Hysteria

Hysteria

Hysteria in women in the Victorian period.

This article in Hearth and Home magazine details what hysteria is, how it affects women in the Victorian period, and how women need to act in order to combat this illness. It is filled with highly sexist ideas, such as the idea that women need to use their will power to better control their emotions. This is interesting to note because it is published in a magazine primarily read by women, and I venture even written by a woman as denoted by the author's use of the collective "we" when referring to women. One would think that this idea of women being weak and prone to high emotional spells would have been offensive to women reading this article, but, since this was published in a highly popular magazine, we see that this is not the case. This article relates to Margaret Oliphant's "The Library Window" which passage four on the exam came from because the unnamed main character in that story is believed by the people around her to suffer from hysteria. This article even uses some of the same language as "The Library Window," mentioning paleness and "the absence of any definite occupation" as factors in hysteria, and the main character's paleness and choice to do nothing but sit in her window seat watching the library window all day are frequently mentioned in "The Library Window" as well. By reading this article, we can get a deeper comprehension of how the main character's Aunt Mary and others that interacted with her understand her- mainly as a mentally unstable young girl, and better understand some of the main character's frustration and hysterical anger at the dismissive nature in which the other character's treat her and her claims towards the reality of the library window.

Unknown

19th Century UK Periodicals. Series I & II: Accessed through the New York Public Library

Hearth and Home

May 4, 1893

National Library of Scotland

Magazine Article