http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/madness Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Sat, 13 Jun 2026 08:38:34 -0400 Sat, 13 Jun 2026 08:38:34 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/348/exploring-madness-in-conrads-heart-of-darkness-and-lawrences-women-in-love By Marina A. Kinney - Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a novel about the human psyche. It is as concerned with man’s ability to descend into madness as it is with his ability to break away from it and triumph over the dark, consuming impulses that threaten to consume his heart and mind. This struggle between awareness and madness is evidenced in both Marlow and Kurtz. While the narrative is arguably more concerned with Marlow and his struggle between these two realms, it is Kurtz who is of most interest, his madness and its effects dominating the narrative from nearly the beginning. The protagonist... Wed, 29 Dec 2010 09:31 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/348/exploring-madness-in-conrads-heart-of-darkness-and-lawrences-women-in-love http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/20/allows-itself-to-anything-poor-tom-familiarizing-and-enacting-chaos-in-king-lear By Leslie S. Lee - In Act 1, scene 2, Edmund responds to Edgar’s entrance with the following: “Pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy. My cue is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o’Bedlam. –O, these eclipses do portend these divisions. Fa, sol, la, mi.” (134-137) Edmund’s introduction of the Tom o’Bedlam character is preceded by his disparagement of astrological superstitions, which he then performs for Edmund as if in the voice of Tom o’Bedlam. Thus these lines create an association between the Tom o’Bedlam figure and a belief in astrological... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:13 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/20/allows-itself-to-anything-poor-tom-familiarizing-and-enacting-chaos-in-king-lear