Essay Database

Before the module began I had a fixed idea of what madness was. I had underestimated the complexity of the portrayal of madness and as a result of this, I was surprised by the range of texts that we explored from that particular perspective. Reading Sylvia Plath’s, The Bell Jar seemed to me initially, an easy read. However, after discussing the text in the seminar with relation to the language diagram of paradigmatic and …

…need to speak the unconscious, to explain the unexplainable and present the psyche on the page. Her ‘insanity’ becomes evident on the page when I considered that this might be her aim in the text. An example of this need to present the psyche in words can be seen throughout the whole novel. The impossibility of her task and her ultimate failing to present her own inner reality as she sees it or perceives it.