madwoman
Unhinged lady entirely
A madwoman is a woman who is insane or behaves in a wild, irrational manner.
The term appears in Gothic literature and melodrama—the madwoman in the attic has become a critical trope for hidden female rage or suppressed identity.
In casual use, it describes someone acting recklessly or with abandon: She drove like a madwoman to get there on time.
Holding false beliefs firmly
- psychoticSuffering reality-detachment
- hallucinationsPerceptions without external cause
- paranoiaIrrational persecution fears
- derangedMentally disturbed, irrational
demented · lunatic · asylum · bedlam · institutionalized · straitjacket · raving · babbling
delusional
Holding false beliefs firmly
- psychoticSuffering reality-detachment
- hallucinationsPerceptions without external cause
- paranoiaIrrational persecution fears
deranged · demented · lunatic · asylum · bedlam · institutionalized · straitjacket · raving · babbling · incoherent
hysterical
Emotionally out of control
- manicAbnormally elevated, agitated
- wildNot domesticated or controlled
- franticWildly anxious or desperate
unhinged · delirious · feverish · berserk · chaotic · overwrought · agitated · distraught · frenzied · crazed
fury
Intense violent anger
seething · livid · screaming · violent · ferocity · hostility · aggression · vengeful · scorned · banshee
- Gothic LiteratureEdgar Allan Poe, Jane Eyre, Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights, The Tell-Tale Heart
- madnesslunacy, insanity, mania, schizophrenia, psychosis
- Victorian Hysteriafemale hysteria, hysteric, neurasthenia, nervous disorder, rest cure
- Stage CharactersHamlet, Ophelia, Romeo, Juliet, Macbeth
- Victorian WomenQueen Victoria, Florence Nightingale, Anne Bronte, Emily Bronte, George Eliot
- Feminist Theorypatriarchy, male gaze, intersectionality, female gaze, women writers