One of the typical ingredients of gothic fiction is a story with an atmosphere of unease, claustrophobia and fear. “Uttering shriek upon shriek she sunk to the ground.” It needs a setting that is enclosed and haunted such as a castle, crypt, convent, gloomy mansion with images of decay and ruin. “…floors of the old house…” The story does show an atmosphere of unease between the madman and the wife in the gloomy mansion setting.
One of the typical ingredients of a diary genre is first person nation, an unusual point of view or viewpoint evident. “Hurrah for the madhouse. Oh it is a rare place.” “How that word would have struck to my heart. This tells that the madman likes to think he is mad but whether he is or not is not known. This means the story is biased and there is no way of ever knowing.
The last genre is short story genre and the typical ingredient for that is it must be short, can be read in a single sitting which is true because it is only four pages long. It must show a clear structure; exposition, complication, climax and resolution.
The first structure is the start of the story followed by the remaining three in that order. There are four main points in the play which fit with the structure of the play as followed; how he hates madness, then he loves madness and gets married, he decides his wife should be killed and then he gets put into the madhouse. I think the short story genre fit “madman’s Manuscript” the best.
According to the short story genre, there should be a single event or idea that is gradually revealed throughout the story. The theme of madness is introduced throughout the story creating tension. There are his plans to kill his wife and the consequences of his actions.
Dickens uses the short story genre to create suspense and tension. In the introduction, Dickens introduces madness; sets the tone of “Madman’s Manuscript” in the first sentence. The tone is loud and sets a frenzied atmosphere. This is achieved by the use of exclamation marks, “Yes!” He uses short sentences to make it seem more dramatic. Other techniques used are similes to compare/show how mad he is, “…to be peeped at like a wild lion through iron bars.” This tells us that he thinks he is mad because he said “wild lion” instead of just lion.
Dickens’s develops the story when the madman meets his wife. The Madman thought this was amusing because the wife’s “needy relatives” wanted his money but he thought it was even more amusing that she had married a madman. “…when I married the girl I saw a smile of triumph play upon the faces of her needy relatives.”
“It was for me to smile.” “They had little thought they had married her to a madman.” This shows that he thinks he is in control, that he has to be the person in control.
The story had a complication when the narrator found out that his wife cried herself asleep for the love of another man. “She loved another. This I had never thought.” This now shows us that he wasn’t in control and he hated it. To gain control again he decided to kill his wife. “For many weeks I thought of poison…” He did this for another reason as well, his wife was pregnant and the offspring could be mad. A complication occurred when the Madman looked into his wife’s eyes just as she woke staring at, as he was about to kill her.
This keeps us (the reader) guessing to the resolution. Will the Madman kill his wife? Does the Madman die? Is he really in control?
In the first paragraph, the story fulfils the requirements of the short story genre with first person narration, the Madman tells the story. The first paragraph is very descriptive focusing on one point (madness), “…sending the blood hissing and tingling through my veins.”
There is a twist in the tale at the end when the Madman was not in control until the resolution when it happens.
In the story there are only a few characters that fit into the short story genre. The description used to describe these characters is short but detailed, “…three proud over bearing brothers.”
The Madman uses exclamation marks to make him appear mad “Yes! A Madman!” “Ho! Ho!” The Madman uses similes, “…peeped at like a wild lion.” This tells us that the narrator wants to show himself/be seen as mad.
The narration is biased because it is first person narration that means it is his opinion only and no one else’s. We learn there is a history of madness in his family through his grandfather who died, “…generation before him the madness slumbered, but that is his grandfather…” “…which my father’s father died.” The Madman wants to be seen as mad by the reader and other people. This is because the Madman is in love with the idea of being mad. “It is a grand thing to be mad.”
The narrator describes the brother and father like, “Three proud, overbearing brothers tumbled themselves before me!” “The old white-headed, father, too- such deference, such respect…” He describes them as people he is in control of; he describes them as object of fun to play with. When he marries their sister/daughter, this shows us that the story could be biased because the brother/father may not want her to marry him.
Using short sentences and exclamation marks creates tension and excitement. “Yes! -A madman! A simile describing his madness, “…to be peeped at like a wild lion…” Repetition emphasises joy, “Ho! Ho!” These techniques show suspense and excitement making the reader want to read on.
Dickens’s retains our interest in the story (short story structure) by using a range of techniques. Techniques used would be short sentences, exclamation marks, similes to create suspense and tension to make us want to read on. Want wanted me to read on in the story was I didn’t know what was going to happen next.
