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The presentation of madness in the Victorian novel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Allan Beveridge  and
Edward Renvoize
Allan Beveridge
Affiliation:
West Fife District General Hospital, Dunfermline
Edward Renvoize
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine, Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds
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The major novelists of the Victorian era enjoyed a large readership amongst the general public. They dealt with the pressing social issues of the day and their work both reflected and shaped society's attitudes to contemporary problems. The 19th century saw fundamental changes in society's response to the mentally ill with the creation of purpose-built asylums throughout the country. The Victorians were ambivalent in their reaction to the mentally disturbed. Whilst they sought to segregate the insane from the rest of the population, they were also terrified by the prospect of the wrongful confinement of sane people. The trial of Daniel McNaughton in 1843 for the assassination of Sir Robert Peel's Private Secretary, and the subsequent legislation, provoked general public debate about the nature of madness.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists , Volume 12 , Issue 10 , October 1988 , pp. 411 - 414
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988

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