''Madness'' and ''Truth'' in Regeneration
''MADNESS'' AND ''TRUTH'' IN REGENERATION
The idea of madness is central in the novel Regeneration, and since the very beginning is presented as a struggle between the 'real' madness and the social conventions that lead people to think what should or should not be considered madness. The text is introduced with a letter written by one of the main characters, Siegfried Sassoon, who is going to be sent to a mental hospital for protesting against the war. But after reading the letter which is supposed to prove Sasoon's mental illness, the doctor in charge of the case, W.H.R. Rivers, starts doubting about if it is real illness or not. In fact, in the conversation he has with one of his colleagues after reading the letter, we can read the sentence ''Does it matter what his mental state is?''. So, although later on we find out that Sasoon has terrible nightmares and hallucinations, the reason why he is sent to hospital is purely social, he is sent there because he complains about what is socially acceptable, which in this war-time was going to the front to fight for your country. Actually, in a way, the reader is told right in the first chapter that Sasoon is not insane, when the author uses an external analepsis to narrate the conversation he had with his friend before knowing that he was going to be sent to Craiglockhart. In this conversation is clearly stated that he does what he does to be consistent with his ideas, even if he have had some hallucinations or nightmares because of traumas related to war (fact that is presented as something totally understandable and as something that would not affect his mental health until the point of being considered as insane, just as something that the authorities would use against him to put him in a mental hospital instead of a regular prison, and this way avoid the pacifist propaganda). So here a new question arises: is truth a universal reality? And even more important, if it is so, can we know it by heart or will we just
The idea of madness is central in the novel Regeneration, and since the very beginning is presented as a struggle between the 'real' madness and the social conventions that lead people to think what should or should not be considered madness. The text is introduced with a letter written by one of the main characters, Siegfried Sassoon, who is going to be sent to a mental hospital for protesting against the war. But after reading the letter which is supposed to prove Sasoon's mental illness, the doctor in charge of the case, W.H.R. Rivers, starts doubting about if it is real illness or not. In fact, in the conversation he has with one of his colleagues after reading the letter, we can read the sentence ''Does it matter what his mental state is?''. So, although later on we find out that Sasoon has terrible nightmares and hallucinations, the reason why he is sent to hospital is purely social, he is sent there because he complains about what is socially acceptable, which in this war-time was going to the front to fight for your country. Actually, in a way, the reader is told right in the first chapter that Sasoon is not insane, when the author uses an external analepsis to narrate the conversation he had with his friend before knowing that he was going to be sent to Craiglockhart. In this conversation is clearly stated that he does what he does to be consistent with his ideas, even if he have had some hallucinations or nightmares because of traumas related to war (fact that is presented as something totally understandable and as something that would not affect his mental health until the point of being considered as insane, just as something that the authorities would use against him to put him in a mental hospital instead of a regular prison, and this way avoid the pacifist propaganda). So here a new question arises: is truth a universal reality? And even more important, if it is so, can we know it by heart or will we just