'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins and 'In a Glass Darkly' by Sheridan LeFanu - Essay Example

The uncertainty of what might happen, the inability to understand his 'reality', fear of the unknown and lack of control in the situation, will serve to drive the onlooker from engaging too closely with this individual. Several other responses can and do occur; pity, disgust, incredulity, horror and mistrust, and even a thrill of adrenalin rush from fear. As Byrne commented on the stigma of mental illness, "Negative attitudes to people with mental illness start at playschool and endure into early adulthood.

(Byrne 2000) Thus the 'mad' person is dangerous and their credibility dubious; these are the elements which serve to complicate our the response to the works under discussion. When, as in the 'sensation' novel, the madness is encountered as part of normal, everyday experiences, the fear is enhanced. Though less well-informed on psychological matters, after all, it was a new science, the Victorians embraced the ideas of spiritualism and other-worldly phenomena. Seances, mediums, ghost-sightings, theatrical demonstrations, were part of life.

Although Dickens' 'Our Mutual Friend' is not strictly of the genre, exploring a wider view of society, the scene created in the Boffin 2.household strikes fear into the mind of anyone interested in the spiritual. Mrs. Boffin is terrified, and says oddy, the faces of the old man and the two children are all over the house tonight. (She is seeing the dead). Dickens' portrayal of her husband's response creates that fearful sensation for the reader: y dearexclaimed Mr. Boffin. But not without a certain uncomfortable sensation gliding down his back.

(Dickens, 1865, p. 190) The dead and the living come together throughout the book. Adam Hart Davis considers that; o some extent, the advance of science was undermining religionand n 1882 a group of academics [.] formed the Society for Psychical Research[.] this still today investigates paranormal phenomena.(Hart Davis, 2001, p. 70). The 'sensation' novels achieved their popularity by touching on matters which aroused not only feelings, but had wider religious and scientific contexts within that society.

The quality of writing, the power of the narratives and the ability to create tensions, leaving readers 'on the edge of their seats', are also hugely important elements. That they combined the realities of Victorian society and family life with this 'otherness', added to the fright, and enhanced the popularity. Wilkie Collins' 'The Woman in White (1860) first published as a serial, engages the reader immediately, bringing those sensations to bear at once. From the outset, there is a hint of things being 'askew', when Hartwright meets the strange, potentially mad, Anne Catherick.

The mingling of the mundane world with the shocking and uncanny, heightens the fearfulness of the experiences. Their later meeting, in the churchyard at Limmeridge, when Walter mentions who put Anne in the asylum, chills the blood, as indeed, the author intended. er