A topic was brought up in a conversation on another blog about the relationship between women and their ability to sense ghosts. There are countless stories where a female character is more sensitive to the supernatural than the males present. Why is this?
My theory is that it is because women are the 'life givers' in nature. In most supernatural stories, there are usually details relating to reproduction. That is, water, confined spaces, ways of manifesting, etc. all relate to the womb. Women are tied more closely to the spiritual aspect of things, as it is from them that new life grows.
For example, when Beloved comes to physical existence, she appears out of water. Once she's made it to the shore, she leans against a tree, trying to gain control of her senses. She is, for all intents and purposes, just like a newborn child. One could also draw a parallel between the narrator at the end of The Yellow Wallpaper, who is in a reduced mental state and crawling around the room with a rope tied around her waist, to a newborn child who is unable to walk, and the rope could be compared to an umbilical cord.
Because of these ties, women are left more susceptible to the presence of ghosts. Men, who don't have the ability to labor through childbirth, are thus at a disadvantage.
Women being more prone to the supernatural is apparent in Water Ghosts. It is Corlissa who is visited by the spirits of the two deceased women. It is also apparent in The Giant Wisteria, where all of the woman, albeit a little less seriously, are witness to ghosts while their husbands are not. In Beloved, the people who interact with Beloved most closely are Sethe and Denver, and even Paul D has been stripped of most of his masculinity by the time he comes in contact with/through his contact with Beloved.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
The Yellow Wallpaper
Initially I wanted to avoid talking about this story, as I've said similar things about it before. But I think it fits well with the theme I've been following, and thus want to analyze it a bit.
The story starts off with a narrator who is most probably suffering from a form of depression, and living in a time where rest cures were thought to be effective. These coupled together make for a terrible mental state, whatever it may be classified as, and, subsequently, a 'haunting of the mind'.
The narrator's mental condition deteriorates throughout the story. At first she contemplates the wallpaper, and how it is slightly off-putting. She seems to convince herself that the room she is in is different from what it more than likely is, although we as readers will never know for sure, as the narrator is our only source of information and she is unreliable. The wallpaper is nothing more than an instigator for the narrator's decline.
As the narrator is left without any sort of creative outlet, her mind tries to find other ways to occupy itself. She is forced to spend the majority of her day sleeping or 'resting', and her access to any sort of entertainment is limited. She attempts to write down her thoughts, but as she has to hide that, also, she is left only with her own mind to wander through.
In the room, the wallpaper is the only other interesting aspect the narrator can focus on. Because she has nothing else, she allows her mind to focus intently on it, becoming even obsessed with it. Her lack of human contact, coupled in with her exclusion from creativity, causes her to latch on to anything she can. In her case, the wallpaper.
When her condition deteriorates further, she begins seeing things. This may be her mind attempting to find an 'out' of her isolation. That is, when people are isolated so thoroughly, they tend to start hallucinating and the mind creates a separate world for them to live in. This is much the same as the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper.
By the end of the story, the narrator has become so engulfed in her own imagination that she has detached herself from reality. She is unable to separate her hallucinations (the 'woman' in the wallpaper) with her own self. It is likely she created the image of the woman being trapped as a way to escape her, for lack of a better word, torture via rest cure. The woman is a reflection of herself, who cannot escape the prison put in place for her by others. The narrator then allows the mental image of this woman to break free, which is a longing the narrator herself has had -- to be free of the rest cure and allowed to live her life in the way she wants -- and lets it overtake her mind. If she can't be free in reality, she allows herself to lose her mind in order to escape that reality.
In the end, although The Yellow Wallpaper has a bit of ghostly element to it, it is a much more psychologically based work. The narrator, rather than being haunted by an outside being, is being haunted by herself. Everything she allows herself to see and feel are fueled by her own mind, rather than an outside existence acting on her.
The story starts off with a narrator who is most probably suffering from a form of depression, and living in a time where rest cures were thought to be effective. These coupled together make for a terrible mental state, whatever it may be classified as, and, subsequently, a 'haunting of the mind'.
The narrator's mental condition deteriorates throughout the story. At first she contemplates the wallpaper, and how it is slightly off-putting. She seems to convince herself that the room she is in is different from what it more than likely is, although we as readers will never know for sure, as the narrator is our only source of information and she is unreliable. The wallpaper is nothing more than an instigator for the narrator's decline.
As the narrator is left without any sort of creative outlet, her mind tries to find other ways to occupy itself. She is forced to spend the majority of her day sleeping or 'resting', and her access to any sort of entertainment is limited. She attempts to write down her thoughts, but as she has to hide that, also, she is left only with her own mind to wander through.
In the room, the wallpaper is the only other interesting aspect the narrator can focus on. Because she has nothing else, she allows her mind to focus intently on it, becoming even obsessed with it. Her lack of human contact, coupled in with her exclusion from creativity, causes her to latch on to anything she can. In her case, the wallpaper.
When her condition deteriorates further, she begins seeing things. This may be her mind attempting to find an 'out' of her isolation. That is, when people are isolated so thoroughly, they tend to start hallucinating and the mind creates a separate world for them to live in. This is much the same as the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper.
By the end of the story, the narrator has become so engulfed in her own imagination that she has detached herself from reality. She is unable to separate her hallucinations (the 'woman' in the wallpaper) with her own self. It is likely she created the image of the woman being trapped as a way to escape her, for lack of a better word, torture via rest cure. The woman is a reflection of herself, who cannot escape the prison put in place for her by others. The narrator then allows the mental image of this woman to break free, which is a longing the narrator herself has had -- to be free of the rest cure and allowed to live her life in the way she wants -- and lets it overtake her mind. If she can't be free in reality, she allows herself to lose her mind in order to escape that reality.
In the end, although The Yellow Wallpaper has a bit of ghostly element to it, it is a much more psychologically based work. The narrator, rather than being haunted by an outside being, is being haunted by herself. Everything she allows herself to see and feel are fueled by her own mind, rather than an outside existence acting on her.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Beloved
I wanted to analyze the psychology behind the presence of the character Beloved in the novel 'Beloved' by Toni Morrison. This novel is a bit different than short stories such as 'The Fall of the House of Usher' or 'The Yellow Wallpaper', as the character Beloved is an actual physical manifestation of a ghost.
Let's pretend for a moment that she's not. Instead, she is something along the lines of a mass hallucination. This will allow me to look at her from a different perspective, and analyze what she is to Sethe.
Sethe had managed to escape slavery, which was a trauma that would always be with her in scars, both physical and mental. She was treated like an animal, and when the schoolteacher showed up to try and reclaim her children, he even discussed her as if she were an animal. And in that situation, Sethe acted like an animal, allowing herself to fall victim to primal instincts. It is human nature to think ourselves different than animals, above them. Although we are, technically, animals, we try to separate ourselves from them.
Sethe, upon realizing the schoolteacher had come to reclaim her children as well as herself to be slaves, rushed her children out of the house and into a shed where she attempted to kill them, because she thought death would be better than slavery. Perhaps it would have been. But in allowing herself to become an animal, instead of throwing away her life and trying to escape elsewhere with her children, Sethe causes scars to herself, which she cannot escape. Schoolteacher, in the same passage, refers to Sethe in such a way that he believes she is no better than an animal. His speech refers to her as livestock, property to be owned and treated no better than the other animals i his possession, who just happens to help take care of his family. He reprimands his nephews for treating her so terribly-- after all, if you abuse an animal it won't be loyal to you. This situation reduces Sethe to that. She falls into the role Schoolteacher has set for her, rather than breaking free from it. And, in that way, she also fails to become completely free, despite no longer living as a slave.
Beloved is a manifestation of Sethe's guilt. Her existence, or perceived existence, is purely a way for Sethe to express her guilt, and, in the end, move toward life rather than dwelling on the past. Beloved's presence provokes many memories in Sethe, some of which she'd chosen to forget, and forces her to confront the past, rather than ignoring it. When Sethe begins to become overly attached to Beloved, it is her way of succumbing to the guilt which has finally overwhelmed her, brought on by the abandonment of her two sons who left in fear that Sethe may once again attempt to kill them. Beloved becomes a parasite to Sethe's psyche, letting Sethe finally mourn and lament her past actions. And, in the end, Beloved becomes the gateway for Sethe to abandon the past in favor of the here and now and protecting what she has, Denver.
Although Beloved is portrayed as a physical character that can interact with others aside from Sethe, her presence is focused on allowing Sethe's mind to heal itself, and allowing Sethe to move on with her life.
Let's pretend for a moment that she's not. Instead, she is something along the lines of a mass hallucination. This will allow me to look at her from a different perspective, and analyze what she is to Sethe.
Sethe had managed to escape slavery, which was a trauma that would always be with her in scars, both physical and mental. She was treated like an animal, and when the schoolteacher showed up to try and reclaim her children, he even discussed her as if she were an animal. And in that situation, Sethe acted like an animal, allowing herself to fall victim to primal instincts. It is human nature to think ourselves different than animals, above them. Although we are, technically, animals, we try to separate ourselves from them.
Sethe, upon realizing the schoolteacher had come to reclaim her children as well as herself to be slaves, rushed her children out of the house and into a shed where she attempted to kill them, because she thought death would be better than slavery. Perhaps it would have been. But in allowing herself to become an animal, instead of throwing away her life and trying to escape elsewhere with her children, Sethe causes scars to herself, which she cannot escape. Schoolteacher, in the same passage, refers to Sethe in such a way that he believes she is no better than an animal. His speech refers to her as livestock, property to be owned and treated no better than the other animals i his possession, who just happens to help take care of his family. He reprimands his nephews for treating her so terribly-- after all, if you abuse an animal it won't be loyal to you. This situation reduces Sethe to that. She falls into the role Schoolteacher has set for her, rather than breaking free from it. And, in that way, she also fails to become completely free, despite no longer living as a slave.
Beloved is a manifestation of Sethe's guilt. Her existence, or perceived existence, is purely a way for Sethe to express her guilt, and, in the end, move toward life rather than dwelling on the past. Beloved's presence provokes many memories in Sethe, some of which she'd chosen to forget, and forces her to confront the past, rather than ignoring it. When Sethe begins to become overly attached to Beloved, it is her way of succumbing to the guilt which has finally overwhelmed her, brought on by the abandonment of her two sons who left in fear that Sethe may once again attempt to kill them. Beloved becomes a parasite to Sethe's psyche, letting Sethe finally mourn and lament her past actions. And, in the end, Beloved becomes the gateway for Sethe to abandon the past in favor of the here and now and protecting what she has, Denver.
Although Beloved is portrayed as a physical character that can interact with others aside from Sethe, her presence is focused on allowing Sethe's mind to heal itself, and allowing Sethe to move on with her life.
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