Mental Health Treatment in the Victorian Era

This project examines the portrayal of mental health issues and the way in which women who live with them are treated by others in Jane Eyre and Ruth Hall, in conversation with criticism and contemporary writings on women’s health.  In both novels, women’s mental illness reinforces society’s perception of them as “other,” and their marginalization.  Much of this marginalization is a result of the ways in which the texts emphasize the fear and horror associated with mental illness, and how that fear and horror can also be tied to a uniquely male…

We chose the texts Jane Eyre and Ruth Hall because we were shocked by the mental health treatment we saw. Bertha is locked away and assumed insane because Rochester does not want to deal with her. Ruth Hall visits an asylum where women are separated from their children because their husbands also do not want to be around them. None of the protagonists in either novel demonstrate any kindness or empathy for any of the mentally ill women. Instead, they treat them just as cruelly, letting their misconceptions and fear about mental illnesses warp their views of these…

Obviously, when it comes to Victorian literature portraying women with mental illness as monstrous or terrifying, the character of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre is the gold standard.  Clearly quite unbalanced, she tries to burn Mr. Rochester in his bed, brutally attacks her brother, and terrorizes Jane the night before she is supposed to marry Mr. Rochester.  Jane’s fear of Bertha is evident in her description of Bertha’s appearance during this last encounter: “‘Fearful and ghastly to me—oh, sir, I never saw a face like it!  It was a discoloured face—it was a savage face. …

The same kind of internalized misogyny is evident in Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall, most notably in the chapter in which Ruth visits the insane asylum.  The narrator seems to disapprove of the treatment of a woman who has been separated from her child and is unbalanced at least partially as a result, but we are also told that this woman is “...a sight of trouble to manage,” and liable to “spring at [children] through them bars like a panther,” (Fern 111).  And, only a few paragraphs later, the narrator says of Ruth, “Well might she shudder, as the gibbering screams of the maniacs over…

Showalter argues that men were fearful of women’s sexuality and supposed moral perversion which started a long path of wrongful treatment. At one mental hospital, eleven thousand out of eighteen thousand total patients were women. The mid-nineteenth century was the moment of history in which women became the dominant group populating mental institutions, or at least this is when it was “statistically verifiable” (52). Showalter mentions also that women were part of these institutions in non-patient roles. However, they were quickly pushed aside into more volunteer-based or caregiver roles…

Showalter’s argument that men’s fear of women’s sexuality was so prominent that it leaked into their professional treatment is helpful for examining Bertha Mason and the women in the hospital from Ruth Hall. Our project set out to study these characters using cultural context, and Showalter’s books highlighted the misconceptions surrounding the treatment of women for mental conditions. This source helped satisfy our intrigue on the topic and supported our argument that men were fearful of women. Showalter’s claim helps to explain Fern's portrayal of the women in the hospital. It was clear…

Laycock details “cerebral hysteria” and “moral insanity” in women and claims many, if not all, of women’s ailments arise from the reproductive system. He says indecisiveness, regular reading and writing, and high productivity are signs and symptoms of moral insanity in women. Laycock mentions female patients are often not truthful about their symptoms. Only one brief mention of hallucinations is given as a means of diagnosing cerebral hysteria or insanity with the rest of the signs being personality shifts apparently uncharacteristic for women. He argues an effective treatment for these…

We put this article into conversation with other sources we found that all claim mental problems are linked to a woman’s reproductive system. Whereas this article explains a beneficial treatment route for insanity is electric shock to the uterine area, other doctor-authored articles detail the benefits of prescription pregnancy and surgical alteration of reproductive organs as means of curing mental illness. In our individual research, we found that doctors worked on women with medical knowledge that would be deemed unethical and bizzare today. Yet, in the nineteenth century, medical…

The appalling mistreatment of mentally ill individuals demonstrated in Jane Eyre and Ruth Hall demonstrates many of the ideas and themes we have studied this semester. Women had strict expectations placed upon them, and stepping outside of those expectations often had disastrous results. They were expected to be chaste, obedient, and morally sound as a way to keep them controlled. Men feared when women pushed back against these because it lessened their power over them, so they locked them in mental institutions where they could be controlled. Fears of women exploring…

Our research demonstrated just how far misogyny stretched during the Victorian era. Not only were women locked into distinct societal expectations, but they could also be locked away for not abiding by them. It also reinforced that fear was the main force behind mental health treatment as well as other aspects of the misogyny women underwent. Men were so afraid of the differences between them and women that they enforced societal norms made to keep women in line. As a result, they continuously imposed their misconceptions about women’s mental and physical health into their treatment plans…