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Examples Of Mental Illness In The Diary Of A Madman

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Jazmin Bender Dr. Kenney English IV- A 7 January 2018 Mental Illness and Societal Brokenness When describing a society, words like collectivism, togetherness and community, often come to mind. Judgements towards a society are often based on whether or not it meets certain standards, whether it is accepting or judgemental, forgiving or hostile, inclusive or exclusive. Other times, views of different societies are based on the types of people within them. To be broad, the members within a society can be broken up into two groups, those who are “normal” and those who are mentally ill. The way “normal” people treat those who show signs or symptoms of mental illness expose corruption in society. Mental illness in literature not only speaks for …show more content…

He is living in poverty and is enslaved to those at the top of the hierarchical order. Due to his daily frustrations and struggles, he withdraws himself from reality to an imaginative world where he hears dogs speaking and writing letters, where he often fantasizes about his job, his aspirations, and his infatuation with his director’s daughter. Since his reality is so limited, he experiences delusions of grandeur after he read that a woman could accede to the Spanish throne. (“The Diary of a Madman”). A delusion of grandeur is defined as, a “fixed, false belief that one possesses superior qualities such as genius, fame, omnipotence, or wealth” (Grohol). With Poprishchin questioning his own identity and his obsession with social rankings, he ultimately gets caught up in his fantasies that he is the heir to the Spanish crown (“The Diary of a Madman”). His obsession with social rankings comes from the major emphasis that nineteenth century Russian society placed on status, appearance and bureaucratic rules, which Gogoal claims, creates a society that encouraged people to care more about their roles in rather than their real selves (Woodward par. 7). These obsessions ironically leads him to a state of isolation. As his fantasies gradually intensify, he increasingly removes himself further and further from reality. Those around him begin to see him as threat and decide to institutionalize him to keep him out of society. This prescription for a so-called “cure” to his illness accelerated the speed of his journey towards insanity (Woodward par. 6). Gogol’s “The Diary of a Madman” displays the concept of societal brokenness in Russia through the apathetic actions towards the mentally ill, Poprishchin in this

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