perversion of the natural feelings, affections, inclinations, temper, habits, and moral dispositions without any notable lesion of the intellect ( Small 163).