From Depression To Insanity

Literature is the way in which man talks about what it means to be human, and as such the struggles of the inner human experience are often central themes in meaningful writing. Whether the author examines the thoughts of a heartless man who seduces and destroys his secretary, the chaos within the upbringing of a problematic teenager, or the onset of personal progress and understanding, the questions of the human mind and soul are always among the most pressing stock issues within literature. Within Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” one finds such a tale of an inner battle with guilt, sadness, and depression; however, the story by no means falls into cliché. Gilman takes the concept of depression to its logical end: insanity, an end that may be hinted at in fiction but is rarely explored in its entirety. “The Yellow Wallpaper” therefore stands out as a provocative and shocking piece of literature that provides insight into the inner progression from depression to loss of sanity.
The story begins with the narrator in a state of depression, a state that could be remedied by human interaction and contact. Depression is impossible to completely cure, for life is a dynamic journey in which we struggle to keep up with our ever-changing surroundings and selves, but it is also easily alleviated by some kind of action, interaction, or communication. John, the narrator’s physician husband, refuses to acknowledge even the existence of an inner soul and, with such a flawed view, merely calls his wife’s state a “temporary nervous depression” in which she displays “hysterical tendencies.” He mistakenly believes that he can fix his wife with physical treatment; in actuality, his diagnosis and prescription merely drive his wife further into chaos. It is in this state of neglect and even emotional and spiritual abuse that the narrator slips into insanity via the yellow wallpaper that is her only means of occupying her mind.
Gilman illustrates a point that is not often truly understood within the human experience: that depression, when left unchecked as a product of severance from human spiritual interaction (interaction such as emotional or physical contact or such as the metaphysical process of writing) and of turbulence within one’s inner beliefs about oneself, develops into a state of mental instability that leads into insanity. Though this point in itself is of infinite consequence in the human experience, the story also points out the equally important fact that the narrator conducts her writing in a normal human style even while she looses her sanity. The transition from depression to insanity is therefore merely a slight shift upon the edge of the human soul that can happen without one’s being aware of its onset. Humans, as lost beings with broken souls, can easily slip into such a chaotic inner state; we may even already have lost our sanity to some extent.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” provides a truly unique insight into the collapse of the human mind, a collapse that could happen to anyone, yet it also stays away from following the overbeaten path of short fiction dealing with the consequences of the human mind and spirit. The story therefore not only teaches the reader of the consequences of inner chaos, but also of the power of literary individuality. The story’s piercing message would convey little meaning if it were not written in its different personal-journal style or if it were told without the complex metaphors and references to medicinal views of the day. “The Yellow Wallpaper” must be valued for both its important message about the fragile human soul and for its unique style that conveys that message so powerfully. (608)

To See Is To Feel

When viewed as a whole, Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” tells a provocative story of the main character’s strange yet meaningful experience of metaphorically learning to see life from the point of view of a blind man; however, the story also recounts the relationship between the main character’s wife and the blind man, Robert, from whom he learns to see. Half of the story is about the interactions between the wife and Robert, and when viewed as a tale about this connection, Carver’s short story offers much more insight into the concept of seeing. For both the wife and, at the end of the narrative, the main character, true sight becomes second to the sight of feeling.

The wife is set in the story as a sensitive person who has experienced a full array of feeling in life. She writes poems, and in such a context can be viewed as one in touch with her self and with her reactions to the situations life places her in. Therefore, Robert’s touching her face bore special significance, as did the loneliness of being a military wife that culminated in her attempted suicide. The wife, as one who went from love to solitude to near-death, is therefore a means to understand the individual who most needs the comfort of others in life. She needs someone to talk to as much as her blind employer needs someone to read to him.

Robert, therefore, becomes a key figure in her life as one to whom she can tell everything. He becomes essentially her best friend and her confidant. By such a close bond, the wife learns to express and understand her emotions and therefore learns to ‘see’ by feeling. Such metaphorical sight in which she can both be completely understood and completely understand her closest friend invariably provides the wife with happiness and stability.

Though her husband mocks her for this bond of sight, he, too, learns to see by feeling. The main character is in many ways stuck in the same situation that his wife was once trapped in; he has no friends, he works in a job he doesn’t like, and he is detached from life to the point that he feels jealousy when his wife speaks of Robert and his only source of pleasure is smoking pot late at night. Therefore, when Robert has him draw a cathedral, the real re-learning to see takes place on the emotional level. The main character experiences what his wife found in Robert—the ability to feel connected with another individual on a level that transcends physicality. By the end of the story, both he and his wife are brought into a better state of living by the connection of feelings in which one is able to truly see and understand oneself. Such a new state of sight is “like nothing else.” (474)

To Understand Understanding

Understanding is one of the most sought after states of human existence, and in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies” understanding becomes the story’s driving goal for Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das, characters who are both trapped in loveless marriages where the integral connection of faith and understanding has been lost. Within the story the multiple facets of the word ‘understanding’ are merged into one, and in such an all-encompassing frame Mrs. Das reaches a new state of self realization within the context of her family. Understanding is therefore a transformative experience in which the self attains a new state within the personal human experience.

At the beginning of the story, the only form of the word ‘understanding’ with which Mr. Kapasi is familiar is that used in the context of language. As an interpreter he has developed a view of the term that connotes translation and everyday physicality; the pains and problems of the doctor’s patients are presented to him to be understood and to be translated for the doctor to understand. Within his unfeeling marriage, there is no understanding in the spiritual or emotional sense between him and his wife; Mr. Kapasi has never experienced true understanding in this regard and therefore is “flattered” when Mrs. Das expresses an interest in his work that leads to a conversation establishing a level of understanding between the two lonely individuals. In response Mr. Kapasi develops another sense of the word in which the connection between a woman whom he now considers his friend entails the understanding with which two good friends could talk about their mutual interests and problems. This onset is underscored by Mr. Kapasi’s description of the sensation as similar to that of the moment in which he would finally read the words of a passage that he had translated, and through such feelings the meanings of understanding are linked. The recognition Mrs. Das grants to her tour guide begins a discourse that leads not only to Mr. Kapasi’s feeling of attachment, but also to a conversation that enables the interpreter to bring the lost Mrs. Das into a new sense of understanding.

Mrs. Das undoubtedly understands the metaphysical connotations of understanding, for she explains to Mr. Kapasi the origin of the connection between her and her husband and the supposed emotional attachment behind it. However, the strength of that connection wore away as Mrs. Das realized the loneliness of being locked in a marriage where all one can do is take care of the kids and tend to the home. With no good friends to talk to and the initial passionate love for her husband gone, Mrs. Das experiences a complete lack of conversational understanding which drives her to seek the help of Mr. Kapasi, the interpreter who overcomes barriers in language and therefore must be able to overcome barriers in the self. She searches for one who could show her understanding and “say the right thing” in response to her confession, yet finds one who instead offers her the chance to unconsciously re-understand herself. Mr. Kapasi perceives the position in which Mrs. Das is trapped, for he recognizes her as a woman “who had already fallen out of love with life,” yet he can only offer her the simple question of physical pain versus guilt. This is not the reply that Mrs. Das was looking for; however, such an unsatisfying response makes her leave Mr. Kapasi’s company and join her family. By doing so she sets into motion the harassment of her illegitimate son by monkeys, which unites the family for the first time in the text around the defense of one of their own.

At the end of the story, Mr. Kapasi views the Das family as one would want to view any family: together. Mrs. Das’ attempt at soliciting his understanding creates the opportunity in which she can overcome her guilt and start again by taking a more caring and proactive role within her family; the opportunity to do so was presented by Mr. Kapasi’s multiple views of understanding in which perception of physical pain and emotional distress are connected. By showing such a level of understanding, Mr. Kapasi gave Mrs. Das the chance at a truly transformative experience for the individual.

How does the title “Interpreter of Maladies” relate to the conclusion of the story?

To what extent is Mr. Kapasi one who has “fallen out of love with life”?

To what extent is the story about culture?

What is the difference between pain and guilt?