Before insanity was brought into the picture, the text was more of a crazy, upside down love affair with many hidden messages and trickery. Now it is completely opposite in that we are slowing watching (reading) as Sybil slips deeper and deeper into a psychotic state. She is slowly going mad and not only do we know it as readers but she does as well. We as readers can “see” her thoughts as she feels as though her “health was going, [her] mind growing confused and weak; [her] thoughts wandered vaguely, memory began to fail, and idiocy or madness seemed [her] inevitable fate…” (pg 241).
Originally, because Sybil was manipulative and “coquettish” (pg 219), I believed her to be a brat who thought she could get away from everything and that if bad things happened to her, then she deserved it; “you get what you ask for.” However, as I was reading into Sybil’s mind, I kept thinking about my Psychiatric and Mental Health nursing class and my perception of her changed from a negative one to that of empathy for a young girl forced into a situation where she was slowly going mad. She tried to fight it at first by trying to escape over “a high wall [that] enclosed [the garden] on every side” (pg 239). She got caught again and her “spirit was crushed, [her] strength gone, [and her] freedom lost” (pg 239). Sybil’s “hope died” (pg 242) as she went through this struggle to maintain her sanity.
As for the mother/daughter relationship, it was not what I expected. They were connected in a way that was, what I believe, the truest and strongest bond between a mother and her daughter. Sybil thought her mother to be dead when in fact she was only one floor away from her in the same building. Her mother died trying to save her by leaving her messages in the dog’s collar and whispering “Find it! For God’s sake find it before it is too late!...The dog—a lock of hair—there is yet time” (pg 243). Even thought they never really met or created the kind of relationship expected by this time period, the unspoken bond of love between them was very evident.
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Courtney
ReplyDeleteI think it is great how you related the text to your Psychiatric and Mental Health nursing class! It is neat that you have such a background to help you analyze the excerpt. Also, I agree with you when you said that Sybil and her mother had a really strong bond. She showed how much she cared about her daughter by leaving the note in the dog's collar. Great job!