Shell Shock In War

There were two very distinct views of shell shock within British society, when the first shell shocked men returned from the war they were condemned for being too feminine. In the home front, society strongly believed it was every British man’s duty to enlist for the war, it was the manly thing to do. So, when numerous of men returned with a mental illness it was huge a shock to society. Here were these men who did the manly thing and went to war but returned as weak, unstable, emotional, and feminine. Due to the feminized view on mental illnesses at the beginning of the war, it led to numerous of men with shell shock to feel incompetent from being diagnosed with a mental illness. As shown, “all signs of physical fear were judged as weakness …show more content…
Elaine Showalter pointed out in her book, The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, “the long-term repression of signs of fear that led to shell shock in war was only an exaggeration of the male sex-role expectations, the self-control and emotional disguise of civilian life.” Thus, leading to men creating a form of resentment towards women, who could openly express their emotions without being ostracized or belittled by society. As shown, “hostility towards ‘beastly’ women who were allowed to scream or cry, and whose hysteria had been an accepted form of feminine expression before the war.” That deep hatred shell shocked men had for women was due to the social constraints that did not allow them to express their emotions. Elaine Showalter pointed out that shell shock was the body’s protest to the concept of manliness. These men were forced into a social role that enforced them to be masculine and to not succumb to their mental …show more content…
As shown by historian Claire M. Tylee, “The pattern in women’s war-books, of emotional death and resurrection, did not usually lead to a sense of ‘common sisterhood’ or to a political new life as in Brittain’s case, but to the more traditional ‘new life’ of motherhood. A child was a new beginning, a commitment to the future.” Motherhood was seen as the cure for women of their traumatic memories of war, a child would solve all their problems. The immense pressure felt by these women led to them into marriage, childbearing, and rearing to continue to do their part for the future of Britain. For example, Brittain was one of these women who “agreed to marry and have children, and so influence the future.” This mentality resonated with thousands of women who served courageously for the war effort, and in return society urged them to return to their biological purpose of life, to prior of the start of World War I in