Love and Tragedy Insanity in the words of Edgar Allen Poe “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity” (Poe). Poe’s quote really exemplifies how insanity is merely the buildup of horrible tragedies in your life that leads up to the eventuality of madness. In the novel A Mercy by Toni Morrison, Morrison writes about a character named Rebekka who was originally from England and brought over to America to become the wife of Jacob Vaark. However, tragedy strikes at various points in her life. One such tragedy is when her first born is killed suddenly by a swift kick to the head by a horse. Another being that of the death of her husband. This over time slowly whittles down her sanity until she succumbs to madness. Morrison uses metonymy personification and metaphor to allow the reader to fully understand how Rebekka’s slow decent into madness, came through the tragedies she faced her entire life in the new world. Rebekka is portrayed as being full of acceptance and love through the use of metonymy, showing the reader how she can cope with strife and how it affects her normality. In A Mercy Rebekka has started her first family with Jacob Vaark, …show more content…
Rebekka’s daughter has just died and Morrison writes “Her own death was what she should be concentrating on. She could hear its hooves clacking on the roof, could see the cloaked figure on horseback” (Morrison 92) to show us that Rebekka is truly shattered about the death of her daughter. The effect of this quote is quite profound. The quote allows the reader to understand that Rebekka is in turmoil, and her mind is in a flurry of shock. Rebekka personifies the horse that killed her daughter with her own death; telling the reader that it is “clacking on the roof” (Morrison 92). Rebekka wants to forget about her daughter’s death and to focus on her own; making it clear that Rebekka is losing grip of her