A Madman’s Manuscript by Charles Dickens is a short ghost story about a madman who re-lives the past events of his life and writes about them in his cell of a sanatorium. The manuscript is an unfinished biography of the madman. The novel was published in the Pickwick Papers in 1837. The protagonist shows to be satisfied and proud of his madness because it is a creative and powerful tool to achieve his pursuits and dreams. His madness is harmful and related to the wrong behaviour of his ancestors, whom he despises because of their insanity and wickedness. He suffers from schizophrenia, depression and melancholia. The madman of this story is an enthusiastic dogmatist, pessimistic, and schizophrenic. His distorted vision of reality causes him to kill some members of his step-family. He was obsessed with the alleged infidelity of his dead wife because of his schizophrenia.
The Unusual Story of A Madman’s Manuscript by Charles Dickens
A Madman’s Manuscript by Charles Dickens is a unique and unusual story that shows all the multiple hues of the madness of the human mind. The protagonist hears voices of strange spirits, which advise him to commit crimes. Every night, in his cell, he receives the visit of his deceased wife. The ghost stares at him continuously without emitting any sound. He lost his liberty and freedom forever but felt no remorse for murdering people with cold-minded cruelty. The madman suffers from partial amnesia and does not remember “forms and faces”, but the memory of the beautiful wife remains with him. Indeed, he sees her in the “bright moonlight nights”, standing motionless in one of his cell’s corners. The man is firmly convinced that his wife’s death was a propitiatory event since she never loved him, and he wanted to avoid having a child mad as himself.
A Horror Tale About The Aspects Of Insanity
In his hallucinatory and frantic behaviour, he had been conscious of his abnormal manners, which always made him afraid and isolated him from the rest of the crowd. He suffers from isolation, but simultaneously, he is pleased because of his madness. This ghost story, similar to The Queer Chair By Charles Dickens, is a horror and supernatural tale. The nameless lunatic man lives in a cursed and doomed state where nightmares, memories and reality blend. He has difficulty discerning between the actuality and his horrible visions. The only certainty is that the madman is conscious of his chronic mental insanity, condemning him to live a dreadful life. This short story’s eerie and gloomy atmosphere amplifies the components of crime, horror and madness. The protagonist lives a solitary life in odd confusion and delirium.
The Madness As Doomed State Of Mind
In the first part of his life, madness procured him careless happiness, which was a secret; in the second and last part of the madman’s life, society discovers his secret, and his madness causes him a perpetual doomed state of mind. The ghost seems sinister in this novel, causing the madman to feel sorrow and anguish. The horror is mainly due to the murders in this short story. In an explanatory note, Charles Dickens described the man as “a melancholy instance of the baneful results of energies misdirected in early life”. The youth’s reckless behaviour had consequences such as dissipation and debauchery. A strange delusional state due to its hereditary madness induced a condition of gloom and dismay, which evolved into dreadful insanity, and ultimately resulted in “raving madness”.
