アメリカ女性ゴシック小説における狂気 : 「家庭の天使」による呪縛

概要

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Madness is one of the conventional motifs in Gothic literature. This literary genre first appeared in 18^<th>-century British society, where reason and rationality were appreciated. Against this social trend, Gothic literature tried to disclose irrational emotions or desires repressed into the inner part of the human psyche. One of the symbolic expressions for these feelings veiled in darkness was madness. Of particular interest in Gothic literature is the phenomenon of female madness. As Helen Small argues, "the forms of insanity are usually clearly gendered in early Gothic fiction." In the case of male protagonists, they are "driven to insanity by vaulting ambition and uncontrollable lust." (153) On the contrary, females tend to lose their wits as the result of being victimized by male villains. Feminist critics maintain, however, that since the Victorian era, female writers have adopted heroines afflicted with madness in order to articulate their angry protest against the idea of "the Angel in the House" created in the male-oriented society. Taking such examples as "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, I would like to discuss how heroines' madness symbolizes resistance to their situations in American society in the period from the late 19^<th> century to the mid-20^<th> century.