Crazy talk

I’m all for realism in fiction when it’s appropriate, but a quote in a BBC News article, Literature’s love affair with the mind, is a bit wonky.

The article covers how writers have represented mental illness in fiction, both accurately and (more often) inaccurately. So far, so good. But check out what Marjorie Wallace, the executive of some mental health charity, had to say:

‘If you look at our most famous writers, many of them tackled madness and failed. Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Shakespeare all have characters who are troubled but it is never explained.’

Is it William Shakespeare’s job to explain the technical details of what makes his Dane melancholy? Apparently so.

She next takes Jane Eyre to task, then had to say about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

‘The idea that some can deliberately change their personality like that, has made people think they are to blame. It has been very damaging.’

She isn’t seriously blaming Jekyll and Hyde for people’s misconception of mental illness, is she?

I’m sorry to say that yes, she is. A very depressing attitude.