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Corfman, Allisa. “Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath.” Poem Analysis, https://poemanalysis.com/sylvia-plath/lady-lazarus/.

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Haralu, Lindsay, "Madwomen and mad women: an analysis of the use of female insanity and anger in narrative fiction, from vilification to validation." (2021). College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses. Paper 239. Retrieved from https://ir.library.louisville.edu/honors/239

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Schultz, Diana G. "She is Finally Free": An Analysis of Women's Pathologized Oppression and Reclamation of the Abject in "the Yellow Wallpaper" and Midsommar, State University of New York at Albany, United States -- New York, 2020. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/she-is-finally-free-analysis-womens-pathologized/docview/2408266410/se-2.

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Crazy. Hysterical. A madwoman. In contemporary media, we still see representations of a madwoman – typically someone who shows extreme emotions and insanity. Women’s mental health in literature and media has frequently been tied to hysteria, madness, and somehow a connection with evil. The Near Eastern and Greco-Roman civilizations, as seen in their etiological mythologies, associate women with irrationality, evil, madness, and anger (Haralu 6). From here, women became the reason for the world’s irrationality and evilness. Furthermore, hysteria, fury, and lunacy are closely related to being a woman. Thus, the madwoman literary trope took place and became a recurring theme in a lot of literature and in the media.  As a literary trope, being a madwoman connotes highly negative perceptions of women – too emotional, too angry, too unstable.

Haralu (62) traces this madwoman phenomenon back to the deeply patriarchal modes of literature. Hippocrates believed that hysteria only occurred amongst women as a result of the female need to be sexually satisfied (12). Additionally, Chodoff's definition of hysteria is a culturally induced exaggeration of femininity. Chesler's claim perfectly sums up the madwoman narrative — that women are classified as 'healthy', 'neurotic', or 'psychotic' according to the standards of a patriarchal society (13).

This archive aims to examine the madwomen in  “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, and Midsommar directed by Ari Aster. These four texts focus, or have elements, of the madwoman trope ranging from the 1960s to 2019. The representation of a madwoman differs as it reflects the text’s time and norms but, at the same time, becomes interrelated as all four texts take root in a woman’s response to the patriarchal society. Moreover, the madwoman character becomes a symbol of agency for women to reclaim their autonomy. With these four texts, I aim to answer the question: how was women’s mental health portrayed in AAL tradition and what were the factors contributing to women’s mental health? More importantly, what’s a madwoman and why is she “mad”? I argue that the madwoman phenomenon is a response to the oppressive treatment of a patriarchal society to women and how this “madwoman” personality is a form of liberation and reclamation of one’s identity and autonomy.

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Taylor Swift – mad woman (Official Lyric Video)

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Dani

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Dani and Christian are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian…

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Narrator

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Antoinette

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Wide Sargasso Sea : Rhys, Jean, author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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Lady Lazarus

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Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath | Poetry Foundation

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Midsommar (2019) tackles a couple who goes to Sweden for the midsummer festival. In this archive, we will focus on Dani’s (the female protagonist) emotional journey during the midsummer festival including her relationship with her boyfriend, Christian. Christian can be characterized as an inattentive and insensitive boyfriend to Dani. In fact, Christian only invited Dani to the festival because he felt bad about Dani's parents and sister passing away. However, Dani does not see this; she blames herself for their relationship problems.

On this trip, she represses a lot of negative emotions to please Christian and his friends (Schultz 6). Dani is constantly in a state of sorry: ashamed of her emotions, apologizing profusely for her emotions, even after a life tragedy (Schultz 31). She slowly realizes how Christian repeatedly treats her badly. The nail in the coffin for Dani is witnessing Christian partake in a mating ritual. At the end of it, Dani chooses to let Christian (the masculinity agent of women's emotional repression) burn. This is when she chooses to liberate herself from Christian and becomes part of the family in the midsummer festival.

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a woman’s deteriorating mental state. The narrator’s husband, John, signifies the traditional attitude toward mental illnesses during his time (and even now). John prescribes her a "rest cure" that entails isolation. This was a common treatment when diagnosed with any nervous disease in the 19th century. For her, it was a "temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency" (648). A particular line that would signify what she's feeling and experiencing is:

You see he does not believe I am sick!
And what can one do? (648)

If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency – what is one to do? (649)

He blatantly refutes his wife’s concerns about her own mental health which would inevitably lead to her mental breakdown. It’s an overarching theme in the story wherein the narrator would express her powerlessness and how she was trapped behind the yellow wallpaper. The regaining of her autonomy and power comes with John, the symbol of patriarchal oppression (Schultz 4), fainting on the floor.

"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"
Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!

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An allegory to the Biblical figure Lazarus, Sylvia Plath nods towards various events in her life like suicide attempts and still living afterward, just like how Jesus Christ resurrects Lazarus from the dead. For Lady Lazarus, being resurrected from the dead means she cannot have freedom and peace. This poem focuses on a woman-centric kind of oppression and how women have little autonomy over their lives in a male-dominated world (Corfman).

Lines 65-66

So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.

Lines 79-81

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

The female speaker addresses several men like God, Lucifer, and Doktor. Plath also calls the people in the poem as “Herr” or “sir” in English which implies that different kinds of male authority control her. Thus, dying seems like a way for Lady Lazarus to escape her suffering and oppression. It is a way of reclaiming her own life and body. And to reclaim these, she posed a warning for the next man who will make her return from death:

Lines 82-84

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

All throughout the poem, there's a sense of helplessness and anger towards men. However, in these lines, the female speaker transforms herself into a phoenix — a creature who burns and rises from its own ashes. Here, the female speaker becomes powerful and aims to regain her life and body.

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Tennholt, Karolina. “Patriarchal madness: Patriarchal oppression and madness in Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.” 2005. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:16322/fulltext01.pdf.

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The Wide Sargasso Sea tackles the famous Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre with an established mental illness who lived in an attic. In this text, we see intersectionality in Antoinette’s problems (otherness, race, patriarchal) that led to her “madness”. Antoinette’s Creole heritage and patriarchal husband contributed to her oppression. Moreover, Antoinette’s rebellion against Victorian norms and values is also attributed to her madwoman in the attic image, as characterized by her husband Mr. Rochester.

She’ll not laugh in the sun again. She’ll not dress up and smile at herself in that damnable looking-glass. So pleased, so satisfied. Vain, silly creature. Made for loving? Yes, but she’ll have no lover, for I don’t want her and she’ll see no other. (107)

Mr. Rochester has never been fond of Antoinette but considers her as his belonging. He prohibits her to have an independent life — a sign of maintaining his power and dominance over her. In describing Antoinette, he degrades her and gives her animalistic characteristics (Tennholt 19).

Her hair hung uncombed and dull into her eyes which were inflamed and staring, her face was very flushed and looked swollen. He feet were bare... (93)

This is an attempt by Mr. Rochester to remove Antoinette's humanness, thus, dehumanizing her. Additionally, after his infidelity, Mr. Rochester felt as if he made an unfortunate choice of wife and even feels sorry for himself because Antoinette was drunk and exhibits rage. Now, he's convinced that Antoinette is a madwoman because Victorian women do not get drunk, they do not rage at their husbands, or seduce them.

Pity. Is there none for me? Tied to a lunatic for life- a drunken lying lunatic-gone her mother’s way.

...

She thirsts for anyone- not for me… She’ll loosen her black hair, and laugh and coax and flatter (a mad girl. She’ll not care who she’s loving). She’ll moan and cry and give herself as no sane woman would- or could. Or could. (106)

In the end, Antoinette becomes indifferent. She looks silently at the sea without any songs and lore coming out of her mouth. She becomes a memory to be avoided as she's locked away in England.