Melancholia

in the skin, tingling in the fingers, vertigo, tinnitus aurium, headaches, hallucination, painful muscle contractions - which lead to epileptiform convulsions, vomiting and diarrhoea (16, 18, 21).” “There are mental disturbances such as mania, melancholia, psychosis, and delirium. All of these symptoms are alluded to in the Salem witchcraft…

present in the wafer. Assuming Wordsworth was aware of the religious connotations of the term, one could deduce the narrator, who is most likely Wordsworth himself, regards the host of daffodils as a holy force capable of absolving his sin of melancholia. Both “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and “Kubla Khan” transport their readers to an otherworldly dimension through their devout worship of nature. If one conjectures that Wordsworth’s view of nature corresponds with the first-person narrator of…

I know I've been through a lot. I've been a hostage of depression for 5 years, I lost a cousin, and was left behind by several people I thought were friends. These are just a few examples of what has brought me down over the years. But I am not necessarily weak for reaching the breaking point in these moments. Before I discovered my capacity to get up, I used to immediately put myself down for falling. I remember the time I learned this, it was the week my best friend betrayed me. A week after…

Although James Joyce was the first to use the religious term “epiphany” in a literary sense, it has become a main theme in many other short works. Gustave Flaubert’s protagonist Félicité from “A Simple Heart” along with Goodman Brown from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” both experience what could be called an epiphany. Flaubert and Hawthorne’s protagonists have a religious epiphany while in a possible dream state. The stories finish with phantasmal epiphanies where the…

writing, in which his characters are unable to find happiness despite their tireless efforts to experience it and gain it through travels and meeting new people. Boswell, a close friend of Johnsons said, “he felt himself overwhelmed with an horrible melancholia, with perpetual irritation, fretfulness, and impatience; and with a dejection, gloom, and despair, which made existence misery" (Bate 117). His depression and restlessness can be seen in his main character Rasselas, who remains unhappy…

representation of society’s perception of creativity. The notion that a link exists between creativity and mental illness goes back to the time of Aristotle, when he wrote that eminent philosophers, politicians, poets and artists all have tendencies toward "melancholia." If we are to accept that there is a correlation between creativity (in this case creative writing) and mental ill health, which is the catalyst? Does mental illness facilitate the development of creativity? Does writing, and…

Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts; it is generally a prolonged feeling of sadness and hopelessness, lasting anywhere from weeks to years. A large part of the teenage and middle-age population suffers from some type of depression. There is no single cause for depression, but the majority of the causes are similar. Genetics, as in if there is a history of depression in your family you are more likely to develop depression. Health conditions, such as cancer or…

Many great inventions have been invented and one of the greatest developments in modern technology has been the invention of video games. Therefore, video games are instrumental to many people in this day and age. Most people, especially parents, overlook the benefits of gaming such as how it can improve our social life and helps in cognitive development of teenagers when they are at a tender age. However, too much gaming can lead to addiction causing possible problems such as truancy from…

Moreover, the symbolism of the bell jar poignantly struck me. Bell jars are inverted glass jars used to display a specimen of curiosity in an unchanging, oppressive environment. For Esther, her madness is a bell jar. She feels like she is a foreign, rare creature people talk about, but never understand. I felt the same. People would always talk about me, as if I were some role model others should emulate, but never get close enough to learn the reality of my life. Similarly, Ester feels like the…

Juan Rulfo gained worldwide popularity and recognition with his style of writing and with the unusual yet masterful use of time in his unique novel “Pedro Paramo”. The past as a means of telling a story plays a crucial role, such that it takes the form of a place in the novel. The way the book is written and the information in it is served may confuse the readers at first, as Rulfo plays with the nonlinearity of the narrative sequences and chaotic arrangement of dialogues. Major themes and…