The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination

“Male sexuality, in other words, is not just analogically but actually the essence of literary power. The poet’s pen is in some sense (even more than figuratively) a penis.” 

Chapter 1 begins with a close analysis of the metaphor of “literary paternity.” This metaphor compares the artistic creativity of men to their procreative potential. Within this metaphorical context, Gilbert and Gubar argue that patriarchal models espoused by religion and family, in which God and other father figures exist at the top of the hierarchy, predict creative patriarchy. 

“But if, as nurse and comforter, spirit-guide and mystical messenger, a woman ruled the dying and the dead, might not even her admirers sometimes fear that, besides dying or easing death, she could bring death?” 

The stereotypical depictions of women in Victorian male writing present an unrealistic and polarized view of women. For example, women who possess the characteristics of an angel are trusted in vulnerable situations. A nurse, for example, can tend to an invalid in a sickbed, but her proximity means that she has the power to harm as well as the power to heal. In this way, an angel can transform quickly into a monster, the same way a sickbed can quickly transform into a deathbed. 

“Learning to become a beautiful object, the girl learns anxiety about—perhaps even loathing of—her own flesh.” 

Broad insights into the psycho-emotional experience of girls and women like this one reflect the interest in feminist issues such as body image that gained momentum in the 1970s when The Madwoman was published. This explanation of adolescent female anxiety and its source applies to readers beyond the academic