從中世紀到今日社會，多數人都將瘋狂視為一種疾病，而人們認為一旦得到了這種疾病將變得行為不受控制，並且同時也會造成社會危險。因此，在19世紀時，出現了瘋人院。而瘋人院的創立，是為了要將這些瘋子和與社會隔闔。主要是為了確保社會的人們與社會秩序皆不會受到瘋人們的威脅與破壞。因此， 這些瘋人就如同社會異類般的存在，被排除在正常的社會與體制之外。而在治療的過程中，醫生就如同權力行使的代理人，運用著他們的知識，專業能力以及權力，限制瘋人的個人自由， 並要求將瘋人完全隔闔在一個密閉空間內治療。但在長時間的權力壓迫之下， 這些瘋人的狀況沒有改善， 反而更加惡化。
本論文將透過夏綠蒂・柏金斯・吉爾曼的《黃壁紙》和維吉尼亞・伍爾夫的《達洛維夫人》重新思考瘋狂的定義。藉由米歇爾・傅柯對於瘋狂的討論， 追溯瘋狂的歷史以及探討大眾看待瘋人時， 權力如何運作。而權力的作用分成兩個層面：父權制度與社會階層。在傅柯的觀察下，權力的行使不只運作在醫院和學校中， 同時也作用在人與人之間的關係中， 如：醫生與病人。在兩本小說中的主角—《黃壁紙》中的主要敘事者與《達洛維夫人》中的賽普蒂默斯皆—患有精神相關疾病， 以及如何被社會視為異類與排斥。雖然兩位主角的結局皆為悲劇， 但在悲劇的背後， 我認為他們的行為可解讀為對權力的反抗與顛覆。而透過兩位主角的例子， 本論文重新審思瘋狂，以及更進一步地將瘋狂視為一種解放與自由。

The concept of madness is explained as a pathology. The mad people are excluded by the majority of people because they are considered threatening. In the eighteenth century, most people think that madness is a pathology, so mad people who are excluded by the majority of people in the society. They do not obey the norm, and they must be sent to asylum and receive medical treatment. According to Michael Foucault is in his book History of Madness, most people distinguished reason from madness. The distinction between reason and madness constitutes social norm. The social norm means that majority of people discriminate madmen because most people think that madness is a mental illness in the society. The thought of the majority of people is shaped by the social norm, and they think that madmen should receive medical treatment and confinement. The reasonable people have sense of superior its because they think they are sane. The majority of people think that the mad do not belong to the society because they are different from normal people. Madmen are caught and controlled by the majority of people because their behavior is not acceptable. The social norm is oppressive to madmen because normal people tend to pathologize madmen. However, I think that madness can be seen as a power of rebellion and resistance to challenging the social authority. As a result, rethinking madness as liberation helps us have a positive understanding of madness from the society. In this thesis, I focus on representations of madness in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.
My thesis attempts to offer an alternative perspective on madness. The thesis is composed of four parts: the first part is the introduction of the concept of madness and my research method in the thesis. The second part analyze the symptom of madness through the two works. In this part, we can discover that causes of madness include marriage and isolation in The Yellow Wallpaper. The other text, Mrs. Dalloway, shows us many other possible reasons of madness including PTSD, sense of guilt and isolation. Furthermore, madness causes hysterical symptom, which means that someone is unable to control his/her feeling or behavior when he/she is extremely frightened, angry or excited. We can discover that the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper and Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway have hysterical symptoms. Many information of the early history indicates that hysteria is medical diagnosis for women. In this part, I also discuss why the hysterical symptom is usually considered as a female pathology, and reverses the stereotype for female issue. In the third part, madness in the two novels can be considered as liberation which resists the social authority and breaks the social order. Moreover, the liberation implies challenge and protest to the society. For example, when the narrator the action of crossed over her husband’s body, she broke the confinement from her husband to her; on the other hand, she also protests to the patriarchal society in The Yellow Wallpaper. Furthermore, in Mrs. Dalloway, we can discover that Septimus’ suicide action can be considered as protest against the society because he can decide his own life before he commits suicide. Through Septimus’ action get his own liberation in the society because he does not accept other person to arrange his life. The fourth part concludes with a change of attitudes towards the stereotype of madness.

Introduction…………………………………………………………………01
Chapter One……………………………………………………………………32
Chapter Two……………………………………………………………………57
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………85
Work Cited………………………………………………………………………91

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