The concept of insanity changes the text because everything makes more sense. The reason why she is so uncomfortably mature for her age, the reason why she never met her mother, and the reason why there was an awkward white elephant in the room in every scene when she would ask about her past or her future. Like on page 227 , " 'It may be foolish, but I should like to see m mother's grave.' You shall someday, Sybil.' and a curious change came over my uncle's face as he averted it." In that instance you see an awkward aversion to any subject of her family history or her future plans.
It alters the reader reception of the message because it opens up a whole new world of problems in this time period. I don't know of any other nineteenth century novel that talked about insanity until now. It also makes for a more interesting and mysterious plot, as most Gothic novels do. There is a heightened sense of suspense and it draws the reader in. After you find out she is actually crazy, as her mother was, you begin to want to keep turning the pages to find out what exactly she has, and how the story will end. The message is altered entirely because of the insanity card, it's like whenever a baby enters the picture: everything becomes more emotional and more mature.
It changes our previous ideas about important mother and daughter relationships in nineteenth-century society and fiction because normally we see such a strong bond between mothers and daughters. But in this novel, she has no contact with either of her parents, which conveys a message to the reader of the importance of a relationship with your parents. Look what happened to Sybil: she went crazy and she had delusional thoughts about hooking up with her "uncle". She was overtly flirty and promiscuous with family members, all at only seventeen; sexuality was never openly discussed in the nineteenth century, even if manipulation of men was around, it was discreet. I found the book very interesting and I liked that it didn't follow the good girl, decent family relationship, normal plot-it added some complex elements that tells the audience the utmost importance that is family relationships.
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Ashley, I love that we thought the same about a few things throughout this text like the errieness of the Uncle avoiding to talk about Sybil's mother, and her grave yet she was not yet dead at this point. I also agree that her relationship with her 'Uncle" was quite different adn not in the most promising manner. This does bring in new issues between mother and daughter that we have not seen before, and I felt that there was a different connection that did not need to be spoken of between mother and daughter.
ReplyDeleteAshley, I completely agree with everything you said! It definitely reminded me a lot of my own blog. With the insanity card played it really made everything in the story finally make sense! I always enjoy reading your blogs! Great job!
ReplyDeleteYou thought she was really insane? I thought she was driven to it. She appeared to more desperate and scared then crazy, but I can see how using the insane card would make readers more comfortable with her behavior. I loved the "thriller" feel of the novel. The others were good, but started to get cheesey with all the content about family and religion. This was a refresher for 19th century lit. for me.
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