Comparative Essay: How is the mind presented in English Literature?

I believe that English Literature has presented mental health as a weakness in your armoury and once you have depression, madness and other mental disorders that there is no way back. English Literature also believe there is no recovery phase and it will be with you forever.

In the poem Medusa, Carol Ann Duffy presents Medusa as jealous by using metaphors and similes to describe that she is in doubt and feeling unloved. “With a shield for a heart and a sword for a tongue” suggests that she is feeling physically and emotionally unwanted. Instead of coming to her the person might betray her and go and look elsewhere. She is just like a human but Duffy presents Medusa as if she is a monster, when actually she is just a human being feeling emotionally vulnerable.

In the poem Mental Cases, Wilfred Owen uses similar metaphors and similes to describe the mental state of the soldiers throughout. Wilfred Owen has picked out the fact that due to the war they are emotionally quite weak. Instead of making them feel good about themselves he objectifies the soldiers. He has dehumanised every single one of the weak soldiers. He does this by calling the soldiers “they”, “them” and “their” etc. This quote suggests to me that Wilfred Owen believes that the soldiers are no longer human. Furthermore, the quote ‘Therefore still their eyeballs shrink tormented’ is a metaphor. This suggests to me that they are afraid of seeing the world because they think that everything else is the same as the bad memories that they’ve experienced at war. This poet has therefore exploited the difficulty that the soldiers are experiencing.

Carol Ann Duffy introduces Medusa as someone who is human and has feelings unlike what English Literature has portrayed her as. She shows her thoughts and feelings throughout the poem but I think the quotation which stands out head and shoulders above all the others is “It’s you I love, perfect man”. This suggests to me that Carol Ann Duffy has gone really deep down inside the soul of Medusa and found what is clearly evident that she is no longer a monster but has a human side within her.

However, the flip side to this is that due to her love for this man and the lack of self-confidence that she shows “but I know you’ll go” which characterises the unsureness of her mental state perfectly. This suggests to me that psychologically she thinks that he will go and look for the attention elsewhere where she would have given him when she was younger. This will affect our understanding of the mind in English Literature by suggesting that her love could be a weakness as well as a strength.

Wilfred Owen in “Mental Cases” has taken the deep, vivid and horrible images that the soldiers have witnessed using metaphors to show that the soldiers are being dragged further and further into a black hole and there is no way of correcting it. I think the weakness of the soldiers is summed up when it says “These are men whose minds the dead have ravished”. This quote theorises that the mind of those who have fought throughout the war is weakening and I believe this poem is a wakeup call to the future soldiers who come to the ward to not be dragged down the same route. This affects our understanding of the mind in English Literature by suggesting that the soldiers are dying mentally as well as physically.

Moreover, Wilfred uses biblical language to affect our views of the mental effects of war on the soldiers. “Purgatorial Shadows” suggests to me that the soldiers are not in the correct state of mind to go back home or continue battling. Furthermore, they are not being helped by the extremely poor recovery conditions and has put them slightly in a disadvantage. Therefore, they are weak and losing their battle for survival mentally as well as physically. This affects our understanding of the mind in English Literature by suggesting that they are not fit to go on as they are mentally destroyed.

Throughout my essay, I have explored how “Medusa” by Carol Ann Duffy and “Mental Cases” by Wilfred Owen shows the Mental Health issues that are around in today’s society. Carol Ann Duffy uses Medusa’s jealousy as a sign of depression. Furthermore, Wilfred Owen uses the terrible mental state of the soldiers past to show the deep trouble they’re in as a result of the extremely poor conditions there was during World War I. English Literature has presented the mind as a weakness in your armoury and will continue to do so even in today’s society. I believe that we still might not have enough information to describe in depth what mental health actually is.