Gone Girl Psychology

Gone Girl, a mysterious, thrilling novel, written by Gillian Flynn portrays madness and mental illness in multitudes of ways. The novel is a psychological thriller that contains abnormal behavior, mainly displayed in Amy, the protagonist of the story. Amy is a beautiful, intelligent, funny and loving wife to her husband Nick. Nick and Amy used to have a strong and loving relationship in New York, but when Nick's mother became ill the loving couple moved to Missouri so Nick could be with his mother. Once the newly wedded couple moved from New York to Missouri their relationship hit a turning point for the worse. Amy soon found out that Nick was having an affair with a younger, sexy woman; triggering her desire to make Nick's life miserable.
Amy wanted revenge for his unruly behavior. Nick who used to be a loving and caring husband soon turned into the opposite. He would spend all of Amy’s money on unnecessary items, constantly leave a mess around the house for Amy and would use her for sex when he wanted. Nick would rarely spend time with Amy and ever since they moved to Missouri Amy had wanted to disappear and leave her life behind. Amy believes that if she disappears, Nick would get what he deserves for treating her this way. The morning of Nick and Amy’s fifth anniversary came around and this was the day Amy disappears. Amy felt like she was being forced to move from New York where she was born to go to Missouri. According to Webster (2014), madness is the state of being mentally ill. Amy’s madness begins at the start of the novel and continues to the very last page. Because Amy’s actions are “abnormal”, Nick is seen in a different light because of his reactions to these said actions, which also deemed as “abnormal”. Is there a “normal” way to react if your wife goes missing? This paper will be analyzing the chain reactions that take place when Amy behaves in misleading manners and the effects it has on those closest to her.
Since Amy was a child she was known as “Amazing Amy” as presented by the children’s books her parents wrote that were highly successful. Hence, since her childhood, Amy has had these high standards that she has had to live up to of being perfect and this seems to be a large part of what Amy’s madness is all about. Amy has in fact been shown to maintain the “Amazing Amy” standards, going to Harvard and eventually marrying Nick who was then a successful writer. Thus, when their marriage starts going haywire Amy can’t stand it. Amy’s childhood depicts the development of a maladaptive personality for Amy. “Amazing Amy” got the emotional needs she needed from her parents but “the real Amy” didn’t. This would lead one to believe that Amy’s personality or what may be termed “madness” is not as a result of nature but nurture.
Amy portrays a lot of signs to hint to the fact that she suffers from a severe psychological disorder or that she is mad.
She is deceitful, self-absorbed, depicts extreme levels of vengefulness and goes to the same extreme levels including plotting her own suicide so that she can frame Nick for her death and Nick can then get the death sentence. These are traits that exhibit a psychopathic tendency (Hoff 117). She has an extreme, abnormal desire to get approval from her husband Nick and when she finds out that Nick is seeing another woman she is unable to bear it. Amy essentially creates a false world along with a false personality in order to get back at Nick. When they move to Missouri, Amy makes a few friends, appears kind and normal to most people. For a year she writes false information on her journal that will be used to incriminate Nick when she finally disappears and frames him for his murder . All this while Amy demonstrates incredible patience and holds up a fake persona perfectly exhibiting a lack of emotional connection with others that is a sign of sociopathy (Revelle
165).
Another behavior that leads one to the belief that Amy is “mad” is when she impregnates herself so as to keep Nick on her leash she finds this as the only way which is manipulation another expression of psychopathic tendencies (Hoff 117). Nick already realizes what kind of person Amy is but Amy wants the dysfunctional relationship to continue and uses the unborn child to ensure the relationship continues. Amy’s actions make it impossible for an observer to fail to view her as not mad. Nonetheless, Amy is not the only individual in this relationship who isn't what she seems. Nick once, the loving husband has been cheating on her and makes it worse when he doesn't give her any attention further aggravating Amy. From her childhood, Amy has presented the version of her that people wanted, the version that was expected of her and this was the perfect version. Amy seems to live in fake world but is actually living up to the expectations she perceives are placed on her from her childhood. One can imagine that this must be a very tedious way to live due to the pressures that come with it (Tyrer, Geoffrey and Mike 723). Amy lives to please the people in her life. When she meets Nick she develops the impression of a cool girl that she knows Nick is looking for so she can win his affection.
Amy is never truly herself and she has perfected the art of being the person other people need her to be.
This makes it easy for her to manipulate the public since she has been practicing this since she was a child. Nick was also fooled and who he thought Amy was is not really who she is, but by the time he realizes that it’s too late. Therefore, Amy has been living with a void. One in which she has suppressed her true self which may have made her feel unloved. Amy knows she is not truly loved because she knows that she is not being her true self. This can be very depressing and Nick’s unfaithfulness paired with the loss of her job and the financial struggles push her to the edge and her madness comes out.
Killing her ex-boyfriend and not expressing any remorse portrays a psychopathic (madness) trait on Amy. Nick expresses abnormal behavior as well, such as his lack of sadness when Amy disappears however unlike Amy's behavior he does not come nearly as close to being termed madness (Tyrer, Geoffrey and Mike 720). After moving, he evidently doesn’t have the same affection for Amy and is cheating on her. Nick seems trapped in a relationship he doesn’t want and Amy is struggling to keep the relationship despite its dysfunctional
nature.
In conclusion, Amy definitely has a mental disorder and has been mentally ill for a long time. Her mental illness can likely be traced to her childhood. The pressure of being “amazing” since childhood led Amy to develop a perfectionist nature and irrational expectations of herself. Since maintaining a perfect nature is impossible, Amy puts up a disguise. It is not what is on the inside that matters that is her happiness, health among other things but what is seen on the outside that matters that is her marriage is together. The nature of her experiences may have led her to become a people pleaser, while absurdly she isn't happy herself. "Amazing Amy" may have had many people who loved her but she was a lonely person who knew that the love she got was for "Amazing Amy" and not for Amy. This alienation may be what led Amy to developmental issues or what Merriam-Webster terms as madness.