Portraying Otherness: Representations of Madness in Wilkie Collins’s
The Law and the Lady
Lea Ruhanen, 069174
Pro Gradu Thesis
School of Humanities
English Language and Culture
University of Eastern Finland
August 2016
ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO – UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND
Tiedekunta – Faculty
Philosophical Faculty
Osasto – School
School of Humanities
Tekijät – Author
Lea Ruhanen
Työn nimi – Title
Portraying Otherness – Representations of Madness and Idiocy in Wilkie Collins’s The Law and the Lady
Pääaine – Main subject
English Language and Culture
Työn laji – Level
Pro gradu -tutkielma
Sivuainetutkielma
Kandidaatin tutkielma
Aineopintojen tutkielma
X
Päivämäärä – Date
Sivumäärä – Number of pages
31.08.2016
64
Tiivistelmä – Abstract
This thesis studies representations of madness and idiocy in Wilkie Collins’s novel The Law and the Lady (1865). The two insane
characters are in the forefront, although the protagonist of this Victorian sensation novel is the amateur detective Valeria McCallan who
is on her quest to prove his husband’s innocence under the Scottish verdict ‘Not Proven’. Eustace McCallan has been found neither
guilty nor innocent for the murder of his first wife by arsenic poisoning but he should prove his innocence. Thus, the novel is a hybrid
of a sensation novel and a detective story, containing popular elements of sensation fiction, for example murder, false identity and
bigamy. The insane characters Mr Miserrimus Dexter and his female cousin Ariel, whom Valeria confronts when trying to solve the
mystery around the murder case, attract, however, all the attraction: they are described as insane by any standard. Collins’s works are
featured by insane and degenerate characters, whom he explores as outsiders, as they do not fulfil the requirements of Victorian society.
In the Victorian period, the societal discourses of madness, sexuality and gender roles were of great significance when considering the
normal or deviant behaviour of individuals. Those who differed from the established norm were regarded as insane, even without
medical justification. Thus the concept of discourse is crucial when trying to understand the forms of exclusion, based on deviance and
Otherness. In this thesis, the concept of Otherness is fundamental: those who did not conform to the Victorian norm were othered.
This thesis argues that all representations of madness, insanity and idiocy, as all related states of mental deficiency, can be considered as
Otherness, as deviance from the norm.
The theoretical background of this thesis focuses on the concepts of discourse, madness, and Otherness. Discourse is presented as a
societal framework for statements and attitudes, within which a common perspective on reality is created and implemented. Discourses
vary from one time and place to another. From the three aspects of madness presented, which are medical, moral and that of Otherness,
the focus will be on the aspect of madness as Otherness. Otherness is studied as a way of constructing threatening or unknown
phenomena as inferior or deficient, then devaluing them and eventually othering them. The theoretical part explores that it is possible to
construct the opposition between Us and Them on various grounds, for instance race, gender, social class, insanity and disability.
The above-mentioned concepts will be analysed through the characters of Miserrimus Dexter and his cousin Ariel. In addition, there are
also other references to madness in the novel, which are scrutinized in this study. The works by Lyn Pykett, Alison Moulds and Rachel
Herzl-Betz have been consulted and their critical views are relevant for the study. The two insane characters Dexter and Ariel are
described as disabled and deviant. Dexter is presented as a mentally unbalanced but intelligent cripple, lacking the lower part of his body,
whereas the upper part is described as exceptionally beautiful. Furthermore, his female habits and nervousness represent him as an
effeminate man. His insanity is manifested in his imaginative roles as Napoleon and Shakespeare, for example, as also in his paintings,
leather works and musical performances.
Dexter’s cousin Ariel is presented as an intellectually disabled, unattractive servant in Dexter’s household, with overtly masculine
features. Thus, Dexter and Ariel blur traditional gender roles and also deviate from the ideal for Victorian man and woman.
Furthermore, their family setting, two cousins living together unmarried, deviates from the ideal for the Victorian family but also violates
against Victorian morals which favoured marriage as the appropriate relationship between sexes. The description of these insane
characters demonstrates their deviance from the Victorian norm.
To conclude, the manifestations of madness in The Law and the Lady are not evidence of insanity but of deviance. The abnormal
behaviour, manifested in various ways, portrays the characters as mad, as they deviate from the norm. Although the disabled characters
appear strange, the strong label of being “mad” that is attached to them is based on the contemporary discourse that had little
understanding for Otherness.
Avainsanat – Keywords
Wilkie Collins, The Law and the Lady, madness, insanity, idiocy, Otherness, deviance, discourse, norm, morals, Victorian
society
ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO – UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND
Tiedekunta – Faculty
Filosofinen tiedekunta
Osasto – School
Humanistinen osasto
Tekijät – Author
Lea Ruhanen
Työn nimi – Title
Portraying Otherness – Representations of Madness and Idiocy in Wilkie Collins’s The Law and the Lady
Pääaine – Main subject
Englannin kieli ja kulttuuri
Työn laji – Level
Pro gradu -tutkielma
Sivuainetutkielma
Kandidaatin tutkielma
Aineopintojen tutkielma
Päivämäärä – Date
Sivumäärä – Number of pages
31.08.2016
64
x
Tiivistelmä – Abstract
Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma tarkastelee hulluuden ja idiotismin ilmentymiä Wilkie Collinsin romaanissa The Law and the
Lady (1865). Kaksi mielenvikaista hahmoa ovat tämän viktoriaanisen romaanin keskiössä vaikka sen päähenkilö on
amatöörisalapoliisi Valeria McCallan, joka etsii todisteita miehensä syyttömyydestä. Eustace McCallan on saanut
skottilaisessa tuomioistuimessa tuomion ’Ei todisteita’: vaikka hän ei ole syyllinen eikä syytön ensimmäisen vaimonsa
arsenikkimyrkytyksestä johtuneeseen kuolemaan, hänen pitää todistaa syyttömyytensä. Siten romaani on yhdistelmä
sensaatioromaania ja salapoliisikertomusta ja se sisältää sensaatiokirjallisuuden suosittuja elementtejä, kuten murha, väärä
identiteetti ja kaksinnaiminen. Mielisairaat hahmot Miserrimus Dexter ja hänen naispuolinen serkkunsa Ariel, jotka Valeria
kohtaa yrittäessään ratkaista murhatapauksen mysteeriä vievät kuitenkin kaiken huomion: heidät kuvataan mielisairaiksi
kaikkien mittapuiden mukaan. Collinsin teoksissa mielisairaat ja rappeutuneet hahmot ovat tyypillisiä ja hän tarkastelee
heitä ulkopuolisina koska he eivät täytä viktoriaanisen yhteiskunnan vaatimuksia. Viktoriaanisena aikana hulluuden,
seksuaalisuuden ja sukupuoliroolien diskurssit olivat merkittäviä tarkasteltaessa yksilöiden normaalia tai poikkeavaa
käyttäytymistä. Niitä. jotka poikkesivat vakiintuneesta normista pidettiin hulluina jopa ilman lääketieteellistä oikeutusta.
Siksi diskurssin käsite on olennainen kun yritetään ymmärtää ekskluusiota, joka perustui poikkeavuuteen ja toiseuteen.
Tässä tutkielmassa toiseuden käsite on keskeisellä sijalla: niitä, jotka eivät mukautuneet viktoriaaniseen normiin pidettiin
toisenlaisina. Tämän tutkielman keskeisen argumentin mukaan kaikkia hulluuden, mielisairauden ja idiotismin ilmentymiä
voidaan pitää toiseutena, poikkeavuutena normista.
Tutkielman teoreettinen perusta keskittyy tarkastelemaan diskurssin, hulluuden ja toiseuden käsitteitä. Diskurssi esitetään
väitteiden ja asenteiden sosiaalisena kehyksenä, jossa luodaan tietty perspektiivi todellisuuteen ja sitä sovelletaan. Diskurssit
vaihtelevat ajasta ja paikasta toiseen. Kolmesta esitellystä näkökulmasta hulluuteen näkökulmasta – lääketieteellisestä,
moraalisesta ja toiseuden näkökulmasta – toiseuden näkökulma on tutkielman keskiössä. Toiseutta tarkastellaan tapana
nähdä uhkaavat tai tuntemattomat ilmiöt huonompina tai viallisina, tapana nähdä ne arvottomina ja lopulta pitää niitä
toisena. Tämä teoreettinen tarkastelu paljastaa, että vastakohtaisuuksia itsen ja toisen välillä on mahdollista rakentaa
erilaisilla perusteilla, esimerkiksi rodun, sukupuolen, sosiaaliluokan, mielenvikaisuuden tai vammaisuuden perusteella.
Edellä mainittuja käsitteitä tutkitaan analyysiosuudessa Dexterin ja Arielin hahmojen kautta. Lisäksi tässä tutkielmassa on
tarkasteltu myös muita romaanissa esiintyviä viittauksia hulluuteen. Tutkimusaineistoa ovat käsitelleet myös tutkijat Lyn
Pykett, Alison Moulds, Rachel Herzl-Betz, joiden tutkimuksia on tässä tutkielmassa käytetty tietopohjana. Romaanin kaksi
mielenvikaista hahmoa on kuvattu vammaisina ja poikkeavina. Dexter on esitetty henkisesti epätasapainoisena, mutta
älykkäänä rampana, jolta puuttuu alaruumis mutta jonka yläruumis on kuvattu poikkeuksellisen kauniiksi. Lisäksi hänen
naismaiset tapansa ja hermostuneisuutensa rakentavat kuvaa hänestä naismaisena miehenä. Hänen mielenvikaisuutensa
ilmenee hänen mielikuvituksellisissa rooleissaan esimerkiksi Napoleonina tai Shakespearena kuten myös hänen
maalauksissaan, nahkatöissään ja musiikkisuorituksissaan. Dexterin serkku Ariel on kuvattu Dexterin älyllisesti
jälkeenjääneeksi, vastenmielisen näköiseksi palvelijaksi, joka asuu Dexterin taloudessa. Ulkonäöltään ja tavoiltaan Ariel on
kuvattu hyvin miesmäiseksi. Täten Dexter ja Ariel sekoittavat perinteisiä sukupuolimalleja ja poikkeavat viktoriaanisista
miehen ja naisen ihanteista. Asuessaan serkuksina ja naimattomina yhdessä he poikkeavat myös viktoriaanisen yhteiskunnan
luomasta ihanneperheen mallista. Lisäksi heidän suhdettaan voidaan pitää moraalittomana. Näiden mielenvikaisten
hahmojen kuvaus osoittaa heidän poikkeavuuttaan vallitsevasta normista.
Täten mielenvikaisuuden ilmentymät eivät Collinsin romaanissa todista hulluudesta vaan normista poikkeamisesta. Eri
tavoin ilmenevän epänormaalin käytöksen perusteella tarkasteltuja hahmoja pidetään hulluina. Vaikka vammaiset hahmot
vaikuttavat oudoilta, heihin liitetty hullunleima perustuu aikakauden diskurssiin, jossa toiseutta ei pidetty arvossa.
Avainsanat – Keywords
Wilkie Collins, The Law and the Lady, hulluus, mielenvikaisuus, idiotismi, toiseus, poikkeavuus, diskurssi, normi, moraali,
viktoriaaninen yhteiskunta
Table of Contents
Abstract
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1
1.1 Sensation Fiction, Wilkie Collins, and The Law and the Lady……………….2
1.2 Earlier Studies of Representations of Madness in The Law and the Lady…...4
2. Discourse of Madness…………………………………………………………..... 8
2.1 The Concept of Discourse………………………………………………….…8
2.2 Discourses around Madness, Gender and Sexuality in Nineteenth-century
Britain…………………………………………………...…………………...12
2.3 Defining Madness in Nineteenth-century Britain…..……………...………...16
.
2.3.1 The Medical Aspect:
Madness as Disability or Deprivation of Reason ……………..….…..17
2.3.2 Madness as Moral Insanity ……………….……………………..........24
2.3.3 Madness as Otherness…………………………………………….......26
3. Representations of Madness in The Law and the Lady…………………………..31
3.1 Madness as Disability or Deprivation of Reason………………………...32
3.2 Madness as Moral Insanity……………………………………………….44
3.3 Madness as Otherness…………………………………………………….47
4. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………....59
Bibliography
1
1.Introduction
This thesis will focus on representations of madness and insanity in the nineteenth-century
novel The Law and the Lady (1875) by Wilkie Collins. First, I will shed light on the genre
of sensation fiction and on Wilkie Collins’s literary works. The main characters and the
incidents of the novel The Law and the Lady are also presented briefly. To frame my own
study, I will also provide a short summary of earlier research into representations of insanity
in The Law and the Lady. In the analysis section, the earlier studies will be discussed in more
detail. After the introductory part, I will present the basic concepts of my study, that is, the
concept of discourse, and the discourses of madness and gender in Victorian period, and the
various definitions of madness in the time when the novel was published. Nineteenth-century
psychiatry was little advanced, so the treatment of insane people was not so much about the
cure as about keeping them under control. Mad people were considered frightening, and
possibly devious, too, which lead to the isolation of insane people, first into prisons and later
into separate asylums. In addition to a historical review of the changes in the understanding
of madness and the discourse around this phenomenon in nineteenth-century Britain, I will
present the concept of Otherness which is the foundation for my argumentation. My
theoretical study leans on the discourse theories provided by Sara Mills and Michel Foucault
and on the study of Otherness, provided by Mark Welch. Finally, I will draw conclusions of
how madness and insanity are represented as Otherness in The Law and the Lady. In other
words, this thesis argues that various representations of madness are, in fact, representations
of Otherness, that is, a difference from a norm, rather than representations of a mental illness
or disorder. The aim of the thesis is to show that as madness was determined by the
2
contemporary discourse in Victorian society, the mad people should rather have been
labelled as Other than as insane: differing in any way from the Victorian norm led easily to
labelling, often without medical justification. The definition of madness is dependent on
historical and cultural aspects of the time and the concept of Otherness is also man-made:
the idea of Otherness dates from the colonial and postcolonial times, when other cultures,
such as the Orient, were Othered by the West. Throughout the history, those who are in
power have been able to decide who is to be labelled as mad or as Other.
1.1 Sensation Fiction, Wilkie Collins, and The Law and the Lady
Wilkie Collins’s The Law and the Lady belongs to the genre of sensation fiction, the most
notable novels of which are Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and
East Lynne (1861) by Ellen Wood. The very first sensation novel was, however, Collins’s
The Woman in White (1859-60), which changed Victorian literature and began a new era.
Andrew Mangham states that “the definitive moment came when a ghostly woman, dressed
from head to foot in white garments, laid a cold, thin hand on the shoulder of a young man
as he walked home one evening” (1). This opening scene of the first sensation novel
exemplifies the idea of sensation fiction, as sensation novels were meant to produce thrilling
sensations in readers and stimulate the senses. The topics ranged from murder, adultery, and
poisoning, to false identities and madness (Maunder and Moore 4). Sensation fiction
expressed and served as a response to contemporary concerns in society, like shifting class
identities, the status of unmarried women, madness, sexual identity, marital questions, and
criminality: it was a safe platform to discuss these kinds of delicate issues as it could easily
combine realism and romance (Mangham 50-51). As sensation novels were manufactured
3
for mass audience – many of the first novels were published in serial form – they were also
criticized as ‘cheap’ (Mangham 5). Sensation fiction combined literary forms that proceeded
it, for example melodrama and penny dreadful literature, and in addition, Gothicism when
representing women as marginalised, in order to manifest women’s role and power, or lack
of it (Mangham 2-3).
The most famous, and accordingly, the most studied, novels by Collins, are The
Woman in White and The Moonstone, but, all in all, Wilkie Collins wrote over forty novels,
several plays, and short stories. Besides madness and insanity, popular themes in his works
were marriage laws, crime, and respectable social behaviour. Collins’s novel The Law and
the Lady has been regarded as a minor novel, compared to his other works, due to its relative
obscurity based on its engagement with eccentricity, madness and idiocy (Herzl-Betz 38).
What is more, The Law and the Lady is not a prototype of a sensation novel but it is a hybrid,
as it contains sensational elements, gothic themes and patterns, and detection. In Collins’s
novels, madness was a typical element, like in the works of many other sensation novelists
of the time: insanity and mental disorders were means that were used to intensify qualities
of less sensation, like courage, hate, or wickedness (Pykett 180-181). However, in Collins’s
narration insanity is used in a more complex way than in the works of the other sensation
novelists: Collins’s engagement with Victorian discourse of insanity is seen as lively and
provocative (Bachman 179). The medical discourses and psychological theories were
utilized in varying ways, but it is worth remembering that also the earlier religious and nonrationalistic models of thinking were intertwined, as well as new theories, like Darwin’s
evolutionary theory (Pykett 181).
The key protagonist of the novel, Valeria Macallan, tries to clear her new husband
Eustace Macallan’s name under the Scottish verdict “Not proven”. Eustace has been
suspected and tried for his first wife’s murder, and the verdict labels him neither innocent
4
nor guilty, but he should prove his innocence. However, he submits to his faith and
disappears. It also turns out that Eustace has married Valeria under false name. The mystery
around the murder makes Valeria start her detective quest in which she is confronted with
Mr. Miserrimus Dexter and his cousin Ariel. These two characters are commonly regarded
as mad, as they appear different from the normal persons both physically and mentally. The
suspicion of insanity of these characters, however, equals to the Scottish verdict “Not
proven”: Eustace McCallan’s quilt is not proven but assumed, considering the
circumstances, and the insanity of Dexter and Ariel is not proven, but ascribed to their
deviant behaviour and appearance.
1.2 Earlier Studies of Representations of Madness in The Law and the Lady
Earlier studies of representations of madness in The Law and the Lady have leaned on
various theories and approaches. Lyn Pykett has studied the themes and motives in Collins’s
literary works, and she notes that insanity was a typical element in Collins’s novels (180-1).
Besides contemporary medical and psychological theories and religious thinking, Pykett
stresses the importance of Darwin’s Origin of Species as a guide to understand the racial and
empirical thinking of the time (68). In the first half of the nineteenth century, the superiority
of the white race was explained by a lack of development of the non-white peoples. The
interpreters of the Darwinian theory did not undermine this earlier belief but explained that
the white European male was the highest grade in the evolutionary scale, and beneath him
were other human forms, from women to ‘savages’ (Pykett 68).
5
When studying The Law and the Lady, it is useful to acknowledge the preface that
Collins attached to its first bound edition: “Be pleased then to remember (first) that the
actions of human beings are not invariably governed by the laws of pure reason” (Pykett
165). In fact, all of the literary works by Collins enfold a multitude of factors that may form
human behaviour (Pykett 165). Miserrimus Dexter, the insane character in The Law and the
Lady, appears to blurt or subvert gender boundaries – he is presented as a womanly man:
“the eyes and hands of a beautiful woman and a legless body of otherwise manly
proportions” (Pykett 128).
When studying sensation fiction, Pamela Gilbert has explored that “it was practically
normal for a woman to be a little unbalanced, but the madman is a spectacle of horror as well
as pity” (186). The representation of a mad person often overlaps with the representation of
the physically deformed (Gilbert 186). This is manifested in The Law and the Lady by the
monstrous Miserrimus Dexter: he is “one of the genre’s many disabled characters, [is]
burdened both with an absence of legs and an excess to nervous susceptibility, and is both
mad and paralysed when he dies by the end of the novel” (Gilbert 186).
In her study of deviance in The Law and the Lady, Mary Rosner explores that in the
Victorian period physical health was correlated with mental health, and she cites Maudsley:
“the integrity of the mental functions depends on the integrity of the bodily organisation”
(Rosner 11). What is more, Maudsley has claimed that “the forms and the habits of sexually
mutilated men approach[ing] those of women” (Rosner 11). Dexter’s excessive
emotionalism is a quality of the hysterical woman rather than that of a healthy, manly man.
Rosner states that hysterical women were labelled as mad in Victorian time, and in many
respects Dexter resembles more a woman than a man (11). Rosner discusses the
manifestation of Dexter’s insanity in detail by describing his daily routines and living
condition, which appear strange to the observers (10) and concludes that Miserrimus Dexter
6
can be described as being “most miserable”, as he lacks the healthy body and soul. The two
other characters that Rosner has included in her study, Valeria and Eustace, are physically
and mentally healthy but they lack Dexter’s grandeur and playfulness (Rosner 13). Rosner
stresses that although Dexter as a cripple is physically imprisoned in his chair, his
transformations into different roles as a hero or an artist underline what the other characters
are lacking (13).
There is not much research into the character of Dexter’s female cousin Ariel. In an
online article, Alison Moulds discusses Ariel’s state as a learning disability. First, Moulds
discusses the terms “imbecility” and “idiocy” and notes that they were sometimes used
interchangeably. She notes that the cause of Ariel’s idiocy is not clear but obviously inherent,
moreover, Ariel challenges gender stereotypes, as she appears very masculine, wearing
men’s clothes and having a coarse masculine voice.
Moulds’s study provides also another reading of Ariel, and that is a feminist one. Ariel
may be a double Valeria, as idiots and married women were given a similar status in the eyes
of law: they were not allowed to manage their own affairs nor give evidence under oath in a
court.
A more recent study of The Law and the Lady is based on interdependence theory.
Rachel Herzl-Betz explores a queer relationship between the two disabled cousins: “He
needs and is needed by a female cousin, named Ariel, who appears mentally disabled, nonnormatively gendered, and slavishly loyal to their erotic relationship” (36). Furthermore,
Ariel’s masculine character serves as the embodiment of the male woman, as she presents
those sexual aspects of masculinity that Dexter avoids (Herzl-Betz 43). Also Moulds
suggested in her above-mentioned study that the abnormally strong, but unequal bondage
7
between the two “refers to the quasi incestuous relationship between Dexter and his enslaved
cousin”.
After this brief summary of the previous studies of the insane characters in The Law
and the Lady, I will present the concept of discourse and its legacy when designating some
individuals as mad or deviant.
8
2. Discourse of Madness
The concept of discourse is central when defining the concept of madness, and I will present
an outline of the formation of these concepts. One of the most significant theorists related to
“discourse” is Michel Foucault, whose contribution to defining the concept is fundamental,
as he has given examples of the discourse of madness in his works. As the concept of
discourse is of great importance when defining madness and Otherness, I have studied it in
detail to create a larger theoretical framework for my study.
2.1 The Concept of Discourse
Discourse is the key concept in my study and it is necessary to define in as precisely as
possible. The Longman Dictionary of the English Language gives us the following
definition:
discourse: 1. a conversation, especially of a formal nature; formal and orderly
expression of ideas in speech or writing; also such expression in the form of a
sermon, treatise, etc.; a piece or unit of connected speech or writing. (Middle
English: discours, from Latin: an act of running about) (1984)
Mills states that the term discourse is commonly used in various disciplines: “critical theory,
sociology, linguistics, philosophy, social psychology and many other fields, so much that it
is frequently left undefined, as if its usage was simply common knowledge” (1). She adds
that some theorists contrast discourse with ideology (5). This is the case with Roger Fowler,
who defines discourse as follows:
9
‘Discourse’ is speech or writing seen from the point of view of the beliefs, values
categories which it embodies; these beliefs etc. constitute a way of looking at the
world, an organization or representation of experience – ‘Ideology’ in the neutral
non-pejorative sense. Different modes of discourse encode different
representations of experience; and the source of these representations is the
communicative context within which the discourse is embedded. (Mills 5)
As discourse is a historically complicated concept and can mean different things even for
the same theorist, defining it is rather difficult, as Mills (6) notes and quotes Michel Foucault
(6). Foucault defines the term as follows:
Instead of gradually reducing the rather fluctuating meaning of the word
‘discourse’, I believe I have in fact added to its meanings: treating it sometimes
as the general domain of all statements, sometimes as an individualizable group
of statements, sometimes as a regulated practice that accounts for a number of
statements. (Foucault, Madness 80)
In fact, Foucault gives three definitions: the first one, “the general domain of all statements”,
is according to Mills the widest one (6), but his second definition, that is, “an individualizable
group of statements”, is more specific when trying to identify discourses: “groups of
utterances which seem to be regulated in some way and which seem to have a coherence and
a force to them in common” (Mills 6). This definition enables a discussion, for example, on
discourses of femininity or imperialism. The third definition, “a regulated practice which
accounts for a number of statements”, is, however, the most influential one. Mills states that
within this definition Foucault “is interested less in the actual utterances/texts that are
produced than in the rules and structures which produce particular utterances and texts. It is
this rule-governed nature of discourse that is of primary importance within this definition”
(Mills 6).
10
In addition to Foucault, other theorists have also used the term discourse in various
ways, for example Bakhtin who “sometimes uses discourse to signify either a voice (as in
double-voiced discourse) or a method of using words which presumes authority” (Mills 7).
This new point of view, represented by Foucault and in turn by Bakhtin, signals a turning
point and a break with former views of language. Mills notes the importance of this new
point of view as follows:
Rather than seeing language as simply expressive, as transparent, as a vehicle of
communication, as a form of representation, structuralist theorists and in turn
post-structuralists saw language as a system of its own rules and constraints, and
with its own determining effect on the way that individuals think and express
themselves. (Mills 7)
In addition to Foucault, there are other theorists who are important when discussing
the term. Diane Macdonnell has studied the differences between the various definitions of
the term and discovered “that it is the institutional nature of discourse and its situatedness in
the social which is central to all of these different perspectives” (Mills 9) and “discourses
differ with the kinds of institutions and social practices in which they take shape and with
the positions of those who speak and those whom they address” (Mills 9). Mills states that
“a discourse is not a disembodied collection of statements, but groupings of utterances or
sentences, statements which are enacted within a social context, which are determined by
that social context and which contribute to the way that social context continues its
existence” (Mills 10).
Furthermore, discourses, that is, groups of utterances/texts that have similar impact,
tend to occur in context of other utterances, rather than in isolation (Mills 10). As an example
Mills mentions the discourse of environmentalism.
11
Equally important, Mills points out that all the views of discourses are also built on
the idea of limitation: “whilst what it is possible to say seems self-evident and natural, this
naturalness is a result of what has been excluded, that which is almost unsayable” (Mills 11).
For Foucault, a discourse was not a set of symbols but “practices that systematically form
the objects of which they speak” (Mills 15). Foucault states that a discourse is not something
that exists in itself and could be analysed in such but it is something that creates something
else, for example utterances, concepts, effects, and thus, it is the system of the ideas, opinions
and modes of thinking and behaving that reveals a certain discourse in a context (Mills 15).
For example, we may speak about a set of discourses of femininity and masculinity, when
we notice that males and females appear to behave in a certain way as gendered subjects
(Mills 16).
For Foucault, a discourse is effective because of its effective elements, like truth,
power, and knowledge (Mills 16). As Mills writes, each society has to create its own truth:
Truth is of the world; it is produced there by virtue of multiple constraints
[…] Each society has its regime of truth, its ‘general politics’ of truth:
that is the types of discourse it harbours and causes to function as true:
the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true from
false statements.
(Mills 16)
As an example of “the true” and “the untrue” Mills mentions the attitude toward alternative
medicine (16). Alternative medicine is not as valued as conventional medical science. On
the contrary, Mills points out that “a great deal of effort and discursive work is expended on
ensuring that alternative medicine is considered inferior, amateurish and as falling within the
sphere of charlatans, thus maintaining for medical science the authority of the ‘true’ and the
‘scientific’” (17). Mills notes that Foucault’s focus in not on exploring which discourse is
“true” but on how a certain discourse becomes produced as dominant (17). Foucault’s work
12
on discourse is important also for archaeological reasons: “what he wants us to see is the
arbitrariness of this range of discourses, the strangeness of those discourses, in spite of their
familiarity […] rather than being permanent, as their familiarity would suggest, discourses
are constantly changing and their origins can be traced to certain key shifts in history” (Mills
23). A certain shift in history and, consequently, in discourse, must have taken place when
madness was no longer considered to be one’s own fault but an illness that needed cure rather
than punishment. It is the discourse of madness that I will discuss in the following.
2.2 Discourses around Madness, Gender, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-century Britain
During the Victorian era, British society transformed into an industrial state with
revolutionary developments in many fields of science and technology. These changes were
followed by changes in discourse around class, gender and health issues. Mills states that
within Victorian Britain certain subjects, like sex and madness, were difficult to discuss
openly (58) as these subjects were tabooed.
Discourse around idiocy had long been featured by “older ideas of moral decrepitude”
(McDonagh 258), but in the 1850s, this discourse conflated further ideas from new scientific
discussions. Samuel Gridley Howe came up with the theory of moral degeneration,
according to which “idiocy was consequence of moral crimes” (McDonagh 262). This theory
was anxiously debated both in The United Stated and later in England. The debate was
intensified after Charles Darwin published his epoch-changing work On the Origin of
Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, which made evolution and natural selection
instrumental in Victorian discourse (McDonagh 265).
13
When studying Victorian literature, this confusion of ideas that affected people’s minds
is worth noticing. Sensation novelists, in turn, could discuss the new ideologies and their
impact in disguise of fiction, but their writings were nevertheless influential: they both
effected on and were affected by the contemporary discourse.
Mills states that societal discourses around certain topics gradually become habitual
and form institutional limitations: discourse around insanity presents an example of this kind
of exclusion (58). In different historical times, for instance, the speech of an insane person
was considered either divine or entirely meaningless, and the treatment the mad person
received was thus dependent on the contemporary discourse (Mills 59).
The role of gender was of great significance in Victorian society: men and women
had their specific spheres and duties in society that one had to respect in order to be regarded
as “normal” (McDonagh 101). McDonagh explores that the term “idiocy” meant different
things for the different genders: “in association with men, idiocy is often identified as a lack,
frequently expressed through an inability to deal with money. The idiot male, in his
incapacity to exercise the authority of patriarchy and to manage the wealth of patrimony, is
a profoundly diminished man” (101). As for women, idiocy was associated with a “stripping
down to an essential element of nature” – intellectually disabled women served to strengthen
the position of men in the binary opposition known from Western history (McDonagh 127).
In the Victorian period, masculinity and femininity were clearly featured, and men
and women were expected to behave according to the established gender norms. Men
enjoyed the patriarchal power and status in household and society, including money: they
had to be strong, courageous, resourceful, intelligent, sharp, and confident, whereas women
were “the creatures of the private sphere, the ‘angels of the house’ […] who were naturally
given the domestic virtues of morality, chastity, piety, sympathy, humility, and nurturance”
(Allen 403). The given gender roles were strict and those who did not conform were
14
considered deviant. Furthermore, femaleness was a risk factor as such. In the medical
discourse of the period, the connection between madness and femaleness was thought to be
clear, as the female reproductive systems were thought to be so delicate that any unbalance
could possibly lead to insanity. As a result, a large number of women suffering from postpartum depression were regarded as mad and placed in mental institutions.
Female sexuality, in particular, was an issue that was not discussed in public but,
which, however, had to be controlled. Also in this respect, deviant women were disapproved.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the policing of gender brought about a re-coding
of sexuality: “sexuality was carefully confined; it moved into the home. The conjugal family
took custody of it and absorbed it into the serious function of reproduction”, and any sexual
transgression, that is deviation from monogamous heterosexuality, was criminalized
(Maunder and Moore 4). On the grounds of this sexual policing, manifested also in The
Contagious Diseases Act of 1864, “female sexuality [was] defined as both dangerous to
others as pathological per se, as opposed to male sexuality, which Acton argued was
uncontrollable by nature and therefore both unregulatable by law and a feature of health in
men” (Rothfield 178; emphasis original). Rothfield adds that sexual policing was only part
of surveillance: other categories of deviance, including psychiatric and psychological, were
created in the beginning of the 1860s (178).
Any deviance from the norm could place a woman at risk: female writers and
women’s right activists that questioned the given gender roles and the patriarchal supremacy
were easily labelled as mad. Elaine Showalter’s work The Female Malady (1985) explores
how femininity and insanity were equated in Victorian society, in order to reinforce the
established hierarchy. Maria K. Bachman states it as follows:
The highly speculative nature of defining and diagnosing madness has broad
cultural implications in the Victorian period. The sliding boundary between sanity
15
and insanity was crucial to reinforcing […] hierarchies of gender, as Elaine
Showalter has demonstrated in her groundbreaking study. (Maunder and Moore
183)
According to feminist analysis of gender and power, the conditions of madness in Victorian
time were gendered: “the ‘madwoman’ can be antithetical to Victorian ideals of femininity
in a way that can be interpreted as feminist” (Goodman 220).
That said, it is easy to understand why it was more often women than men that were
labelled as insane. Women’s weaker social and economic position could be explained as
personal difficulties “caused by larger societal forces and other individuals and social
groups” (Mills 73-74). Mental illness could be determined by judging an individual’s
behaviour against the discursive norms, and for that reason, a certain behaviour was favoured
and even taught to women, by using conduct books (Mills 74). Mills quotes Victorian
physician Tilt who described the undesired, even harmful behaviour of novel reading as
follows:
Novels and romances, speaking generally, should be spurned […] exert a
disastrous influence on the nervous system, sufficient to explain that frequency
of hysteria and nervous diseases which we find among the highest classes. (Mills
80)
In conclusion, in the Victorian period, the norms for an appropriate behaviour as to
gender roles, sexuality and mental health were determined within the framework of the
contemporary discourse. The normality or the “abnormality” of an individual was observed
and estimated through social control. Victorian men enjoyed patriarchal freedom both in
household and society, whereas women’s behaviour was more tightly under surveillance.
16
2.3 Defining Madness in Nineteenth-century Britain
Defining madness precisely and watertight is rather difficult, but most people have an idea
of what madness is. The definitions of madness range from clinical to commonplace
descriptions of mad people and mad behaviour. One basic definition is provided by
Goodman, as she states that “‘madness’ is a condition announced by one creature applied to
another. It is a label with all kinds of negative connotations: a powerful label, more so
because it is not defined (there is no defence to an unspecified charge)” (20). On the other
hand, “the label ‘mad’, is, of course, a very common and imprecise term for a variety of very
real conditions” (Goodman 110). The problem is that the term can be used in many ways.
On the medical level, a specialized vocabulary is needed to define the term correctly,
whereas on an individual level the meaning of the term is dependent on the purpose of using
it. The contemporary discourse, that is “the cultural assumptions attached to the term”
(Goodman 111), is of great significance when defining what madness is. Since Greek
tragedy, madness has always been an important theme in literature, but the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries mainly associated it with women (Goodman 114). Furthermore, there
have been more firmly established traditions in literature for presenting mad women than
mad men: women are seen biologically predisposed to insanity whereas “the subject of male
insanity has often led writers (both male and female) to produce highly innovative work,
probing the nature of psychological stability and our understanding of the world. Hamlet is
the most famous example” (Goodman 118-119). Related to the concept of madness, the
concept of idiocy is also important, as both concepts are used to denote people with deviant
mental capacity. In fact, these two terms are used interchangeably in the novel The Law and
the Lady: they are undefined and can thus refer to various many kinds of mental states. In
the nineteenth century, idiocy was a socially and ideologically useful term to designate other
17
people, and it was connected to the social and cultural discourses of the time (McDonagh 2;
emphasis original).
As medical science, not to mention psychiatry, was not advanced until the late
nineteenth century and onwards, the understanding of madness was different from that of
today. At the time when the novel was published, madmen and madwomen were
institutionalized into separate asylums, as earlier they had been placed among criminals in
prisons, for they were considered in the first place evil, not ill. Despite the varying
classifications of insanity and the variety of definitions of madness, insanity and idiocy and
other related concepts, I will try to present a basic classification of cases of insanity in
Victorian time. A classification based on modern psychiatry is excluded, as my study focuses
on the nineteenth-century discourse and the contemporary understanding of madness. My
main source of information on madness in the nineteenth century is Michel Foucault’s
Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1965), as it provides
a comprehensive description of the social context.
In Victorian society, reason was highly valued as a sign of an intellectual human
being, and unreasonable behaviour could tell about mental instability. On the other hand,
certain physical and psychological symptoms could reveal hysteria, hypochondria, or mania,
for example. What is more, deviant behaviour, without any intellectual disability, could be
seen as moral insanity.
2.3.1 The Medical Aspect: Madness as Disability or Deprivation of Reason
Physical and mental disabilities play an important role in sensation novels; they are used as
means to “articulate, exploit, and indeed undermine the seemingly stable binaries of able and
18
disabled, sane and mad, normal and abnormal, familiar and strange” (Holmes and Mossman
494). Disabled novel characters were used to create a sense of shock and the uncanny
(Holmes and Mossman 494). In contemporary psychology, ideas of the human body and
disabilities were constantly changing: a disabled character could in one instance be described
“as having defects of intellect, in another as having severe mental affliction, disturbance, or
malady; she is variously termed as an idiot or as being insane or delusional” (Holmes and
Mossman 501-2). Representations of disability or madness were difficult to classify
unambiguously, but Victorian society was, however, “centered on the identification of
bodily norms and the simultaneous location of populations within those normative categories
(as well, of course, outside of them)” (Holmes and Mossman 503).
When defining the phenomenon of madness, Foucault refers to The Encyclopédie:
“to depart from reason with confidence and in the firm conviction that one is following it –
that, it seems to me, is what is called being mad” (Foucault, Madness 104; emphasis
original). Accordingly, madmen are “those who are actually deprived of reason or who
persist in some notable error; it is this constant error of the soul manifest in its imagination,
in its judgements, and in its desires which constitutes the characteristic of this category”
(Foucault, Madness 104; emphasis original). Longman Dictionary of English Language and
Culture defines madness as follows:
1. the state of being mad
2. very foolish behaviour (797)
To be able to compare Foucault’s definition to the temporary the term “reason” must be
defined as well. Besides the synonymous meaning for the noun cause, Longman Dictionary
of English Language and Culture defines “reason” as
19
1. the ability to think, understand and form opinions or judgments that are based on
facts: People are different from animals because they possess the power of
reason.
2. good sense: There’s a great deal of sense in his advice.
3. a healthy mind that is not mad: to lose /regain one’s reason (1094)
As a madman’s relation to reason is questionable, also his relation to the truth is impaired or
lacking. Foucault states that “madness begins where the relation of man to truth was
disturbed and darkened” (Madness 104). Furthermore, Foucault classifies madness in
different categories, according to the access to the truth: deliria, hallucinations and dementias
(Madness 105). Foucault points out that The Encyclopédie separated between two types of
madness, relating to “physical truth” and “moral truth” (Madness 105). The first type of
madness “includes illusions, hallucinations, all perceptual disturbances; it is a madness to
hear choirs of angels, as certain enthusiasts do” (Foucault, Madness 105). The second type
consists of loss of relations “between moral objects, or between those objects and ourselves,
[…] such is the madness of character, of conduct, and of the passions […] all the illusions
of self-love, and all our passions when they are carried to the point of blindness” (Foucault,
Madness 105). According to Foucault, the term ‘blindness’ describes best the core of
madness as it signifies “that night of quasi-sleep which surrounds the images of madness,
giving them, in their solitude, an invisible sovereignty; but it refers also to ill-founded
beliefs, mistaken judgments, to that whole background of errors, inseparable from madness”
(Madness, 106).
As we know, the Victorian medical expertise in madness was largely based on
non-rationalistic modes of thinking, accompanied by religious or pre-scientific theories that
would not be valid in modern times. Nowadays, insanity, madness is seen as “mental
disorder, any illness with significant psychological or behavioural manifestation that is
20
associated with either a painful or a distressing symptom or an impairment in one or more
important areas of functioning” (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2016) ). Even today, it is not
simple to define mental disorder in a universally satisfactory way, because behaviour that is
seen as deviant in one culture can be deemed as normal in another. A mental illness can
affect an individual’s life in many ways, “including thinking, feeling, mood, and outlook
and such areas of external activity as family and marital life, sexual activity, work,
recreation, and management of material affairs” (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2016). In
modern science, mental illness is narrowly defined as “the presence of organic disease of the
brain”, whereas a definition regarding mental disorders as “psychological, social,
biochemical, or genetic dysfunctions” is more general (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2016).
In the nineteenth century, to verify a person as mad based more on systematic
psychological observations than the organs of the body, which had been the basis of the
earlier approach to madness. A doctor could judge by the behaviour of the patient what his
or her mental state was (Porter 129). The classification of madness divided mental disorders
into certain main categories, like melancholia, mania, idiocy, and dementia, but this
classification was partly transformed by Pinel, who developed a new definition and
introduced the term “partial insanity”, that is, madness on one subject alone (Porter 132).
In this classification, it is noteworthy that “idiocy” forms a subclass of madness
whereas the terms of madness and idiocy could be used interchangeably in sensation fiction
like The Law and the Lady. Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture defines
“idiocy” as “the state of being an idiot” or as “a stupid action” (655), whereas Encyclopaedia
Britannica defines idiocy on medical grounds as “Tay-Sachs disease, hereditary metabolic
disorder that causes progressive mental and neurologic deterioration”. Dr Samuel Gridley
Howe’s study On the Causes of Idiocy (1848) and his theory of moral degeneration provided
a classification that distinguished between three types of idiots: “pure idiots”, “fools” and
21
“simpletons” (this last type was known as “imbeciles” in Britain) (McDonagh 260).
Furthermore, Howe listed five possible causes for idiocy: “poor physical organization,
intemperance, masturbation, marriage between close relations, and failed attempts at
abortion” (McDonagh 260).
In the 1870s, the notion of “A Borderland of Insanity” was also introduced in the
field of psychiatry by Henry Maudsley and Andrew Wynter. Besides the sane and the
insane, there existed many individuals that could be considered as undiscovered lunatics.
The following example demonstrates the difficulty of defining madness, as there existed
many borderland cases:
It is of great importance then to recognize a borderland between sanity and
insanity and of greater importance still […] to study the doubtful case of which it
is peopled. There are a great many people, who without being insane, exhibit
peculiarities of thought, feeling and character […] they bear in their temperament
the marks of their peculiar heritage. (Bachman 179)
The definitions of madness and idiocy are unstable. McDonagh notes that “Idiocy,
mental deficiency, folly, mental retardation, intellectual disability and learning disability are
not the same names for a trans-historically stable subject; instead they designate different
manifestations of a set of related ideas, which are embodied in specific individuals” (17).
Each of these terms is a product of a specific social and cultural environment, for example
“impairment” denotes a physical condition, whereas “disability” denotes a social condition
and is a form of oppression, exclusion or constraint (McDonagh 12). The term “idiocy”
focuses on the process by which a society reproduces and re-imagines this presumption of
impairment within the culturally meaningful notion of idiocy (McDonagh 13).
As the system of asylums had been established and systematic observations of the
patients possible, there was an abundance of data on mental disorders and related behaviour,
22
so the classifications and diagnoses of madness were continuously transformed during the
nineteenth century (Porter 153).
The term “hysteria” was the most common expression to describe female madness
in the nineteenth century: the word hysteria derives from the Greek word for ’womb’:
hystera, as the reason for female madness was thought to be the uterus (Goodman 117).
Typical symptoms were “fainting, giving way to uncontrollable weeping, breathlessness and
phantom pains” (Goodman 117). As a cure, the doctors recommended marriage, but
motherhood could also cause mental breakdown, and in fact, many female patients in
Victorian asylums were suffering from post-natal depression (Goodman 117).
Foucault describes in more detail certain mental disorders, such as hysteria, a type of
insanity that attacked women more often than men (Madness 149). Raulin saw hysteria as
an illness “in which women invent, exaggerate, and repeat all the various absurdities of
which a disordered imagination is capable” (Foucault, Madness 138-139). The reason for
why women were so hysterical was that “women have a more delicate, less firm constitution,
because they lead a softer life and because they are accustomed to luxuries and commodities
of life and not to suffering” (Foucault, Madness 149). In contrast, “few women are hysterical
when they are accustomed to a hard and laborious life, yet strongly incline to become so
when they lead a soft, idle, luxurious, and lax existence” (Foucault, Madness 149).
Foucault adds that also sorrow could cause hysteria: “When women consult me
about some complaint whose nature I cannot determine, I ask if the malady from which they
are suffering attacks when they have some sorrow […] if they admit as much, I am fully
assured that their complaint is an hysterical affection” (Madness 149-150).
Foucault notes that there are also emotional reasons for female hysteria: “often
hysteria was perceived as the effect of an internal heat that spread throughout the body, and
23
this kind of heat could be linked to the amorous ardour in girls looking for husbands and in
young widows who lost theirs” (Madness 139). In his work Maladie d’amour ou mélancholie
érotique, Jacques Ferrand explored that females tend to suffer more frequently of emotional
problems than males (Foucault, Madness 140).
Hysteria was mostly young women’s disease, but it had a male equivalent called
hypochondria, and what distinguished female hysteria from male hypochondria was the
spatial solidarity of the body (Foucault, Madness 149). The cause of hysteria was supposed
to be in the womb, and as for hypochondria, in the stomach and the intestines (Foucault,
Madness 145). Both hysteria and hypochondria were regarded as mental diseases, and
certain symptoms of this disease were recognizable, like “nervous cough; palpations of the
heart; variations in the pulse, periodic headaches, vertigo and dizzy spells; diminution or
failure of eyesight; depression, despair, melancholia or even madness, nightmares or incubi”
(Foucault, Madness 137). Furthermore, hysteria could proceed to mania which could in turn
produce violent, murderous or suicidal rages (Goodman 117). Foucault adds that
hypochondria was an illness of the whole body and could lead to mania, just like the female
equivalent hysteria might do (Madness 137).
Mania was characterised by excessive mobility, in contrast to melancholia, which
was described as a state with diminution of movements (Foucault, Madness 141), possibly
accompanied by fear and sadness (Foucault, Madness 121). Porter notes that the diagnosis
of monomania “was developed to describe a partial insanity, identified with emotional
problems, especially those involving paranoia, kleptomania, nymphomania and pyromania”
(134). Dementia, on the other hand, was considered the opposite of both melancholia and
mania, as it expressed “paralysis of the mind or an abolition of the faculty of reason”
(Foucault, History 202).
24
Gradually, the doctors became interested in the hereditary and physical cause of
insanity and, accordingly, insanity was seen as part of one’s inheritance and thus impossible
to be avoided (Matus 339). As for women, the diagnosis was more difficult to make, due to
the commonplace beliefs of the female gender. Matus notes that women “can not be
considered truly rational, reasonable beings and therefore moral subjects […]
The
functioning of the female body renders a woman unstable and liable to madness and moral
perversion” (339).
In summary, in the Victorian period the medical classification of madness divided
mental disorders into certain main categories such as melancholia, mania, idiocy, and
dementia, but the classification was constantly transformed as a result of development in
medical sciences. In addition to the division between the sane and the insane, the cases
“undiscovered lunatics” in the borderland had to be acknowledged. The line between sane
and insane was thus difficult to draw and often arbitrary or at least ambiguous.
2.3.2 Madness as Moral Insanity
In this chapter the focus will be on the nineteenth-century idea of madness as moral insanity,
which meant immoral or deviant behaviour, caused by other reasons than defective reasoning
or cognitive impairment.
During the nineteenth century, the focus of psychology was moving from the earlier
emphasis on the soul and mind to include both psychological and physical aspects, which in
turn changed the definition of insanity (Slinn 340). The concept of madness embraced now
deprived or impaired reason but also “what the French called ‘rational lunacy’ (folie
25
raisonnante) or the British ‘moral insanity’” (Slinn 340; emphasis original). From now on,
madness was regarded as a quasi-moral condition, in which the boundaries between the sane
and the insane were blurred (Slinn 340). The term moral insanity denoted “madness as the
experience of inappropriate emotions rather than the result of defective reasoning or
cognitive impairment” (Matus 338). Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture
defines “morals” as “standards of behaviour, especially in matters of sex” (862), thus “moral
insanity” must be understood as a behaviour breaking against the moral rules. Matus argues
that “in a society as concerned with morality as was Victorian England, a theory which
seemed to ascribe moral perversity to insanity was bound to have a strong appeal” (338).
Consequently, if madness was considered as to be caused by defective moral agency,
behaviour that was considered as deviant was believed to prove of moral madness (Matus
338).
In 1833, physician J.C. Prichard introduced the term “moral insanity” and
explained that this term describes a state that “consists of a morbid perversion of feelings,
affections, habits, without any hallucination or erroneous conviction impressed upon the
understanding: it sometimes coexists with an apparently unimpaired state of intellectual
faculties” (Matus 338). In those days, moral lunatics were of special interest because they
were coincidences of madness and deviousness, and it was difficult to draw the line between
crime and insanity (Matus 338). Also in Howe’s thinking, idiocy was caused by immoral
behaviour and presented “evidence of moral degeneracy” (McDonagh 263).
In conclusion, moral insanity was a classified as a type of insanity in the Victorian
period, as immoral or deviant behaviour without any physiological reason had to be
explained somehow. The reasons for moral insanity were thought to be emotional.
26
2.3.3 Madness as Otherness
The two previous sections have viewed madness from medical and moral points of view, but
this chapter will present the idea of seeing madness as Otherness, as deviance from the norm,
regardless of the causes or manifestations of madness.
Besides the medical aspect, there is also a more commonplace definition of madness,
referring to “non-conformity as equivalent to lunacy […] If you didn’t do what your
neighbours did, that is, if your behaviour was considered deviant, they were quite justified
in calling you a lunatic” (Matus 340-341). To label somebody as mad also reveals where the
power is, as exemplified in the following comparison: “I am an individual, you may be
eccentric but he is a raving lunatic” (Welch 40). Longman Dictionary of English Language
and Culture defines the adjective “eccentric” as follows: “behaving differently from what is
usual or socially accepted, esp. in a way that is strange or amusing” (405). In Victorian
times, the role of gender was of great importance because men and women had their own
spheres and duties in society (McDonagh 101). Thus, the label “deviant” or “mad” meant
different things for the different genders. Likewise, all the other aspects of human life were
viewed against the Victorian norms: sexuality, appearance, social class, family life and so
on. The existed an unwritten law about a “normal” conduct.
The idea of non-conformity reflects the theory of Otherness, also used in colonial
and post-colonial discourse. In this ideology the weaker counterpart is othered by the more
powerful one, presented as deficient, and the Other is lacking in relation to the norm (Mills
114). In this thinking, not only “clinically” insane but also sane people can be labelled as
mad, if they appear to differ from the norm. Also Porter underlines the Otherness of the
insane (122) and states that all societies tend to label some people “mad”, even without
clinical justification, as it is necessary to mark out the different, deviant, and possibly
27
dangerous individuals (62). This is done by stigmatizing: first by singling out the difference
of an individual or a group, then considering it inferiority and finally blaming these persons
for their otherness (Porter 62). The stigma attached to the insane arises out of a necessity to
construct a world view based on the separation between “self” and “other”: “as in the
polarized distinctions we draw between Insiders and Outsiders, Black and White […] The
construction of such ‘them-and-us’ oppositions reinforces our fragile sense of self-identity
and self-worth through the pathologization of pariahs” (Porter 63). Because the terms
madness and idiocy were undefined and used interchangeably in Victorian time, what
McDonagh says about idiocy and Otherness applies to madness and Otherness as well:
“some humans are removed in order to enable the remainder to believe in their own
unalloyed intelligence” – the study of mental disorders is thus a study of exile (McDonagh
2). The mentally deficient people were transformed into a contrastive group, a category of
people against whom the rational people’s claims for respect were reflected – idiots were
considered to be idiots and nothing else (McDonagh 2).
In his study of the construction of Otherness, Mark Welch explores the significance
of Otherness for the meaning: it helps individuals to understand, classify and order the world
(197). People construct and defend their world view by Othering. Difference can make
people feel threatened: “Suddenly it becomes possible that there are just others, that we
ourselves are another among others” (Welch 195; emphasis original). This self-identification
parallels Lacan’s idea of a child creating an identity of its own when separating from its
mother: it realises the difference between the self and the Other (Welch 200). Hall stresses
that “what is said about racial difference could be equally applied in many instances to other
dimensions of difference, such as gender, sexuality, class and disability” (qtd. in Welch 196).
Welch notes that “the particularities of the Other in representations of Madness take
on a number of significant forms which often reflect historical or geographical concerns, but
28
they are always informed by the suggestion that while not all Others are mad, the mad are
always Other” (195). He adds that such factors as gender, manner of speech or dress, class
or disability give extra depth to the representations of the mad as Other, and what is more,
in some cases, it is important in the representation of Otherness if the mad person is, for
example, male or female, homosexual or heterosexual, rich or poor, and so on (197).
Furthermore, the representation of the mad often overlaps with the representation of the
physically repulsive or deformed (Welch 203), noted also by Gilbert (186).
In addition to odd behaviour, the Otherness may manifest in arts. Art historian and
psychiatrist Prinzhorn claimed in 1972 that “the paintings and drawings of inmates of
asylums should be regarded with the seriousness and could be subject to aesthetic
consideration as might be applied to the art of any other group” (Welch 30). The art of other
groups of Others, for example native Africans, has also been receiving a certain
understanding, in particular in the avant-garde of the Expressionist movement, and the
similarity in the representations was striking. Art was believed to reveal something of the
inner psyche of the mad person – it served as a short-cut to the unconscious. Welch notes
that there have been great artists that suffered from insanity but to analyse their art calls for
psychoanalytic precepts: the representation becomes more significant than the represented
(31).
The image of Otherness is often connected with areas that people know little of or are
afraid of, like death, madness, and different races (Welch 202). The idea of Otherness
originates in the literature about the Orient, like Orientalism (1979) by Edward Said. Positive
ideas of home, good behaviour and moral values validate “our” world but at the same time
devalue other worlds. As Mason states, the Other is a result of exclusion: “witches, Wild
Men, madmen and animals are (all) aspects of European self that self cannot tolerate” (Welch
205). The Other may be demonized:
29
The mythology of demonization of the Other creates the (illusory) reassurance
of consensus; we all know what we are against, and we know it is nothing like
us […] otherness cannot be known or represented except as foreign, irrational,
‘mad’, ‘bad’, and as such becomes the unseen part of our culture; that which is
always there, but never acknowledged. (Welch 83)
Madness as Otherness is distinguished from the other types of Otherness in the way
that madness is not necessarily noticed by the outward appearance: anyone can be the Other
(Welch 206). Welch notes that even more frightening in this kind of Otherness is the fact
that anyone can go mad and Otherness thus become part of anyone, even if latent, buried, or
unknown (206). Otherness may take different representations, as expressed in the following:
Otherness takes on a number of different guises, and while at times it has been
portrayed as a dark part of everyone’s psychological make up, or associated with
those on the extreme borders of human ability as in the case of genius, or
something that is essentially alien to us, or is found in the representation of
gender and sexuality, or may show itself through barbarous acts, the common
factor is the significance that the Other has for a sense of identity. (Welch 238)
Madness is, according to Welch, represented as an undesirable state, lurking within everyone
and showing itself in extreme circumstances (239). Even if the mad is not physically
dangerous or may recover from the temporary sickness, his experience will always be that
of Otherness (Welch 239).
In the introduction of Victorian Crime, Madness and Sensation, Maunder and Moore
stress the Victorian fascination with the “Other” in all its forms: “whether that other was the
imperial subject in a far-off colony, the revolting emaciated inhabitant of the slum dwelling
or the newly demonized criminal” (4). In fact, the title “Sensation novel” was first bestowed
on Wilkie Collins’s serial The Woman in White (1859-1860) (Maunder and Moore 4).
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Gilbert suggests that “The genre’s interest in extreme medical and mental states connects
with the period’s interest in evolution, degeneration, barbarism and the Other” (Gilbert 185).
Mangham states that Victorian novels were interested in queer, other, liminal, and uncanny
issues, and thus dealt with “questions about what is considered to be ‘normal’ and how we
recognise it” (4). Sensation fiction made a spectacle of femininity but also of masculinity
and androgyny: it displayed characters that we see as deviant from the Victorian norm:
powerful and manly women, and on the other hand, feeble and effeminate men (Mangham
4). Collins, however, did not use insane characters for comic effect but to explore “the inner
psyches of his mental deviants, examining what it means to be cast as ‘other’ and relegated
to the margins of society in Victorian England” (Bachman 179).
In this chapter I have presented an alternative point of view on insanity: the
possibility to regard madness as Otherness, as deviance from the social norm. The concept
of Otherness was first introduced with reference to the Orient, but Mark Welch’s study of
madness as Otherness demonstrates the applicability of the idea of Otherness to all historical
times and societies. Physical or mental impairment, or any deviance from the norm is
considered Other; on one hand as a threat, on the other hand as inferiority. Those in power
can decide who is Other.
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3.Representations of Madness in The Law and the Lady
In this section I will discuss the representations of madness in the late nineteenth century
sensation novel The Law and the Lady (1875) by Wilkie Collins. In the theory section, I have
classified the representations of madness into three main categories, and this analysis section
will give examples of the representations of madness in The Law and the Lady. As noted,
the representations of madness can be discussed from a medical point of view, or as moral
insanity, or as non-conformity, that is, as Otherness. The argument of my study is that all
representations of madness can be seen as Otherness, because regarding someone as “mad”
is related to power: those in power decide who is mad or Other, that is, different from Us.
This applies to whole society but also to its minor units, like families. Discourse helps us to
understand the process of Othering: it is the unwritten laws produced by societal discourse
that draw the line between the sane and the insane, the normal and the abnormal.
In this section I will present my argument that madness is, in the first place, a form of
Otherness, a deviance from the established norm. The contemporary discourse always
defines what is seen as “normal” or “abnormal”. In the following sections, I will provide
examples of representations of madness in The Law and the Lady to support my argument
that the question of madness is most often a question of Otherness, either visible or invisible,
and, as in some cases, both. As I will show, the mad do not fit into the Victorian norms but
rather make a spectacle. In sensation literature, insane characters with physical disabilities,
such as Miserrimus Dexter and his cousin Ariel in The Law and the Lady, were frequently
used as means to attract the reader’s attention and create an atmosphere of sensation and
mystery.
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To begin with introducing the characters Dexter and Ariel more closely, it is first
worth noticing that Ariel has no last name or at least she is never called by it, in contrast to
her cousin Mr. Miserrimus Dexter. This deliberate choice by the author underlines Ariel’s
dependent position and her functioning as Dexter’s servant, slave, or, most aptly, as his
watch-dog or puppet.
3.1 Madness as Disability or Deprivation of Reason
In this chapter I will discuss representations of madness in The Law and the Lady, seen from
a medical point of view, that is, the cases of madness perceived as deformity, disability, or
as ‘deprivation of reason’. The two insane protagonists, Miserrimus Dexter and his cousin
Ariel are both portrayed as disabled: Dexter as physically and mentally, and Ariel mentally.
In Victorian time, insanity was verified by a keen external observation of the patient.
According to contemporary psychiatry, insanity manifested itself in strange behaviour, or in
striking appearance, or in odd artefacts, like paintings, sculpture or literary texts. The
judgement of insanity was done by trained physicians, “mad-doctors” (Gilbert 188), but also
laymen were equally entitled to express their opinion on somebody’s insanity. In Madness
and Civilization, Foucault states that blindness is the core of madness, it is “reason dazzled”
(Bachman 188), and “madness begins where the relation of man to the truth is disturbed
and darkened” (Bachman 188).
The two main characters of the novel, Mr. Miserrimus Dexter and his female cousin
Ariel, are commonly believed to be mad and are therefore othered. In addition to their mental
disorder, they are also physically deviant: Dexter a legless cripple and lacks both the healthy
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body and soul which were highly valued in Victorian society. Dexter’s female cousin Ariel,
in turn, is presented as a dull, harsh, and shapeless creature wearing men’s clothes. The
representation of their madness gains more depth and horror as they are portrayed as entirely
different from the normal people, not only because of their mental state. As discussed in the
theory section, the representation of the mad often overlaps with the representation of the
physically repulsive or deformed (Welch 203). In the following example Dexter is presented
as deformed, but only partially, as to make the deformity more striking:
Gliding, self-propelled in his chair on wheels, through the opening made for him
among the crowd, a strange and startling creature – literally the half of a man –
revealed himself to the general view. […] the trunk of a living human being:
absolutely deprived of the lower limbs. To make the deformity all the more
striking and all the more terrible, the victim of it was – as to his face and body –
an unusually handsome and an unusually well-made man. […] Never had Nature
committed a more careless or a more cruel mistake than in making of this man!
(Collins 173)
That Dexter is considered handsome is a means of the author to make his deformities more
prominent – it reflects the way of thinking at the time. To add to the sensational effect which
this strange character creates, Dexter is also featured as an intelligent and educated
gentleman. He has a good knowledge of Latin, history and literature. In the trial, he explains
the origin of his first name ‘Miserrimus’ as follows: “My name ‘Miserrimus’ means, in
Latin, ‘most unhappy’. It was given to me by my father, in allusion to the deformity which
you all see – the deformity with which it was my misfortune to be born” (Collins 174).
But it was not only his body that is so deformed and horrifying: to some people the
entire man appears “mad”, as expressed in the following:
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The man is mad! […] Have you heard of his horrible deformity? […] the man’s
mind is as deformed as his body. What Voltaire said satirically of the character
of his countrymen in general is literally true of Miserrimus Dexter. He is a
mixture of the tiger and the monkey. At the moment he would frighten you, and
at the next he would set you screaming with laughter. […] He is clever in some
respects – brilliantly clever […] I don’t say that he has ever committed any acts
of violence, or ever willingly injured anybody. But, for all that, he is mad, if ever
a man were mad yet. (Collins 191)
Despite the brilliant cleverness that may compensate for the physical deformity, Dexter’s
latent insanity is lurking under the surface and those who know him better can give
statements like above. In addition, in the Victorian period physical health was correlated
with mental and it was commonly believed that “the integrity of the mental functions
depends on the integrity of the bodily organisation” (Rosner 11). It is also worth
remembering that Dexter’s body is only partial, as he was born legless, so his state can also
be considered as that of a mad woman, on the basis of the comment by contemporary
physician Weir Mitchell: “cutting up the male body absolutely fragments the body’s
masculinity: that opening up a man allows a mad woman – or at least a piece of one – to
come out” (Rosner 11). In Victorian times, Dexter’s partial body could thus be seen as a sign
of femininity, which, as discussed in the theory section, was a pathological state per se.
Later on, when Dexter’s condition deteriorates, the doctor’s opinion confirms the
general suspicion of Dexter’s insanity. The following statement is given by the doctor:
There is undoubtedly latent insanity in this case, but that no active symptoms of
madness have presented themselves as yet. […] He may say or do all sorts of
things; but he has his mind under the control of his will. […] That he will end in
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madness (if he live), I entertain little or no doubt. […] the man will drop (if I may
use the expression) into madness or idiocy. (Collins 281; emphasis mine)
As the above example demonstrates, Dexter’s insanity is not verified yet, only later on, but
he is, however, commonly regarded as “a madman”. This is a sign of Othering, based on
the discourse of insanity: outsiders ascribe Dexter’s deviant behaviour to his madness.
Moulds discusses the vital role of the insane Ariel in the narrative: in fact, the plot is
dependent on her uncertainty. Thus, Moulds reads Ariel in a central role: Ariel is not
marginal or trash, which might be the traditional reading of a mad person from working
classes. Ariel’s status in the novel is that of a servant, even though she is working in her
cousin’s household. Moulds points out the positive qualities of Ariel’s idiocy, like capacity
for emotional feelings and, on the other hand, ability to carry out practical tasks. These
elements are not in accordance with McDonagh’s conclusion about idiots in sensation
fiction: McDonagh argues that the idiots were in general passive, stoic, and unreceptive
(Moulds).
Moulds pays attention to the masculinization of the character of Ariel, and considers
it interesting, “given other contemporaneous portrayals of women with learning disabilities
often emphasised their femininity. Both George Eliot’s Romola and Margaret Oliphant’s
Salem Chapel depict characters associated with intellectual disabilities – Tessa and Alice
Mildmay. They are beautiful, childlike and vulnerable”. Wilkins’s depiction differs from this
tradition, and Moulds assumes that Ariel’s masculine character represents an extreme mode
of the gender transgression exhibited by Valeria: she defies the social conventions of
Victorian society in a manly way, by starting her detective work to find out the truth behind
the murder case.
In the novel, Ariel is portrayed as masculine, as the following example demonstrates:
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‘Here comes his cousin. His cousin is a woman. I may as well tell you that, or
you might mistake her for a man in the dark.’ A rough, deep voice, which I should
certainly never have supposed to be the voice of a woman, hailed us from the
inner side of the paling. (Collins 203)
Ariel is presented as masculine and thus she contradicts Dexter. They are not only opposites,
but also opposites in the deviant way: she is masculine, he feminine. According to Rosner,
Miserrimus Dexter’s womanly habits of dressing himself in bright and beautiful clothes and
being interested in cookery and needlework correlate to his being a hybrid (11). The cousins
blur the traditional gender stereotypes of Victorian time, but what is more, the unbalance
of the power relations between a man and a woman can also be considered as a gender
transgression: the man is placed “in a subordinate and wifely position of dependence”
(Taylor 157), like in Collins’s other novel on disability, The Dead Secret (1857).
Like the first name of the male character Miserrimus Dexter, also Ariel’s name bears
a special meaning. Dexter himself has named her cousin, as he reveals in the following: “I
named her, poor wretch, in one of my ironical moments. She has got to like her name, just
as a dog gets to like his collar” (Collins 211). To be able to name someone after one’s own
desire tells of power, of total supremacy, and of obedience. Dexter’s and Ariel’s relationship
resembles the relationship between Robinson Crusoe and his servant Friday in Daniel
Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe (1719). Crusoe’s servant was a savage and Dexter’s servant
is disabled. Both belong to the groups of human beings who have been despised and Othered
in the civilised world (Welch 205). To choose the name Ariel, tells, on the other hand, of
Dexter’s interest in literature and especially in Shakespeare’s works, which he has so
devotedly acted out on his own. Shakespeare gave the name Ariel to a spirit in his play The
Tempest (1611), where this Ariel was bound to obey his master, the magician Prospero, after
Prospero had saved him from being trapped in a tree by the evil witch Sycorax.
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Shakespeare’s Ariel obeys all his master’s demands: “the grumbling but faithful servant
Ariel (one of Shakespeare’s most interesting developments of the wity servants)” (Evett 189)
is an all-purpose servant who enjoys relative freedom (Evett 192), whereas Prospero’s other
slave Caliban is rebellious and despises his master. Caliban is represented as deformed and
physically unattractive (Evett 192), and Collins’s Ariel appears to resemble both these
slaves. The Ariel of The Law and the Lady is presented as a doubled person, as the following
example demonstrates:
‘Ariel!’ sighed Miserrrimus Dexter out of the darkness, in his softest notes. To
my astonishment the coarse masculine voice of the cousin in the man’s hat – the
Caliban’s, rather than the Ariel’s voice – answered, ‘Here!’ […] Ariel the Second,
otherwise Dexter’s cousin, presented herself plainly before me for the first time.
(Collins 209-210)
There are two sides within Ariel: a harsh one, visible to the others, and a soft one, called
out by her master whenever he desires to do it. Another resemblance between the Ariel of
The Tempest and the Ariel of The Law and the Lady is how they address their masters: Ariel
in The Tempest calls his master Prospero, a “great master” (Evett 190), and also Collins’s
Ariel calls her cousin “the Master”. This is demonstrated by the following examples: “The
Master’s writing,’ said this strange creature” (Collins 204), and “‘What do you want with
the Master’, Ariel asked, in her turn. ‘Do you mean Mr Dexter?’ ‘Yes’ ” (Collins 227).
Ariel’s appearance matches to the stereotype of a madwoman in Victorian time,
described also in Lady Audley’s Secret: “loose disordered garments, and dishevelled hair,
[…] lurid visage” (Matus 342). Ariel is described as follows:
I [Valeria] could now see the girl’s round, fleshy, inexpressive face, her rayless
and colourless eyes, her hoarse nose and heavy chin. A creature half alive; an
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imperfectly developed animal in shapeless form, clad in a man’s pilot jacket, and
treading in a man’s heavy laced boots, with nothing but an old red-flannel
petticoat, and a broken comb in her frowzy flaxen hair, to tell us that she was a
woman – such was the inhospitable woman who had received us in the darkness
(Collins 210)
With this appearance Ariel equals to the antithesis of “Victorian patriarchy’s idealized
other – a blue-eyed, curly-headed, infantilized angel” (Matus 342). The Victorian beauty
ideal for women was a delicate, fragile look, pale complexion and long curls, so much
that long hair was a woman’s glory. Victorian men started to have their hair cut but long
and full beards and moustaches were a sign of manhood. In this respect, Dexter, is, again,
presented as a hybrid, as he has long, curly hair and a long beard, described in the
following: “she [Ariel] perfumed the flowing locks and the silky beard of Miserrimus
Dexter” (Collins 210). Another description of Ariel’s unappealing appearance is given
in the announcement of the housekeeper on the arrival of a visitor:
It’s a woman this time, ma’am – or something like one […] A great, stout,
awkward, stupid creature, with a man’s hat on and a man’s stick in her hand. […]
I’d better not let her in – had I? (Collins 300)
In contrast to Miserrimus Dexter, who is described as insane only at intervals, Ariel
is constantly presented as an “idiot”. Like madness, also idiocy is a socially and ideologically
meaningful term to say denote other people: “Idiocy is thus a term to designate other people,
or other groups of people” (McDonagh 2; emphasis original). The concept of idiocy is
always connected to the social and cultural discourses of the time, and in the Victorian
period, it was commonly used to designate a mental deficiency or an intellectual disability.
The words “mad” and “idiot” are also used interchangeably in the novel. All outsiders who
39
know Ariel regard her as mentally deficient, as clearly expressed by Valeria’s mother-inlaw: “Dexter’s cousin is the only woman in the house, and Dexter’s cousin is an idiot”
(Collins 203). In addition, Dexter feels superior to Ariel and he has trained her to become
his slave and watch-dog, literally: the master often calls his servant by whistling only
(Collins 228). Dexter’s opinion on Ariel’s mental capacity is expressed in the following
example:
‘It is the face of an idiot, isn’t it? […] She is a mere vegetable. A cabbage in the
garden has as much life and expression in it as that girl exhibits at the moment.
Would you believe that there was latent intelligence, affection, pride, fidelity, in
such a half-developed being as this?’ (Collins 211)
When defining the phenomenon of madness, Foucault has used a definition from The
Encyclopédie: “to depart from reason with confidence and in the firm conviction that one
is following it – that, it seems to me, is what is called being mad” (Foucault 104).
Accordingly, madmen are those who “are actually deprived of reason or who persist in
some notable error; it is this constant error of the soul manifest in its imagination, in its
judgements, and in its desires which constitutes the characteristic of this category”
(Foucault 104). In the light of this definition, Ariel represents a case of “deprivation of
reason”: she does exactly what her master demands her to do, without thinking of the
rationality of the demands. Ariel’s irrational obedience to her Master is portrayed in the
following scene where Dexter is training her like a dog, or at least like someone less than
a human being:
Ariel was standing before a table, with a dish of little cakes placed in front of her.
Round each of her twists was tied a string, the free end of which (at a distance of
a few yards) was held in Miserrimus Dexter’s hands. […] ‘Take a cake.’ At the
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word of command, Ariel submissively stretched out one arm towards the dish.
Just as she touched a cake with the tips of her fingers, her hand was jerked away
by a pull at the string, so savagely cruel in the nimble and devilish violence of it.
(Collins 326)
Dexter excuses his behaviour by his malicious moods when he must tease something. In
addition, he states that Ariel has no nerves so this kind of treatment would not harm her.
Like an echo, Ariel imitates Dexter’s words: “‘Ariel has got no nerves,’ she repeated,
proudly. ‘He doesn’t hurt me.’ (Collins 327). Ariel’s attitude is in concordance with the
contemporary image of idiocy, where the “idiot” believes and imitates all that is said to her:
no harm done, even though she might be physically hurt, like in The Law and the Lady: “She
passed me [Valeria], with the strings hanging from her swollen wrists” (Collins 327).
A less striking example of Ariel’s devotion to her master is the combing and oiling
Dexter’s beard. When involved in the task, Ariel appears totally devoted and impenetrable:
“A machine could not have taken less notice of the life and the talk around it than this
incomprehensible creature” (Collins 211). Inside Ariel there is, however, some intelligence,
but only Dexter has access to it, as expressed in the text: “I have got at that latent affection,
pride, fidelity, and the rest of it […] I hold the key to that dormant Intelligence” (Collins
211; emphasis original).
As Dexter points out in the above example, ‘Intelligence’ is a key word when
judging someone’s mental capacity. Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture
defines “intelligence” as “(good) ability to learn, reason, and understand” (684), whereas
“reason”, in this context, “is the ability to think, understand, and form opinions or judgments
that are based on facts” or as “a healthy mind that is not mad” (1094). Ariel’s mental capacity
enfolds an ability to learn, at least those tricks that Dexter trains her, so it is possible to
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discuss some kind of intelligence as to Ariel, even though she is described as an idiot. Dexter
compares his cousin’s intelligence to a sound of a musical instrument: he claims that he is
able to play upon Ariel’s intelligence – and her intelligence replies to his touch – like an
instrument. (Collins 212-213). The idea of comparing the idiot brain with an instrument was
created by Maudsley: “the brains of lesser humans: the savage brain, like the idiot brain, is
a poor instrument, rendering to the most sensitive touch at best, ‘a few feeble intellectual
notes and a very rude and primitive sort of moral feeling’ ” (McDonagh 278). Dexter’s claim
of being able to play upon Ariel’s intelligence clearly demonstrates that he is othering Ariel.
He feels superior to her as he holds the key to her intelligence, and thus he can also
manipulate her. The following example shows how Ariel’s jealousy arises when Dexter asks
her if someone else could comb and oil his beard instead of Ariel. Ariel answers:
‘Nobody, as long as I live, shall touch you but me. […] ‘Not even that lady there?’
asked Dexter […] ‘Let her try!’ cried the poor creature, raising her voice again to
the hoarsest notes. ‘Let her touch you if she dares!’ (Collins 212).
Ariel’s reply clearly manifests her devotion to her master. Dexter seems to be satisfied with
the result of this experiment and allows Ariel to calm down: “That will do, my delicate Ariel,
he said, I dismiss your Intelligence for the present. Relapse into your former self” (Collins
212). After that, Ariel relapses into the vacant inanimate creature she usually is and
disappears from the room, “with the mute obedience of a trained animal” (Collins 212).
Although Ariel is represented as a brainless creature, with notable problems with
reasoning and rational thinking, she appears to have capacity for some brainwork of her own,
too. In the following example Ariel reveals her own plan to get rid of Valeria, whom she
now regards as a rival:
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‘You want to take my place. You want to brush his hair and oil his beard, instead
of me. You wretch!’ […] The idea which Miserrimus Dexter had jestingly put
into her head, in exhibiting her to us on the previous night, had been ripening
slowly in that dull brain, and had found its way outwards into words. (Collins
227)
In this scene, where Ariel and Valeria are on a carriage ride, Ariel threatens to drown Valeria
into the nearby canal they approach, and this clearly witnesses of Ariel’s own reasoning:
“Well, I have half a mind to upset you in the canal” (Collins 227).
According to Moulds, Ariel’s mental state can be analysed as a learning disability,
as she has difficulties with speaking and understanding. This is seen in the following
example from the same scene:
She looked around at me, her fat face flushing, her dull eyes dilating, with the
unaccustomed effort to express herself in speech, and to understand what was said
to her in return. ‘Say that again,’ she burst out. ‘And say it slower this time.’
(Collins 64)
In the Victorian period, learning disability was equated with idiocy, as pointed out, so
the deviance is labelled as madness.
When Dexter’s condition weakens, the doctor is called to check upon his
condition: Dexter has fallen into ‘imbecility’, into the worst case of ‘idiocy’. He cannot
even recognise Ariel any more nor play the harp, and later on, he has to be taken to an
asylum (Collins 350), accompanied by his devoted servant Ariel. Ariel’s devotion to her
master lasts until the end: she cannot understand the fact that Dexter is dying. The limits
of Ariel’s mental capacity are revealed in the following dialogue between Valeria and
Benjamin, who is a friend of Valeria’s father:
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‘And Ariel?’ I [Valeria] asked. ‘Quite unaltered,’ Benjamin answered. ‘Perfectly
happy so long as she is with ‘the Master’. From all I can hear of her, poor soul,
she doesn’t reckon Dexter among mortal beings. She laughs at the idea of his
dying.’ (Collins 406)
Dexter’s death and funeral leads to Ariel’s destruction, too, because she is unable to
live without her master. Her state alternates “between fits of raving delirium and intervals of
lethargic repose” (Collins 407) until she finally escapes from the asylum and strays back to
the burial-ground, where she is found dead on her Master’s grave the next day.
As mentioned in the theory section, the unusually strong bond between the two
disabled cousins could be considered as a queer relationship (Herzl Betz 36) or as a quasiincestuous relationship (Moulds). The real state of affairs remains unrevealed. Ariel exhibits
a mental state with a severe learning disability accompanied by a low cognitive capacity,
whereas Dexter’s major problem is his physical disability that gradually worsens his mental
capacity, too. The quality of their relationship reflects their intellectual levels: the smarter
becomes the master, the less intelligent becomes the servant. As I noted in the theory section,
the Darwinian theory of survival was a common feature in Collins’s works (Pykett 180-181),
so it may be possible that the power relationship between the two cousins reflects the natural
course of life. From a subjective angle, these characters hardly feel insane, maybe only
isolated and different, but from an objective point of view, however, their behavioural
patterns together with their physical and mental disability ascribe them as insane.
In conclusion, this chapter has presented representations of madness in The Law
and the Lady from a medical point of view: that is, the cases of madness perceived as
deformity, disability, or as ‘deprivation of reason’. Miserrimus Dexter and his cousin Ariel
are both presented as disabled: Dexter physically and mentally, and Ariel mentally.
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3.2 Madness as Moral Insanity
The aim of this section is to present cases where madness is represented as a morally and
socially unacceptable behaviour, with no reference to lack or impairment of intelligence as
such. On the contrary, insane behaviour could be interpreted resulting from immoral ideas.
Dexter desired to marry a healthy woman although he himself was a ‘miserable’ cripple.
This was considered as unsuitable, as immoral.
As discussed in the theory section, there are also other reasons for insane
behaviour than impaired mental or physical health. As I have pointed out when describing
Dexter’s appearance, he is portrayed as an effeminate man, with an unusually beautiful face
and hair, like a woman’s. Furthermore, his nervousness and interest in needlework and
cookery present him more as feminine than the ideal man of Victorian time who was strong
and interested in man’s duties. As Dexter’s gender is a hybrid, he also demonstrated
feminine weaknesses, like hysterical scenes and nervous behaviour. Due to the
commonplace beliefs of the femininity, women were more likely to be labelled as mad than
men. It was part of Victorian discourse that women “cannot be considered truly rational,
reasonable beings and therefore moral” (Matus 339; emphasis mine). Since the association
between insanity, femininity, and immorality applied also to men with overtly female
features, such as Miserrimus Dexter (Rosner 11), Dexter’s insanity can partly be explained
by his feminine features, such as hypersensitivity.
Miserrimus Dexter desired to marry a healthy woman although he himself was a
“miserable” cripple, as his first name implies. This desire was considered as unsuitable, as
immoral. Miserrimus Dexter had asked the first Mrs. Eustace Macallan – regardless of his
status – to be his wife, but she refused Dexter’s offer and chose Mr. Eustace Macallan
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instead. Dexter’s immoral suggestion – and the disapproval of this inappropriate act – is
shown in the following example where Valeria’s mother-in-law sheds light on Dexter’s
mental construction:
‘Miserrimus Dexter, you may take my word for it, ceased to be your husband’s
friend on the day when your husband married his first wife. Dexter has kept up
appearances, I grant you – both in public and in private. […] Nevertheless, I
firmly believe, looking under the surface, that Mr Macallan has no bitterer enemy
living than Miserrimus Dexter.’ […] ‘My husband had wooed and won the
woman who had refused Dexter’s offer of marriage. Was Dexter the man to
forgive that? My own experience answered me – and said, No.’ (Collins 279)
In the Victorian period, physical health was highly valued and it was a sign of mental health
too, thus it was unheard – and immoral – that a disabled person could desire to marry a
healthy one.
As medical science could not show the reason for disability or deformity people
believed it to be inherent or caused by “the sins of fathers” and lead to degeneration
(McDonagh 258). The moral discourse around idiocy dealt with degeneracy but also with
one of its possible causes: intermarriages. So far, Victorian people had been encouraged into
marriages within the same social class, and marriages between first cousins were generally
accepted, to keep the property in family (Kuper 17). Howe’s theory of idiocy, where idiocy
was seen as evidence and consequence of moral crimes, was debated anxiously in America
and England (McDonagh 262-263), and it is possible that Collins was influenced by this
debate when creating the novel The Law and the Lady. Dexter and Ariel are leading a strange
family life – two cousins living together unmarried. This living arrangement broke against
Victorian norms and conventions regarding the ideal for a normal family, but also
46
considering the discourse around idiocy and intermarriages. To live like Dexter and Ariel is
not a crime but it is morally questionable. The Victorian idea of family was commonly
associated with a unit of a man as the bread-winner, a woman as a house-wife, and children
(Tucker 5-6). The violation against this ideal of Victorian domesticity and its disapproval is
expressed in the following example by Valeria’s mother-in-law: “‘This is a nice family,’ my
mother-in-law whispered to me. ‘Dexter’s cousin is the only woman in the house, and
Dexter’s cousin is an idiot.’ ” (Collins 203).
Relating to the immorality caused by the two disabled cousins living together under
the same roof, it is interesting to explore Herzl-Betz’s reading of The Law and the Lady.
Herzl-Betz compares The Law and the Lady to Collins’s other works as follows:
The Law and the Lady has commonly been regarded as a minor novel and its few
commentators often ascribe that relative obscurity to precisely the problems that
engage queer and disability studies today: its engagements with the ‘eccentricity,
madness, and idiocy’ of Miserrimus Dexter and his cousin, Ariel.” (Herzl-Betz
38)
Herzl-Betz’s interpretation of Dexter and Ariel’s relationship as a queer one is partly
motivated by the assumption that interdependence is the most fundamental of all social
relations, but partly by the notion that painful and queer experiences of interdependence
compensate for normative models of care (35). Herzl-Betz claims that “Ariel offers the
embodiment of the male woman. With her stomping boots, her heavy frame, and her ‘rough,
deep voice’, Ariel presents inherently sexual aspects of masculinity that her cousin avoids”
(43). Also Moulds suggests in her study that the abnormally strong, but unequal bondage
between the two “refers to the quasi incestuous relationship”. Herzl-Betz ‘s study of The
47
Law and the Lady stresses more this queer reading. She refers also to the contemporary
culture and discourse:
During Collins’s time, Dexter and Ariel’s erotic repertoire also had a visible
presence in Victorian pornographic periodicals, mainstream fashion plates, and
dolls. As Dexter teases and tortures his cousin, readers may wonder whether he
is the sexual master with his slave or the little girl with her doll? Is he dominating
or playing at domination, and which presents a greater scandal? (Herzl-Betz 46)
To summarise, this chapter has provided cases where insane behaviour can be
interpreted resulting from immoral ideas. Dexter has desired to marry a healthy woman
although he himself
is disabled, which was regarded as unsuitable, as immoral.
Furthermore, the living arrangements of Dexter and his cousin Ariel under the same roof
appear deviant from the Victorian norm, possibly implying an incestuous relationship
between the two disabled cousins.
3.3 Madness as Otherness
In this chapter the focus will be on madness as Otherness. I will provide examples of
representations of madness as Otherness in The Law and the Lady and discuss cases of
deviance, considering gender, manner of speech or dress, class or disability. While the
protagonists Miserrimus Dexter and his cousin Ariel deviate from the Victorian norms
strikingly, there are also other characters in the novel who are labelled as “mad” on the basis
of their deviant behaviour.
48
In the decade when The Law and the Lady was published, sensation novels were
filled with “the power of aberrant psychological states as madness, addiction, or (especially)
sexual desire to push personality and behaviour outside accepted social norms” (Liddle 97;
emphasis mine). As discussed earlier, Collins’s fiction, in particular, is full of deviant,
degenerate, and deranged people, whose inner psyches Collins explores in his narration
(Bachman 179). Bachman stresses the importance of the notion of the “other” in Collins’s
fiction when “examining what it means to be cast as ‘other’ and relegated to the margins of
society of Victorian England” (179).
The Law and the Lady contains many references to madness as Otherness.
Irrational or bizarre behaviour or ideas are easily regarded as “mad”. A good example of this
is Eustace Macallan who speaks about his mother as follows: “The key to my poor dear
mother’s character is, in one word – Eccentricity” (Collins 32). In Longman Dictionary of
English Language and Culture the adjective “eccentric” is defined as follows: “behaving
differently from what is usual or socially accepted, esp. in a way that is strange or amusing”
(405). Helping somebody who wasn’t grateful for the help could also be called madness: “I
[the land lady] begin to think I am mad – mad to have devoted myself to an ungrateful
woman, to a person who doesn’t appreciate a sisterly and Christian sacrifice of self” (Collins
39; emphasis original). As we notice, strange behaviour, whether occasional or constant, was
easily considered madness, but these last examples are not illustrations of a mental illness or
disability – they are rather general statements on somebody’s peculiar or deviant conduct.
As pointed out in the theory section, gender roles were strictly defined in
Victorian time and those who did not conform to the roles were regarded as deviant
(McDonagh 101). Also the term “idiocy” meant different things for men and women: for
men, intellectual disability was often associated with an inability to deal with money or
49
exercise the authority of patriarchy (McDonagh 101), whereas intellectually disabled women
were suitable to justify the supremacy of men (McDonagh 127).
On the basis of the above definitions, Dexters’s attitude towards her female servant
Ariel when calling her “an idiot” is understandable whereas Dexter himself may not count
as an “idiot” on financial grounds. His unwillingness to sell his house tells more about his
unwillingness to conform. His non-conformity is regarded as madness:
‘There is one of his madnesses,’ she [Valeria’s mother in-law] said. ‘The
speculators in this new neighbourhood have offered him, I don’t know how many
thousand pounds for the ground that house stands on. […] the money offered
would really be of use to him. But no! He refused the proposal of the enterprising
speculators, by letter, in these words: My house is a standing monument of the
picturesque and beautiful, amid the mean, dishonest, and grovelling constructions
of a mean, dishonest, and grovelling age. I keep my house, gentlemen, as a useful
lesson to you. Look at it, while you are building around me – and blush, if you
can, for your work.’ (Collins 202-203)
Masculinity and femininity play major roles in the novel, also when determining who is
“normal” or not, as men and women had to behave according to the established norms.
According to Allen, Victorian men were expected to have the patriarchal power and status
in household and society, including money, as discussed above, and men had to be strong,
courageous, resourceful, intelligent, sharp and confident (403). Women were expected to be
like “the angels of the house” and express “the domestic virtues of morality, chastity, piety,
sympathy, humility, and nurturance” (Allen 403). As discussed in the theory section, in
addition to gender roles and sexual behaviour, also manner of speech or dress, social class
and wealth, or disability could be of importance when considering someone as Other (Welch
50
197). As to the insane protagonists in The Law and Lady, Dexter and Ariel, many of these
aspects have to be taken into account.
In the novel, both Dexter and Ariel are represented as hybrids as to their gender: they
blurt or subvert gender boundaries. Dexter is presented as a man with female features: “His
large, clear blue eyes, and his long delicate white hands, were like the eyes and hands of a
beautiful woman” (Collins 173). An additional implication of Dexter not being a manly man
is his excessive emotionalism and nervousness, which are regarded as most feminine traits,
and, what is more, symptoms of hysteria The following example shows how his nervousness
and need to calm down by doing needlework allude to an effeminate man, although he
regards himself as a man:
‘Women,” he said, “wisely compose their minds, and help themselves to think
quietly, by doing needle-work. Why are men such fools as to deny themselves the
same admirable resource – the simple and soothing occupation which keeps the
nerves steady and leaves the mind calm and free? As a man, I follow the women’s
wise example.
(Collins 235-236)
Because of the lacking of the lower part of the body, the whole idea of Dexter’s
masculinity is questionable, and for the same reason a most important quality of a Victorian
man is also missing: Dexter cannot move independently outside the house but must be
carried around by his servants. In Victorian time, physical health and strength were important
qualities of a manly man, but what is more, physical health was correlated with mental
health, and the impaired physics alluded to an unbalanced psyche (Rosner 11).
As a contrast to Dexter, his female cousin Ariel is represented as a woman with overtly
masculine features, as to outlooks and behaviour. She wears men’s clothes and boots, has a
rough voice and harsh behaviour, which deviates from the Victorian ideal for a woman.
51
Domesticity was an important sphere for both men and women in Victorian time:
for men, as fathers and husbands, a home was a place to which retrieve after the working
day and financial duties outside the home, and for women it was a place where to fulfil the
role of a devoted mother and housewife. Dexter owns a house and the site where he lives
together with his female cousin Ariel, but as a man and a woman they deviate from the ideal
for Victorian domesticity: because of his disability, Dexter does not work outside the house,
and furthermore, he cannot fulfil the role of a father or a husband. In the family setting,
Dexter’s attitude towards the other family member, Ariel, is far from patriarchal, but rather
a master’s attitude towards his slave or dog. Also Ariel deviates from an ideal Victorian
woman by not fulfilling the duty of being a mother or a housewife. Instead, she has devoted
her life to serve his Master Dexter and to carry out men’s duties in the household and outside
the home. Domesticity presented by Dexter and Ariel deviates thus from the Victorian ideal.
The cousins Dexter and Ariel live together in a curious relationship which
resembles that of a dog and its master. The master is on a higher intellectual level and can
command and manipulate his dog in any direction. Ariel is devoted to Dexter and tolerates
even mistreat, with a dog’s obedience. She is intellectually disabled and unable to lead an
independent life on her own, and for that reason she is taken care of by his male cousin
Dexter. These living arrangements are not in concordance with the Victorian idea of a normal
middle class family. Ariel’s social status and living are totally dependent on Dexter’s
position. Ariel is a supressed and loyal servant in Dexter’s house, but after Dexter has been
moved into an asylum, Ariel’s position is precarious. Valeria McCallan organises a
collection in aid of Ariel’s living in the same asylum as Dexter. An unmarried couple, even
though disabled and cousins, was deviant, considering the Victorian morals that strictly
controlled relations between men and women. All other relationships except the holy
matrimony of marriage were regarded as deviant, as discussed in the previous chapter. Thus,
52
Dexter and Ariel’s relationship may be considered either deviant or immoral, or both,
depending on the reading.
As I stated in the theory section, in addition to odd behaviour or strange
appearance, Otherness may also be manifested in arts and artefacts (Welch 30). In The Law
and the Lady, the description of Dexter’s madness is versatile: madness is represented in his
theatrical roles, musical performances, paintings and photographs. Also Rosner points out
Dexter’s insane behaviour as Dexter races his wheel chair, makes mad arts and grotesque
music, and collects photographs manifesting insanity (11). Dexter imagines himself great as
Napoleon, Nelson and Shakespeare, the roles of whose he likes to play, but in Rosner’s
opinion, he is a passive, unhealthy man (11). Dexter’s insane performances are featured by
allusions to the heroes from the past. The following examples form the scene where two
visitors enter Dexter’s home: first there is a note that Dexter had written in order to be left
alone:
NOTICE. – My immense imagination is at work. Visions of heroes unroll
themselves before me. I re-animate in myself the spirits of the departed great. My
brains are boiling in my head. Any persons who disturb me, under existing
circumstances, will do it at the peril of their lives. – DEXTER. (Collins 204)
When in the room, the uninvited visitors witness something that makes them regard Dexter
as abnormal. Dexter behaves like a madman: he races in his wheelchair, shouts and performs
as famous departed heroes, as depicted in the following:
A high chair on wheels moved by, through the field of red light, carrying a
shadowy figure with floating hair, and arms furiously raised and lowered,
working the machinery that propelled the chair at its utmost rate of speed. ‘I am
Napoleon, at the sunrise of Austerlitz! […] I give the word, and thrones rock, and
53
kings fall, and nations tremble […] I am Nelson! […] I am leading the fleet at
Trafalgar.’ (Collins 206)
This performance clearly demonstrates how deviant Dexter is. However, he also
acknowledges his own Otherness by himself and tries to explain it. He mentions the
strange power of his imagination and the risk of going mad if his imagination is
supressed:
I have an immense imagination. It runs riot at times. It makes an actor of me. I
play the parts of all the heroes ever lived. […] For the time I am the man I fancy
myself to be. I can’t help it. I am obliged to do it. If I restrained my imagination,
when the fits on me, I should go mad. (Collins 218; emphasis original)
Dexter’s deviance is also manifest in his music – he plays the harp and improvises a
song for Valeria: “the prelude to the song. It was a wild barbaric succession of sounds; utterly
unlike any modern composition. […] The words, when they followed the prelude, were as
wild, as recklessly free from restraints of critical rules, as the music” (Collins 219). Dexter’s
unique way of producing music regardless of the traditional rules sets him apart from
“normal” composers, thus demonstrating how he purposefully fails to conform.
Dexter’s further artistic talents are visible in his paintings and pictures that are filled with
motifs of violence and torture –things that are associated with madness (Welch 89). The
madness of Dexter’s paintings is illustrated in Valeria’s depict:
In another, an aged philosopher was dissecting a live cat, and gloating over his
work. In a third, two pagans politely congratulated each other on the torture of
two saints: one saint was roasting on a grid-iron; the other, hung up to a tree by
his heels, had been just skinned, and was not quite dead yet. (Collins 229-230)
54
The novel includes several, precise descriptions of Dexter’s paintings, which refers to the
significance of the arts in Victorian time. In the nineteenth century, paintings by the insane
were considered merely reflections of the madness of the patient, with no deeper meaning,
but several decades later, the art of mad people was thought to give “greater insight into the
nature of the insane’s perception of the world” (Gilman 222). What is more, by the turn of
the next century, the paintings of the insane people were seen as representations of “the lost
world of childhood but also the utopia (or dystopia) of aesthetic experimentation” (Gilman
223). Dexter’s paintings can be seen as reflections of his perception of the world, with a
certain deeper meaning. Despite his occasional insane outrages, Dexter is presented as a
philosopher, with an obvious suspicion towards the supremacy of Christianity, as the above
example demonstrates. Other motifs in Dexter’s paintings are Revenge, Cruelty, The
Wandering Jew and the Phantom Ship, and according to Valeria, all the pictures are ghastly
and frightening (Collins 231). Dexter himself regards his art as “efforts of pure imagination:
‘Persons who look for mere Nature in works of Art’ […] ‘are persons to whom Mr Dexter
does not address himself with the brush. He relies entirely on his imagination. Nature puts
him out.’” (Collins 229).
In addition, Dexter shows an interest in photography and leather work but once again,
in a deviant way. His works witness a strange imagination, as the following example shows:
The photographs hanging on the wall represented the various forms of madness
taken from the life. The plaster casts ranged on the shelf opposite were casts (after
death) of the heads of famous murderers. A frightful little skeleton of a woman
hung in a cupboard. […] there hung in loose folds a shirt (as I [Valeria] took it to
be) of chamois leather. […] I disarranged the folds, and disclosed a ticket pinned
among them, describing the thing in these horrid lines: - ‘Skin of a French
55
Marquis tanned in the Revolution of Ninety-three. Who says the nobility are not
good for something? They make good leather.’ (Collins 247-248)
All in all, the Otherness of the two disabled characters is undeniable: their behaviour is
described as “abnormal”. In addition, they differ from each other. If we contrast these
characters with each other, and with other characters, that is, the rest of the society, we notice
something significant: who is mad is decided by an outsider, that is, labelling someone mad
is an evaluating process of subjective nature. A person who has been labelled as “mad” can
likewise label someone else “mad”, as Dexter does when labels his cousin “an idiot […] a
mere vegetable” (Collins 211). The others regard him as a madman: “he is mad, if ever a
man were mad yet” (Collins 191).
On the basis of the examples, Mr. Miserrimus Dexter can be considered “mad”, but all
other characters in the novel are not totally convinced of his insanity. Valeria McCallan
regards him rather as an individual with an over-excited imagination than as a madman.
It seems to me that he openly expresses […] thoughts and feelings which most of
us are ashamed of as weaknesses, and which we keep to ourselves accordingly
[…] One of our first amusements as children (if we have any imagination at all)
is to get out of our own characters, and to try the characters of other personages
as a change – to be fairies, to be queens, to be anything, in short, but what we
really are. Mr Dexter lets out the secret just as the children do – and if that is
madness, he is certainly mad. But I noticed that when his imagination cooled
down, he became Miserrimus Dexter again – (Collins 221)
In 1845, Pliny Earle had studied the artistic production of the insane and concluded that “the
only difference between the sane and insane, is, that the former conceal their thoughts, while
the latter give them utterance” (Gilman 221). Furthermore, the insane appear to have “their
56
attachments, and antipathies, their sources of pleasure and of pain, their feelings, motives,
all their secret springs of action” in the childhood (Gilman 221). Earle sees childhood as “the
poetical age of man” when life is easy and careless and also “imagination untrammelled by
the serious duties of a working world” (Gilman 221). When Valeria interprets Dexter’s
insane behaviour as a return to a child’s imaginative world (in the above example), it clearly
shows analogies with the contemporary discussion on insanity: the insane may shadow the
lost world of childhood (Gilman 221).
It is, however, noteworthy that Valeria is the only person who questions Dexter’s
insanity. She is deviant herself, too, as she has started her career as an amateur female
detective on her pursuit after the real murderer – she has chosen a most inappropriate
occupation for a Victorian woman. She does not conform to the conventional role of a
Victorian woman, who stays at home “as an angel of the house”: instead she moves
independently outside the domestic sphere. Furthermore, she expresses qualities associated
with an ideal for a Victorian man: courageousness, resourcefulness and self-confidence.
Valeria is considered “mad” because of her peculiar behaviour, as the following example
demonstrates:
‘The poor thing’s troubles have turned her brain! […] I confess I disapprove of it
myself. Disapprove of it isn’t the word […] An act of madness – that’s what it is,
if she really means what she says. (Collins 120)
To give extra depth to the representation of Valeria as a deviant woman, the author has
portrayed her husband Eustace McCallan as the very opposite of a manly man: he is
uncourageous and unconfident, as his own words clearly demonstrate: “my poor Valeria,
what can you, what can I [Eustace], do? We can only submit” (Collins 107). Instead of
starting to search for evidence to prove his innocence of his first wife’s murder, Eustace
57
leaves his second wife Valeria, after their six days’ marriage. This kind of behaviour is
considered most deviant, as the following statement reveals: “There is but one excuse for
him, he [Major Fitz-David] said. The man is mad.” (Collins 111). Also Rosner explores
Eustace’s deviance: he is seen as a stereotype of an unmanly man, weak and passive: “the
passivity so desirable in women becomes pathological in men” (13). In Rosner’s study,
Eustace, Valeria and Dexter are seen as “flawed by Victorian standards” (13), each one for
various reasons. They are all flawed and othered on the basis of their deviant, insane
behaviour, as the above examples demonstrate.
The Law and the Lady contains also other references to madness as Otherness.
Irrational or bizarre behaviour or ideas are easily regarded as “mad”. A good example of this
is Eustace Macallan who speaks about his mother as follows: “The key to my poor dear
mother’s character is, in one word – Eccentricity” (Collins 32). In Longman Dictionary of
English Language and Culture the adjective “eccentric” is defined as follows: “behaving
differently from what is usual or socially accepted, esp. in a way that is strange or amusing”
(405). Helping somebody who wasn’t grateful for the help could also be called madness: “I
[the land lady] begin to think I am mad – mad to have devoted myself to an ungrateful
woman, to a person who doesn’t appreciate a sisterly and Christian sacrifice of self” (Collins
39; emphasis original). As we notice, strange behaviour, whether occasional or constant, was
easily considered madness, but these last examples are not illustrations of a mental illness or
disability – they are rather general statements on somebody’s peculiar or deviant conduct.
In conclusion, this chapter has presented representations of madness as nonconformity in The Law and the Lady. Every difference from the norm, considering gender,
manner of speech or dress, class or disability was recorded. The Otherness of the
protagonists Dexter and Ariel is undeniable as they differ from the Victorian norm in various
58
ways, but also some other characters that do not conform to the norm are seen as “mad” by
the observers.
59
4. Conclusion
In this thesis I have studied representations of madness and idiocy in the nineteenth-century
sensation novel The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins and explored how these
representations portray Otherness. In the nineteenth century, madness was common feature
in sensation fiction. The Law and the Lady is sensational also in the way that it tells the story
of a female amateur detective, Valeria, but the insane protagonists Dexter and his cousin
Ariel manage, however, to attract all the attention: they exhibit such an extreme version of
abnormality that they can be labelled as “mad”, by any standards.
Firstly, this study has presented the concept of discourse as it is of great significance
for my work. After this, the interrelated concepts of madness and idiocy were introduced as
the additional theoretical focus of my study, in addition to the concept of Otherness.
Otherness is constructed of deviance, manifested, for example, as madness and determined
by the societal discourse in a certain time and place. Thus, the definition of the term
“madness” is dependent on the contemporary discourse, and I have described the discourses
regulating madness and idiocy in the Victorian society.
The concepts of madness and idiocy, which are used interchangeably in the novel due
to their unclear character, are discussed in detail in the theoretical section for my study. At
the time the definitions of madness and idiocy were by no means unambiguous and clearcut but fluctuating: religious or spiritual images of madness could be conflated with the
contemporary medical knowledge and the newer, revolutionary theories on degeneration and
evolution. The theoretical background for my study consists of works of several researchers,
for example Michel Foucault’s work Madness and Civilization – A History of Insanity in the
Age of Reason, due to Foucault’s significance for the discussion of discourse, as cited also
by Sara Mills, another important theorist in the field of discourse. Madness as such cannot
60
be defined explicitly but only within the framework of discourse, but I have made an attempt
to shed light on the Victorian understanding of madness and idiocy.
Madness can be divided into three main categories, namely that of the medical
aspect, of the moral aspect and that of Otherness. Thus, apart from a more traditional way of
studying madness, that is, recording the physical, psychological and mental symptoms of an
insane person and trying to categorise him or her accordingly, there is also an alternative
way of discussing this phenomenon, that of considering madness as Otherness. This third
aspect forms the focus of my study. In general usage, the term madness refers to
unreasonable behaviour, without further medical considerations. The manifestations of
insanity in The Law and the Lady include both cases where the behaviour can be labelled as
unwise or peculiar but also instances where a medical diagnosis will be done later – the case
of Dexter – or is speculated on – Ariel’s state. Whatever the reason, those who did not
conform to the established norm in the Victorian period, were labelled as mad.
This thesis has also discussed Victorian norms and ideals for men and women
because these norms and ideals form the foundation of the contemporary discourse.
Victorian people were expected to behave according to the established gender roles, and
support the traditional values of domesticity and British monarchy. An understanding of the
historical, social and geopolitical context of British society in the nineteenth century is
essential to establish the idea of non-conformity, Otherness in Victorian time.
Representations of madness in The Law and the Lady have been discussed in the light
of feminist theory, queer theory and interdependence theory, to name a few perspectives.
These earlier studies verge on my argument but do not come from the same angle: I have
argued that all the novel’s representations of madness can be labelled as Otherness,
regardless of their various manifestations, such as mania, hysteria, idiocy, and eccentricity,
which were seen as mental illnesses or disorders in Victorian times. On the other hand,
61
moral insanity, which was seen as inappropriate behaviour, caused by no physiological or
intellectual impairment, but by emotional factors, can be regarded as Otherness, as deviance
from the moral norms. The representations of madness as non-conformity are most easily
understood as Otherness: if someone did not do like the others, he was bound to be labelled
as deviant, as Other.
Madness is studied through the two insane characters, Dexter and Ariel, in Wilkie
Collins’s novel The Law and the Lady, focusing on their deviance from the Victorian norm.
I have described them by using examples from the novel: both cousins are disabled, hybrids
as to their gender, unmarried, and living together in isolation from the outer world. Dexter
and Ariel are portrayed as deviant from the Victorian ideal in various ways and they are both
commonly regarded as mad. What is more, Dexter, in turn, considers and treats Ariel as “an
idiot” because she is intellectually disabled.
Dexter is presented as an effeminate man, born without legs and thus imprisoned in
his wheelchair. To add the sensation created by the deformity, the upper part of Dexter’s
body is portrayed as exceptionally beautiful: his hair, eyes and face are like those of a
woman. Dexter’s fascination in beautiful and colourful clothes, and his womanly interests,
like needle work and cookery, also refer to his difference from the ideal for a masculine man.
An additional implication of Dexter not being a masculine man is his excessive emotionalism
and nervousness, which are regarded as most feminine traits, and, what is more, as symptoms
of hysteria. Because of the lacking lower part of his body, the whole idea of Dexter’s
masculinity is questionable. For the same reason Dexter lacks an important quality of a
Victorian man: he cannot move independently outside the house but must be carried around
by his servants. Dexter’s whole bodily combination appears strange, and he has, indeed, been
described as a freak – as half a man, half a monkey – as he also hops on his hands, when
necessary. In the Victorian period, physical health and strength were important qualities of
62
a manly man, and an impaired physical health implied mental disorder. However, Dexter is
described as an educated gentleman, with interest in history and Latin, and according to a
doctor, his insanity is only latent, so his label as “a madman” is not justified.
Ariel in turn is portrayed as a manly woman: strong, harsh and masculine. She is
all but “the angel of the house” which was the Victorian ideal for a woman. She is presented
as a dull, fleshy and clumsy character whose only feminine trait is a “hair comb in her flaxen
hair” to remind that she is a woman. Thus, Ariel represents the antithesis of the Victorian
ideal for female beauty. Ariel’s clothes, boots, voice and behaviour are masculine; and what
is more, she carries out duties that belonged to men. Also Ariel blurs the traditional gender
roles. The most striking feature of Ariel’s character is, however, her unintelligence, why she
is considered an idiot. In the course of the story, Ariel, however, manifests latent intelligence
and the notion of her as an idiot is medically unjustified.
Domesticity was an important sphere for both men and women in Victorian time:
but Dexter deviates from ideal of domesticity for Victorian men: because of his disability,
he does not have a working place outside the house, but furthermore, he is unable to fulfil
the role of a father or a husband at home. Also in this respect, he is manifested as an odd
character. Ariel deviates from the ideal for a Victorian woman by not fulfilling the role of a
mother or a housewife. Instead, she has devoted her life to serve her Master Dexter, with a
dog’s obedience. Dexter and Ariel’s family deviates from the Victorian ideal for domesticity.
The cousins live unmarried in an interdependent relationship under the same roof.
Victorian morals controlled the relations between man and woman, and all other
relationships except the holy matrimony of marriage were regarded as deviant. As an
intellectually disabled, Ariel cannot live alone and her cousin has taken her under his roof.
Their family setting deviates from the Victorian idea of a middle class family. Also the
63
morality of these living arrangements may deem questionable, considering the strong
disapproval of Victorian morals against queer or incestuous relationships. Another case of
moral insanity is presented by Dexter’s proposal to a healthy woman: a proposal like that
was considered most impropriate in Victorian time when men were expected to be healthy
and strong. As a deformed cripple Dexter expressed the opposite of the ideal Victorian man
and his desire to marry a healthy woman was immoral and inappropriate.
This thesis has suggested the idea that individuals or groups of individuals are
regarded as mad when they break the norms of their society. In the novel, the insane
characters have an important sensational role to fulfil, but, on the other hand, their deviance
is also emphasized. Deviant behaviour is strongly disapproved: “mad” was the strongest
label for deviant persons. As mentioned in the theory section, madness was one side of the
greater phenomenon called Otherness.
The central finding of this thesis is that Dexter and Ariel differ from the Victorian
norm in many ways, for example by their family status, by their masculinity or femininity,
and by their physical and mental health. This deviance is labelled as madness. On the basis
of my analysis concerning madness and idiocy in The Law and the Lady, I have come to the
conclusion that representations of insanity, whether medically diagnosed or considered
against the morals or the normative framework of the contemporary society, are also
portraits of Otherness. Because the definition of Otherness is dependent on societal
discourse, there is not such a thing as normal or abnormal, sane or insane as an objective and
timeless concept, but they reflect contemporary norms and ideals. The line between them is
fluctuating, as it is dependent on the speaker’s point of view. A prime example of this is the
protagonist Miserrimus Dexter: a madman who calls his disabled cousin “an idiot”.
64
Dexter’s and Ariel’s madness, as represented in the novel, serves well the purpose
of the sensation fiction of the late nineteenth century. In addition to providing thrilling
moments of sensation, the novel gives the reader something more: a framework where to
estimate the relativity of the concepts of idiocy and madness. These concepts are used to
denote other people, and the discourse around the concepts is connected to larger social and
cultural discourses. The concepts of madness and idiocy are different from one time and
place to another. Therefore, madness, when lacking medical justification, is always a
question of Othering: someone else is different from us and thus frightening. Madness is a
label with various kinds of negative connotations, and as it is undefined, it is very powerful:
it is impossible to defend oneself against an unspecified charge.
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