Alcott's A Whisper in the Dark

So, there is insanity in A Whisper in the Dark. Sybil is not insane, however her mother is. Sybil's sanity is questioned though. When we realize that Sybil is in an insane asylum, we begin to question everything that has gone on in the previous parts of the passage since she has been narrating the whole time. We begin to distrust Sybil. Sybil acted questionably several times before we realized she might be insane though. She risks her life in order to be with someone she has only known for less than a day, and she flirts with her own creepy uncle (yuck!).

One important thing about Sybil being in an insane asylum is that she is completely powerless. Throughout the entire passage, Sybil struggles for her independence and own personal power and even womanhood, however once we realize she might be insane most of her credibility and power is lost.

Although Sybil looks at herself in the mirror and sees a beautiful young woman of seventeen with, "blonde hair, wavy and golden,... a carnation fillet...and a blooming dark-eyed face" (219), Sybil has yet to prove her womanhood. Does being insane cause one to lose her womanhood and take the place of a child? I think people generally give less credibility to an insane adult than to a sane one, so maybe so. Maybe Sybil has lost the power to become a woman by seeming insane. Now that I've talked myself in circles, I'll get back on topic. Sybil describes herself in the beginning as, "A frank, fearless creature, quick to feel, speak, and act" (217). So we know she is brave and she proves it by trying to escape from the insane asylum several times. Sybil describes one frightening instance where she tries to escape, "the wind buffeted me to and fro, the rain blinded me, the mud clogged my feet and soon robbed me of a slipper' groping for it in despair, ...feeling like a hunted doe, I ran on..." (233)

Even though she was insane, Sybil's mother ended up being the hero who saves Sybil from insanity and possible death. Her mother exclaims in her letter, "Child! Mother! Whatever you are, leave this accursed house while you have power to do it" (244). She has hidden two notes in the dog's collar for Sybil to randomly find. And because of those notes Sybil finds herself in the loving arms of Guy who she says, "drew me close, .... the voice that had alarmed cried joyfully, "Sybil, it is Guy: Lie still, poor child, you are safe at last"...Then I knew that my surest refuge was gained and too weak for words, clung to him in an agony of happiness" (245). I love the conttrast in the phrase, "agony of happiness". She conveys the bitter sweetness of the situation.

The mother/daughter relationship in the novel is pretty much nonexistent until Sybil realizes that the person upstairs is her insane mother who writes her in two letters. She knew thhere was someone up there, but did not know that it was her mother, so tecnically she did have a relationship with her mother before she even knew it because of the whisper in the dark, "Find it! For God's sake, find it before it is too late! (241)" She also knew that someone was above her because of the trudging back and forth she could hear. Next her mother plays the biggest role in her life of anyone when she tells her in two notes to run away instead of killing herself. Her mother saves her life. Although it's a really odd relationship to never meet someone and have them be the most important person in your life, it is the case in A Whisper in the Dark. Her mother is a void in Sybil's life until the ripe age of 17 when her mother dies. Somehow I think Sybil ggets her void filled by having her mother save her life. Sybil says it best, "I believed her dead, yet I had seen her, knew where her solitary grave was made and, still carried in my bosom the warning she had sent me, prompted by the unerring instinct of a mother's heart" (246).

Sybil says while escaping for the last time, As I stooped for a drink, I saw my face for the frist time in many months, and started to see how like that dead one I had grown, in all but the eternal peace which made that beautiful in spite of suffering and age" (245). Thourgh all this, Sybil becomes a woman. Maybe all she needed was her mother's help. Anyway, sorry for the incoherent ramblings.