Embedded Files
Kick off!
Kick off!
Research and discuss:
Research and discuss:
How has “madness” been defined and treated historically?
How do you think society treated people seen as “mad” in the past?
Why are so many “mad” characters in literature women (Ophelia, Lady Macbeth, the witches, the hysteric patient)?
Write a brief note to bring to the museum:
“One question I want to explore during the visit is…”
To think about while in the museum:
When we look at Ophelia or Dr. Jekyll, we’ll also be looking at how society defined sanity and deviance. Can you see a shift from punishment to care in the exhibits?
How did medical tools or language reflect fear of madness?
Visit to "Psykiatrirummet" at Museion, Bredgade 62, 13:00-14:00.
Reflection:
Look at the people you meet. What is considered acceptable behavior?
What is social deviant behavior? What does it look like and can we see it in the people we meet on the streets of Copenhagen?
not being like everybody else, not being normal, and being sick - what defines the different stages?
Has the view on mental issues changed you think? How?
Mentally ill were seen as possessed in the 15th century.
Madness ingredients
Madness ingredients
unreliable narrator
anxiety
tragic flaw
tragic backstory
Starting point
Starting point
A sane person
Put in a new situation
Feels pressure (often from more than one source)
Structuring madness
Structuring madness
Act 1
Hint at madness (both character & situation)
Act 2
Swing back and forth between reality and madness
Act 3
Divorce from reality
permanent shift to madness
embrace his urges
Act 4
Embrace the madness
Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Introduction to Shakespeare here
Macbeth
Macbeth
(set in 11th century)
(set in 11th century)
by William Shakespeare
by William Shakespeare
Download this worksheet here and answer the yellow parts.
Bonus symbolism: yellow is the colour of cowardice.
Put your reflections on madness in this folder here.
Macbeth - insane or just ambitious?
Lady Macbeth eventually goes insane.
Macbeth - the mad king?
Lady Macbeth also goes crazy - but why?
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Homework:
listen to this podcast and reflect on how the view on and the treatment of mental illness has changed through history.
Run through of the worksheet from last time
We start watching Macbeth on Filmstriben.
While we watch:
How is Macbeth's gradual decline into madness portrayed and how does the people around him respond?
How about the madness of Lady Macbeth?
NOTE when noble speaking is changed into prose. This is used by Shakespeare to indicate intimate conversations, lower social classes, and mental instability.
Conclusion for Macbeth:
Conclusion for Macbeth:
Madness is connected to the supernatural - you are crazy because you are/have been in contact with evil forces (the devil/witches/ghosts etc).
The decline into madness is shown by a shift in language - sane people speak nobly and insane people speak prose.
To challenge the godgiven order of things is seen as insanity - fx to kill the King out of ambition, to not behave as expected of your gender or to kill children out of spite is seen as mad.
Lack of sleep and seeing this that are not real are signs of someone going insane.
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Hamlet
Hamlet
(set in 14th century)
(set in 14th century)
by William Shakespeare
by William Shakespeare
Plot summary here
Plot summary by act here
Characters here
Hamlet characterization here
Ophelia characterization here
Read about The Madness of Hamlet and Ophelia: Mental illness in Shakespeare
Questions to consider:
Which kinds of madness do we see in Hamlet?
How does madness manifest itself?
Is Hamlet actually mad or is it just pretend?
Blogpost with some excellent considerations on Ophelia, her madness and it's effect on representation of mental illness in women in later works here.
Chapters from the play: (with links)
Chapters from the play: (with links)
The madness of Ophelia
The madness of Ophelia
Research: Ophelia’s relationships with her father Polonius, brother Laertes, and Hamlet.
Brainstorm: what roles these men play in her life.
In pairs or small groups, each group gets a passage that shows Ophelia’s interactions with these male figures or reflects her descent into madness. Key passages are:
Act I, Scene 3: Laertes and Polonius instructing Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet.
Act III, Scene 1: Hamlet’s harsh words to Ophelia (“Get thee to a nunnery”).
Act IV, Scene 5: Ophelia’s mad scene, where she sings songs and speaks in fragmented phrases.
Analyze: how the language shifts in each passage. You might focus on word choices, imagery, and structure.
Each group presents a brief summary of their analysis to the class, focusing on how the passage illustrates her unraveling and loss of identity.
Consider: How does each male figure’s influence shape or restrict Ophelia’s identity? How do her words and actions change in her mad scene compared to earlier scenes?
Reflection: We conclude with a discussion on how Ophelia’s madness serves as both a personal tragedy and a commentary on the limitations placed on women’s identities in Shakespeare’s time.
Conclusion for Hamlet:
Conclusion for Hamlet:
Madness is connected to the supernatural - you are crazy because you are/have been in contact with evil forces (the devil/witches/ghosts etc).
Hamlet strategically fakes madness - allows him to question people, observe their reactions, and speak truths that would be dangerous if said by a clearly sane person. This "madness" conceals his true intentions of investigating his father's murder and plotting revenge against Claudius
Ophelia's madness is a direct result of trauma - including the sudden death of her father, Polonius, and Hamlet's rejection.
Ophelia goes mad from lack of controll of her own life - Her madness is a form of rebellion against the patriarchal control she experienced from her father, brother, and Hamlet.
Expression of grief and rage - Ophelia expresses her grief and inner turmoil through fragmented songs, riddles, and a distorted view of the world, communicating feelings of loss, death, and betrayal.
The CRucible
The CRucible
(set in 1692)
(set in 1692)
by Arthur Miller (published1953)
by Arthur Miller (published1953)
The Crucible by Arthur Miller as a powerful exploration of how madness is intertwined with gender roles, societal fears, and the power structures of the specific time period. The Salem witch trials make an ideal case study for understanding how “madness” is often a construct, tied to social order and oppression. Again, just like in our postcolonial subject the "winner" decides what is right or normal.
The Macbeth witches,
according to the Puritans
A Puritan woman
We watch "Witchcraft explanied".
Context
Research briefly the Puritan era, focusing on societal expectations, religious fervor, and gender roles, especially for women.
Discussion: Why might accusations of "madness" or "possession" target particular individuals or groups? Relate to prior discussions on Lady Macbeth and Ophelia.
Textual analysis
Pdf of the play here.
Analyze how hysteria builds and how societal fears manipulate perceptions of “madness.”
Extract 1: The Crucible, Act 1 (summary here) – Abigail’s manipulation and her accusations of witchcraft against others, especially Tituba.
Discussion Questions:
How does Abigail use societal fears to gain power?
Why is Tituba, as a marginalized character, an easy target? How does her confession serve as both survival and surrender?
How does Abigail’s “madness” defy or align with societal expectations for young women?
Extract 2: The Crucible, Act 3 (summary here) – Mary Warren's confession and breakdown under pressure.
Discussion Questions:
How is Mary Warren's perceived madness manipulated by others?
What does her confession tell us about the power dynamics and fear of going against societal norms?
How does Mary’s moment of wavering show the conflict between truth and conformity?
Discussion and Comparison/perspective
Small group discussions on the following questions, with each group focused on one character:
Lady Macbeth: How does the view of society on female ambition play into her descent into madness?
Ophelia: How are her madness and death connected to her role as a submissive female in a male-dominated society?
Abigail/Mary: In what ways do Abigail's and Mary’s choices reflect the limited agency of women in Salem? How does “madness” provide a form of expression or resistance?
Creative reflection
Write a reflective piece or a journal entry from the perspective of one of the characters (Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, Abigail, or Mary Warren), reflecting on how society’s expectations or fears contribute to their mental unraveling.
Discussion: Share reflections and discuss how views on “madness” vary by time period and are shaped by power structures and gender expectations.
We watch The Curcible here.
Conclusion for the Crucible:
Conclusion for the Crucible:
Madness is connected to the supernatural - you are crazy because you are/have been in contact with evil forces (the devil/witches/ghosts etc).
The madness of the women is a direct result from lack of controll over their own lives - Their madness is a form of rebellion against the patriarchal control they experience, a way to take back some form of controll.
Mass hysteria - usually occurs in isolated, close-knit communities. Factors such as political and economic instability, religious extremism, social tensions, and a strong belief in supernatural forces create a fertile environment for suspicion and "groupthink".
Next, work with the following questions. Find references in the text to support your answers. Be ready to present your answers for the class.
Re-read the opening of the text. How does the first-person narrator present himself to the reader?
What is the effect of the narrator addressing the reader explicitly several times during the story? What does he hope to achieve by doing this? In what ways does the narrator appear to be an unreliable first-person narrator? In order to answer this question, you may want to look at the following quotation:
“You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded – with that caution – with what foresight – with what dissimulation I went to work!” (paragraph 3).
Characterise the narrator in details by using the STEAL model. How does he sense his surroundings and what does he mean when he says “And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses” (paragraph 10)? How would you characterise his state of mind? Find quotations that support your characterisation.
Click link for more info.
4. In the text, find examples of abnormal behavior. How does it stray from normal behavior and how does it paint him as someone who is not all right where he should be?
5. Describe the narrator’s relationship with the old man. How does he feel about the old man’s eye? Find examples that support your answers. What is the reason for the narrator’s obsession with “the vulture eye”, in your opinion? Why does he end up killing the old man?
6. What is the pun effect of the word “eye”? Why can’t the narrator ever escape the old man’s heart? Consider the meaning of the title of the story.
7. How can this story be characterised as a Gothic tale? Find words in the story that are associated with the Gothic genre.
Definition:
The Gothic refers to uncanny, sinister, and supernatural issues such as fear, paranoia, mysticism, and guilt. Gothic tales are often set in haunted and deserted houses or decayed castles which create a gloomy atmosphere of terror, horror, and suspense. The stock characters are villains, maniacs, mad women, doubles, vampires, and similar dark characters. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) can be seen as a genre pioneer of the Gothic tales.
8. Look up information about Edgar Allan Poe and Dark Romanticism. How can this story be said to be a part of the literary movement Dark Romanticism? The English Handbook on American Romanticism
Definition:
Dark Romanticism: A literary movement and subgenre within American Romanticism (1828-1865) which focused on the dark and suppressed side of human nature. Edgar Allan Poe’s many terror tales are representatives of this movement or subgenre.
Edgar Allan Poe Presentation.pptx
Brainstorm (padlet)
Name examples of socially deviant behavior and/or things you would consider as “madness.”
Research the difference between “immoral” and “amoral”. Explain the two.
Look up the term “duality of man”. What does it mean? Give an example.
Google ‘doppelganger literature’ and read about the term. How does it apply to Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde?
Post your results here.
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Character & textual analysis
Move into the groups listed below:
Mr. Hyde Dr Jekyll
Anna, Maria, Farah Natalia, Azra, Elif
Mehria, Cihan Ronay, Zainab, Hümeyra
Marwa, Yüsra, Karim Valon, Rümeysa, Sara K
Blerina, Alina, Gustav Aicha, Zala, Salma
Josef, Adam, Anas Bleron, Jenna, Sara A
For the Hyde groups:
Read chapter 4 - The Carew murder case
Find 5 adjectives to describe your character.
How does the duality of man apply to your character?
Characterise Mr. Hyde as he is initially described by the maid-servant. How does he appear in the act of crime? How is the murderer described as opposed to his victim? How does Mr. Utterson describe Mr. Hyde’s home and what impression do we get of Mr. Hyde in this description?
Find examples in the text.Consider the name Mr. Hyde. Do you think it carries a hidden meaning? If so, what could it be?
For the Jekyll groups:
Read parts of chapter 10 (sections 6, 10-11, 16)
Find 5 adjectives to describe your character.
How does the duality of man apply to your character?
How would you characterise Dr. Jekyll’s tone as he confesses? Does he for instance seem relieved, angry, hysterical or mad? Find examples to support your answer.
Characterise Dr. Jekyll. What was his motif for carrying out the experiment? Why is it inevitable that he has to transform himself and become Mr. Hyde? What is Dr. Jekyll’s view on human nature? Find examples where he talks about the duality of man.
Find examples that clarifies the good, moral, side and the bad, immoral, side of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde respectively. How can this be linked to the doppelgänger motif?
Presentations
Present the excerpt that you have read to the group with your corresponding color.
Present your answers.
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We watch Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde from 1941 with Ingrid Bergman in one of the leading roles.
Consider the time in which the story takes place. How should a man behave during this time and age? Does your character live up to these ideals? Why, why not?
Consider the effect of science and religion.
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Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1886)
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1886)
by Robert Louis Stevenson
First, a brainstorm on the board on what we know about the Victorian society.
Next, answer the following questions. Feel free to work together to help each other out.
Doppelgänger Motif: How does the duality of Jekyll and Hyde challenge Victorian ideals of morality and sanity?
Societal Fears: The Victorian society feared deviance and the unknown. How do we see this in the portrayal of Mr. Hyde's madness?
Religion and Madness: In what way did society of the Victorian era perceive Dr. Jekyll’s scientific pursuits? Hint, Dr. Jekyll's friend, Dr. Lanyon, talks about it in the final scene.
Victorian Science: Stevenson uses Jekyll’s experiments to comment on the fears surrounding scientific advancements like Darwin’s theory of evolution. What was it the Victorians were afraid of?
Animalistic Hyde: Why is Hyde described as animalistic, and how does this imagery reflect Victorian anxieties about regression and humanity's primal instincts? How can this portrayal draw lines to question 4?
Madness and Repression: How does Jekyll’s repression of his darker desires contribute to the eventual emergence of Hyde? Have we seen repression leading to madness in any previous texts?
Deviance vs. Normalcy: What was the Victorian notions of ‘gentlemanly’ behavior and how does it help to depict Hyde as mad and deviant?
Moral Duality: How does the split between Jekyll and Hyde symbolize the inner struggle between morality and immorality in the Victorian psyche? Research Freud's Conception of the human psyche and include this in your answer. (2 pers.)
Fear of the Unknown: How does Hyde’s lack of a clear origin or identity contribute to the perception of him as monstrous or mad?
Science vs. Religion: How does the conflict between Jekyll’s scientific endeavors and Victorian religious beliefs heighten the story's tension? Look at the illustration of conflicts on the right, where does this story fit?
Physical Appearance and Madness: How does Hyde’s physical deformity reflect Victorian ideas that physical ugliness could signify inner evil or madness?
Public vs. Private Self: How does Jekyll’s transformation into Hyde explore the Victorian fear of the hidden self and the fragility of social masks? What could be the result if the inner self came out? Have we seen this result in any previous texts?
Gender Expectations: What was expected of men in the Victorian society and how does the all-male cast of primary characters influence the portrayal of madness in the story?
The female perspective: What was expected of women in the Victorian society? How are women portrayed in the story? Put the women in this story into perspective with women from previous stories we have read and comment on how they are perceived as mad (or not) .
Madness as Freedom: Does Jekyll’s transformation into Hyde suggest that madness offers a kind of freedom from societal expectations, or is it ultimately a trap?
Common conflicts through different literary periods
Freud's Conception of the human psyche
Gothic elements - also read "A rose for Emily" here and here
Analysis (symbolism, characters and themes) here
Insanity in the Yellow wallpaper here
Summary
What happens in the text? What is the story about? What is the prescription that John prescribes for our narrator?
Speedwriting exercise
Access the padlet here. ONLY write in the first column to the left!
Research
Specific kinds of madness. Look up definitions and explain how they apply to the story. Look up the rest cure and its inventor. Fill out the three columns to the right.
Analysis of the text
How is the nursery descried? Is it really a nursery?
"It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.
The paint and paper look as if a boys' school had used it. It is stripped off the paper - in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life.
One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin.
It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide - plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.
The color is repellant, almost revolting ; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.
It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.
No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long. "
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"The furniture in this room is no worse than inharmonious, however, for we had to bring it all from downstairs. I suppose when this was used as a playroom they had to take the nursery things out, and no wonder! I never saw such ravages as the children have made here.
The wall-paper, as I said before, is torn off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a brother - they must have had perseverance as well as hatred.
Then the floor is scratched and gou~ed and splintered, the plaster itself is dug out here and there, and this great heavy bed which is all we found in the room, looks as if it had been through the wars. "
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What is the contrast between the narrator and John?
Why is it important that he is a physician (as it is stressd several times in the story) rather than just a doctor?
"John is a physician, and perltaps - (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind - ) perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster."
Contrast the narrator and the nurse Mary and John's sister Jennie. What is the effect on the reader (and maybe the narrator as well) of these three women together?
How does The Yellow Wallpaper deal with mental illness and does it tell us anything about the attitudes towards mental illness in its time?
What key characterteristics of realism does the story display? See below.
Put the text in perspective
How does The Yellow Wallpaper fit in with other texts that we have worked with so far? Similarieties? Contrasts?
Realism
Realism
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The Fly (1922)
The Fly (1922)
By Kathrine Mansfield
Is The Fly a story of madness, compulsive behaviour, coping strategies, trauma or maybe social expectations (of for example male grief)?
Assignment
Individually reasearch the background information:
Modernism - what is it? Here
Watch this video about the author Kathrine Mansfield - was she mad?
Help to understand the story here.
Next, form groups of 4 and follow the steps of the orange presentation below:
Collaborative reading of The Fly (read it here) and World War 1 (WWI) and the Battle of Verdun.
The Fly (1922).pptx
Read about the plot here
Let us watch the movie!
Homework:
Madness in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest
Elaborate on these statements:
Though Chief Bromden is schizophrenic, it is possible to argue he is one of the sanest people in the book.
Though Nurse Ratched is seen as normal and McMurphy is seen as mentally ill, the nurse is actually the psychopath.
In pairs, put your heads together for 5 minutes and discuss:
Is McMurphy mentally ill or just a schemer who rebels against authority? Which of the characters in the novel do you think have mental illnesses? Which ones don’t? What’s your definition of a mental illness anyway? In what ways does this novel challenge you to reconsider your notion of who is and who isn’t suffering from a mental illness? How does society view mental illness in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? How does the medical establishment view it? Are there conflicting viewpoints expressed in the book and, if so, what are they?
Class discussion.
6 groups:
Find a minimum of 3 quotes and/or scenes to illustrate your give theme. Prepare a presentation to explain how your theme is seen in the movie.
Extra credit if you can explain to the class how your theme is a "living thing" that develops throughout the story and not a static state.
4 groups, you are given 1 page each:
In Background text to One Flew... (the home work) each group find 4 words you think are difficult (added bonus if they relate to the subject or to the novel), look them up and then write the words and explanations on the black board.
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American Psycho (1991)
American Psycho (1991)
Watch the movie, available on Netflix for example.
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Essay structure assignment
Bring pen, eraser, and if needed, headphones for silence.
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