A Whisper in the Dark

In A Whisper in the Dark the concept of insanity is very strange and sudden. This story definitely took a turn I was not expecting. First this manipulative girl is having inappropriate relations with her uncle, and then she is drugged and taken to an insane asylum. As we talked about in class about Gothic literature, Alcott portrays her story as dark and mysterious, mostly in the second part of A Whisper in the Dark.

“Sybil, I am forty-five, you not eighteen, yet you once said you could be very happy with me, if I were always kind to you. I can promise that I will be, for I love you. My darling, you reject the son, will you accept the father?” (Alcott 225). This is when Sybil refuses to marry Guy after she finds out the whole plan. Her Uncle then asks if she would like to be his wife instead. This character who is supposed to be a fatherly figure in Sybil’s life all of a sudden starts inappropriate relations with such a young girl.

The gothic tradition that “things are not what they seem” is really evident as Sybil becomes more and more “ill” in the insane asylum. Since the story is written from the first person point of view it is already a little difficult to decide if we should believe everything Sybil says, or if we need to take everything she says with a grain of salt. “Feeling like a hunted doe, I ran on, but before I had gained a dozen yards my shoeless foot struck a sharp stone, and I fell half stunned upon the wet grass of the wayside bank.” (Alcott 227). When Sybil is running away I just can not help but wonder if she is just being overly dramatic or if she is actually in a bad situation.

Then the concept of insanity becomes very clear when she stops sleeping, cries all the time, and truly starts to go a bit crazy. “My one hope died then, and I resolved to kill myself rather than endure this life another month; for now it grew clear to me that they believed me mad, and death of the body was far more preferable than that of the mind. I think I was a little mad…” (Alcott 236). When this happens I think it makes the message of what she is saying less intense, and I began to focus on the other characters in the story. I thought that their words and actions could perhaps be more truthful than the girl going insane.

Our previous ideas of mother/daughter relationships were changed after reading this story. Mothers were supposed to be the stable, mature figures in the child’s life, and teach them everything they needed to know. Mrs. Montgomery is a good example of this even though she was absent for a lot of Ellen’s life. She taught her as much as she could, while Sybil’s crazy mom is in an insane asylum and can not function at all on her own.