madness/insanity in literature

[cacian]

such a topic is impressive when the writer highlights it craftly. it is not easy to flesh out a mad character by all means unless one has actually suffered or knows of it.
any mad or insane characters in literature you can recall or think of please list them here

I start:

the famous Jane Eyre
Bertah Antoinetta Mason: the first wife of Edward Rochester.

[kev67]

Gollum from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I am not sure he is actually mad, but his mental health is not great.

[qimissung]

I think he has gone mad at some point, Kev. And of course the list must begin with Bertha!

Eleanor Vance, in "The Haunting of Hill House," and perhaps Merricat Blackwood from "We Have Always Lived in the Castle."

Oh, and Hill House itself.

[Vota]

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, or Raskolnikov in short; the main character of "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky, springs to mind. That was probably the most manic feeling read I can remember. Reading the book over the course of 3 or so weeks literally had a negative effect on me, though I was enjoying the read.

[mal4mac]

Dickens' novels are full of great eccentrics, of course, but only a few of them shade into madness. Mr. Dick (Richard Babley) from David Copperfield is one of my favourites. He lives with David's aunt, herself a great eccentric, and you start thinking that Mr Dick is "just another eccentric", but slowly realise that he is indeed deranged, though not dangerous. Unlike the eccentrics, he couldn't function alone in society (needing David's aunt to help him.) He's such a kind, gentle, amiable man that you are rooting for him, but have to admit he's not all there. For instance, he is constantly writing a "Memorial" but is unable to finish it, partly because Charles I keeps edging his way into it (!)

[Lokasenna]

For what it's worth, I think Gollum is mad.

In terms of insanity, lots of things by Poe, Lovecraft, and their numerous imitators comes to mind.

[mona amon]

Don Quixote, everyone's favourite madman.

[chevalierdelame]

Roderick Usher in 'The fall of the house of Usher' and Egaeus in 'Berenice' by Poe.
The narrator of 'The Yellow wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

[mortalterror]

Looks like wikipedia has a page for this:

Ajax, circa 450 - 430 BC; tragedy by Sophocles
Hamlet, circa 1600; tragedy by William Shakespeare
Don Quixote, 1605/1615; two-volume novel by Miguel Cervantes, involves a man whose worldview is informed by fictional works, especially of chivalric exploits. Because of his refusal to conform to social conventions, he is perceived as mad by his contemporaries, without further evidence of a mental defect or illness.[1]
The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Faust I, 1808 tragedy by Goethe. The collision of a natural love-desire with her conscience and with the norms of the society around her evokes radical inner conflicts for the female hero Margarete.
The Bride of Lammermoor, 1819 historical novel by Sir Walter Scott
Diary of a Madman, 1835 farcical short story by Nikolai Gogol
Lenz, 1836 novella fragment by Georg Büchner depicting the unfolding of mental disorder with the German poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Madame Bovary, 1856 novel by Gustave Flaubert
Alice in Wonderland, 1865 novel by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Crime and Punishment, 1866 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1886 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson
Hunger (Sult in the original Norwegian), 1890 novel by Knut Hamsun depicting a man whose mind slowly turns to ruin through hunger
Ward Number Six, 1892 short story by Anton Chekhov[2]
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding, 1908 children's book by Beatrix Potter. Tom Kitten comes out of his ordeal with a crippling phobia of rats, and possible Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as well.
Remembrance of Things Past, 1913-1927 seven-volume novel by Marcel Proust
Swann's Way, 1913 work by Marcel Proust
Flight into Darkness (German original: Flucht in die Finsternis), 1931 novella by Arthur Schnitzler
Tender is the Night, 1934 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The A.B.C. Murders, 1936 detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie
Of Mice and Men, 1937 novella by John Steinbeck
And Then There Were None, 1939 detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie
The Royal Game (or Chess Story; Schachnovelle in the original German), 1942 novella by Stefan Zweig, depicting a monarchist who develops, and then cannot again shed, the custom to separate his psyche into two personas, having been urged to maintain his sanity by playing chess against himself in solitary confinement
Earth Abides, 1949 post-apocalyptic science-fiction novel by George Stewart, deals with the human reactions to living when nearly everyone else died.
The Catcher in the Rye, 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger
Lover, When You're Near Me, 1952 science fiction short story by Richard Matheson on a man being traumatically steered in his will by a woman of a dull extraterrestrial race who covets him sexually
Dear Diary, 1954 science fiction short story by Richard Matheson. Diary entries from the years AD 1964, AD 3964, and LXIV (=64) all show the same dissatisfaction with the current situation and the same desire to live either some thousand years later or earlier, that from 3964 also due to the unpleasant inventions of another inhabitant of the writer's plastic skyscraper, which enable him to see her through the walls.
The Two Towers, 1954 high fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Mind Thing, incomplete 1960 science fiction serialization, later published as a novel, by Fredric Brown. An extraterrestrial being has been sent to Earth as a punishment and tries to influence people's and animal's minds so that they would help it creating the technical means it needs to return home.
To Kill A Mockingbird, 1960 novel by Harper Lee
Unearthly Neighbors, 1960 science fiction novel by Chad Oliver. The anthropology professor Monte Stewart and the linguist Charlie Jenike get tough towards each other on a hot day after having killed a member of a race between apes and men on a planet of Sirius, together, in revenge for a deadly attack of the man's tribe onto their wives and a colleague. Jenike totally loses his mind and drowns himself in a nearby river, shortly after.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1962 novel by Ken Kesey about the treatment of mental illness[3]
Nilo, mi hijo - a 1963 play by Antonio González Caballero[4]
The Bell Jar, 1963 novel by Sylvia Plath, a fictionalised account of Plath's own struggles with depression[5]
Clans of the Alphane Moon, 1964 science-fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. Largely set on a world in which a lost group of former psychiatric patients have organised themselves into caste-like groups along psychiatric diagnostic lines, forming an unusual but functional society.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, 1964 autobiographical novel by Joanne Greenberg
A Wrinkle in the Skin, 1965 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by John Christopher. The hero and a boy meet a captain who has lost his mind, in his ship on the bottom of the English Channel that has fallen dry through an earthquake. They are welcomed heartily, but forbidden to take any food with them, when they leave.
The Bird of Paradise, 1967[6] work by R. D. Laing, often available with his non-fiction essay The Politics of Experience about schizophrenia and hallucinogenic drugs
The Ethics of Madness, 1967 science fiction short story by Larry Niven
Bedlam Planet, 1968 science fiction novel by John Brunner. A crew of astronauts tries to live on the animal and vegetable food growing on a planet of Sigma Draconis, which evokes mental disorder, but also sets free survival instincts that have so far been hidden.
The Sword, 1968 fantasy short story by Lloyd Alexander.A king who yields to anger, with lethal results, in a moment of weakness. As he grows worse and worse, he also develops a severe case of paranoia, fearing assassination and other revenge plots around every corner.
Knots, 1970 work by R.D. Laing
Sybil, 1973 novel by Flora Rheta Schreiber
Breakfast of Champions, 1973 novel by Kurt Vonnegut
Woman on the Edge of Time, 1976 novel by Marge Piercy
The Cat Who Went Underground, 1989 detective fiction novel by Lillian Jackson Braun
Doom Patrol, a comic book series originating in 1963. During Grant Morrison's 1989 - 1993 run it included the multiple personality affected Crazy Jane and several other characters either insane or in possession of greater truths.
Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, 1991 trilogy of novels by Timothy Zahn
Mariel of Redwall, 1991 fantasy novel by Brian Jacques
Regeneration, 1991 novel by Pat Barker, based on the historical experiences of the poet Siegfried Sassoon, explores shell-shock and other traumatic illnesses following World War I[7]
Amnesia, 1992 novel by Douglas Anthony Cooper
She's Come Undone, 1992 novel by Wally Lamb
Girl, Interrupted, 1993 novel by Susanna Kaysen
Effie's Burning, 1995 play[8][9] by Valerie Windsor
Maskerade, 1995 comic fantasy/detective fiction novel by Sir Terry Pratchett
Myst: The Book of Atrus, 1995 novel (re-released in a 2004 omnibus) by Rand and Robyn Miller with Dave Wingrove
Fight Club, 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk
The Green Mile, 1996 serial novel by Stephen King
Enduring Love, 1997 novel Ian McEwan
Glimmer, 1997[10] novel by Annie Waters
I Know This Much Is True, 1998 novel by Wally Lamb
The Underground, 1998 science fiction book by K. A. Applegate. A form of oatmeal is found to drive extraterrestrial body-snatchers insane.
Cut, 2000 novel by Patricia McCormick
Oxygen and The Fifth Man, 2001 and 2002 science fiction duology by Randall S. Ingermanson and John B. Olson.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, 2003 novel by Mark Haddon, written from the point of view of an autistic child
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2003 fantasy/bildungsroman novel by J. K. Rowling, includes a scene with a couple who both have profound dementia resulting from prolonged torture.
The Unifying Force, 2003 science fiction novel by James Luceno
The Good Patient: A Novel, 2004[11] novel by Kristin Waterfield Duisberg
Set This House in Order, a 2004 novel by Matt Ruff. Revolving around a romance between two characters with multiple personalities.
Hello, Serotonin, 2004 work by Jon Paul Fiorentino
High Rhulain, 2005 fantasy novel by Brian Jacques
Human Traces, 2005 novel by Sebastian Faulks
Love Creeps, 2005 novel by Amanda Filipacchi
Darkness Descending, 2007[12] novel by Bethann Korsmit about a man who suffers a mental breakdown and various other mental problems, and the people who help him to overcome the obstacles in his life
All in the Mind, 2008 novel by Alastair Campbell which draws on the author's experiences of depression and alcoholism[13]
Atmospheric Disturbances, 2009 novel by Rivka Galchen
The Wilderness, 2009[14] novel by Samantha Harvey about Alzheimer's
Diving into the Wreck, 2009[15] collection of poetry by Adrienne Rich
Radiant Daughter, 2010 novel by Patricia Grossman
Blepharospasm, 2011 novel by Harutyun Mackoushian
A Better Place, 2011[16] novel by Mark A. Roeder
Saint Jude, 2011[17] novel by Dawn Wilson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_illness_in_fiction

Hmm, I'm not seeing Orestes, King Lear, or Orlando Furioso in that list.

[jkim1812]

Very interesting "mad" character that sticks out to me is Septimus in Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Very effective and interesting in seeing his progression into madness.

[JanVanHogspeuw]

Infinite Jest - James O. Incandenza aka Himself aka The Mad Stork: a dipsomaniacal auteur who hallucinates that his extremely articulate son is a mute and whose quixotic quest to create the most entertaining film ever sort of goes horrendously wrong and who then commits suicide in ridiculously gory yet delicious smelling fashion.

[cacian]

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
(Chief)

[qimissung]

Hannibel Lecter, "Silence of the Lambs."

[cacian]

Hannibel Lecter, "Silence of the Lambs."

of course this but then is that really madness or is it something else we do not know really about. who knows.

[Volya]

Alice in Wonderland is full of mad characters

[qimissung]

Jack Torrence in the "The Shining."

[deborah8315]

The main character of The sound and the fury by Faulkner

[tonywalt]

The main character of The sound and the fury by Faulkner

Benjy? Wasn't he severely mentally disabled (speech impaired severely) - but not really insane?

[Marbles]

Hannibel Lecter, "Silence of the Lambs."

This is unfair, because the moment I read the opening post, I was going to say that! *dry-face*

But at least I can correct the spellings: Hannibal

[perhapsican]

Can the characters of The Secret History by Donna Tartt be considered a little loopy by the end of the novel? :lol:

[Jaylon Wennings]

Hi - have been lurking a little while and this interests me particularly.

I think the character in Sound & Fury is learning disabled in modern parlance rather than mad. And isn't Lecter more psychopathic than mad?

Don Quixote seems manically deluded to me however to try to reduce him into any particular era's definition of madness is absurd. Although Hamlet's later insanity may be feigned, he gives the most succinct and eloquent description of depression I have ever seen, textbook or elsewhere, just before the arrival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. I agree with the reader who felt worse after spending time with Raskolnikov - that's a very powerful and intense account of deteriorating mental health!

[kev67]

Did Ben Gunn go mad in Treasure Island? Maybe he just had a fixation for cheese.
Was Miss Haversham mad? I don't really think so. The wedding dress, wedding banquest and stopped clocks were metaphors for a state of mind.

[mal4mac]

John Givings the Paranoid Schizophrenic "truth teller" in Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates is a superb character.

[chrisvia]

The great Don Quixote offers not only a mad character, but many dimensions and perspectives of madness.

[Nick Capozzoli]

Benjy? Wasn't he severely mentally disabled (speech impaired severely) - but not really insane?

Right. He was what used to be called an "idiot," which refers to an old classification, based on IQ scores, of "mental retardation" (now called "developmental delay"). If you Google "idiot, imbecile, and moron" you will find some good references. This also describes Lenny in Of Mice and Men, who would not be as cognitively impaired as Benjy. Both could be characterized as being like children in adult bodies. Indeed, it is this which leads them into serious problems.

"Mad" characters are generally not "stupid" or "childlike" in the sense of having a low-for-age IQ. All of the genuinely mad literary characters, both villains and (usually tragic) heroes, have normal and usually above-average intelligence, but suffer from other psychic defects. These comprise two broad categories of "madness." The first includes characters who suffer from delusions, hallucinations, and severely impaired "reality testing" (features of psychosis. The second type suffer from severe characterological defects that cause them to behave in ways that run counter to morally acceptable social standards. The major character traits that guide the behavior of such characters are narcissism, impulsivity, lack of empathy, disregard for the suffering of others generally, and lack of remorse for the suffering that they may cause to others. This type of madness used to be called "moral insanity" but in current psychiatric terminology is described generally as a "Cluster B Personality Disorder." Examples of these are the Narcissistic, Antisocial (Sociopathic), and Borderline Personality Disorders. The Psychopathic Personality Disorder is a particularly severe form of Sociopathy. Think of Ted Bundy or any other infamous serial killer. The movie, Fargo provides us with a good example of the "ordinary" sociopath (Steve Buschemi's character or the husband who hired him to kidnap his wife) and a "stone cold" psychopath (Buschemi's blond and impassive partner in crime).

Some posted on Hannibal Lecter. He's clearly not psychotic. He's at the very least a very high functioning sociopath and most probably a psychopath.

The first type of madness

[Nick Capozzoli]

To add...the protagonist of A Beautiful Mind is psychotic, and is in fact schizophrenic.It's hard to imagine how paranoid schizophrenics experience reality, but I suspect that this movie came very close to portraying that.

[wordeater]

Novels about psychiatry:
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - Hannah Green
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

Short stories:
The Tell-Tale Heart - E. A. Poe
Ward No. 6 - Anton Chekhov
La Bella Zoraide - Kate Chopin
Solid Objects - Virginia Woolf

[WolfLarsen]

Wolf Larsen. That guy is crazy!

[AuntShecky]

The Marquis de Sade was flat-out nuts. But you don't have to look in literature for insanity. Just watch the Nightly News.

The other day I was reading a hilarious piece by John Mortimer in which he mentions how Americans and Brits have different definitions to the word "mad." Over on these beautiful (and often benighted) shores we say a guy is "mad" when he's angry. It doesn't matter if he's slightly miffed or royally p.o.'ed.

Mentally ill characters in literature often symbolize the insanity of their culture. I love my country, I really do, but my fellow Americans often make me mad as hell and sometimes drive me crazy.

[WolfLarsen]

The United States of America is a thoroughly neurotic society that has produced some good literature and some good art and some damn good music.

In many ways, English Canada is a far less neurotic xerox copy of the United States. And what have they produced? The Mountie.

You can say the same when comparing Germany with Switzerland.

[Nick Capozzoli]

The United States of America is a thoroughly neurotic society that has produced some good literature and some good art and some damn good music.

In many ways, English Canada is a far less neurotic xerox copy of the United States. And what have they produced? The Mountie.

You can say the same when comparing Germany with Switzerland.

You've got some great writers, and one just won a Nobel Prize. And don't forget Elizabeth Bishop!

[AuntShecky]

English Canada is a far less neurotic xerox copy of the United States. And what have they produced? The Mountie.

As Nick says, Elizabeth Bishop and the recent Nobel Prize winner, Alice Munro.
And another Nobelist --Saul Bellow--was born in Canada (though we associate him with Chicago.)
Mordecai Richter, Morley Callahan, Brian Moore, all Canadian. Joyce Carol Oates lived most of her adult life in Ontario, and taught at McGill.

The great comedians on SCTV and Saturday Night Live came out of the "Great White North, " as they called it on SCTV. What about the comic genius, Marty Short? Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels, Paul Shaffer. The list goes on and on.


You can say the same when comparing Germany with Switzerland.

You might have something there. Right here on the NitLet a few months ago St Luke's Guild posted a link to a scene from The Third Man in which Harry Lime asks the same question: "What has Switzerland produced?" (The Cuckoo Clock.) But you don't have to be cuckoo to create great works.

Besides, who doesn't like chocolate? Or cheese?

[WolfLarsen]

What’s there not to love about a relatively sane society? Perhaps the word is not love, but I got my Canadian citizenship recently because the USA reminds me of the titanic.

But sometimes I don’t think you have to be neurotic for the neurosis of this society you live in to affect you. I mentioned that Jean Toomer is one of my favorite authors, and I think his only book is Cane. Being half white & half-Black Jean Toomer stood in the middle of the great big neurosis of racial relations in America.

Something like that is bound to affect your writing. It might make you write better, but it doesn’t make your life better.

Living in a neurotic place like New York City will definitely improve your writing. But will it improve your life? Ha ha ha ha!

[Igor, Froderick]

Stephen Gallagher's Bedlam Detective addresses madness associated with Amazon grub-worm consumption. Mister Slaughter by McCammon deals with bipolarity of a high-functioning psycho-killer. Historical thrillers, both.

[Celmrb]

A Judgement in Stone (Ruth Rendell). Eunice Parchman is completely mad.

[Eiseabhal]

The protagonist of "She's Come Undone" spends seven years in a mental hospital. From the point where she's cured the novel goes downhill fast and becomes one of these sooking-up feminist tracts full of right-on stereotypes. Pity, because the first two hundred and fifty pages are excellent.