Insanity In 'The Wasp Factory And Daddy'

Insanity can be defined as the defect of a reason as a result of mental illness, not knowing what he or she is doing and all three writers present different contributing components that lead to insanity. The persona in ‘Daddy’ compares herself to a Jew “I think I may well be a Jew” it could be argued that the comparison to a Jew reflects the persona being made to feel like a lesser race by her father. The metaphor is repeated throughout the poem showing that she believes this to be true. The persona uses the metaphor to emphasise the mental abuse she suffered from her father and presents him as the cause of her insanity. In comparison with this, in ‘The Wasp Factory’, Frank’s suffering and descent into isolation are caused by his father. In contrast with ‘Daddy’, a resolution to sanity is arguably reached by Frank when his father reveals Frank’s true identity, the transition to sanity from insanity as a result of knowledge of identity demonstrates the

A Critic argued that Frank’s father's “manipulation of Frank is particularly grotesque: in fact Frank was never castrated by Old Saul” his motivation for his actions, hatred for women causes him to deceive and manipulate Frank, whilst controlling most aspects of his life to deny him his identity. Parallels can be drawn with this between Iago in ‘Othello’ and ‘Daddy’, all three present external forces causing insanity. Despite Frank’s resolution and arguable ‘transformation’ he cannot be viewed as entirely sane, he has been redeemed to an extent but it does not justify his actions earlier in the novel “I killed little Esmerelda because I felt I owed it to