by

Joshua L. Hudgens

During the late nineteenth century, psychology came to be an acknowledged and accepted scientific field. The discovery of this new branch of science has had a profound effect upon literature that has been written after its adoption. Psychology became a topic of great intrigue and interest. This new-found interest in psychology led to the assimilation of psychological concepts and ideas into the American literature of the turn of the century, as well as the literature of modern times. Writers of the late nineteenth century and early to mid-twentieth centuries were influenced by many famous psychologists of the day. Wilhelm Wundt, one of the first well-known psychologists and founder of the structuralist field of psychology, asserted that human experience could be broken down into "the most fundamental elements, or ‘atoms,’ of thought" (Morris and Maisto 13). William James, the first prominent American psychologist and author of the psychological view of functionalism, argued that humans perceive things in a continuous stream of consciousness. One of the most dynamic figures of the new-born psychological scene was Sigmund Freud, who had a profound influence on the common thinking of the day with his psychodynamic theories of the power of the unconscious mind. One other prominent psychologist, John B. Watson, founder of the school of behaviorism, alleged that human behavior was largely the product of training or conditioning. As these new psychologists became widely known and respected, their ideas, in turn, began to have a strong influence upon American literature of the day. The theories and discoveries of these men and others have changed the way that authors write. Their ideas have given rise to a new type of literature, a literature that seeks to incorporate psychology into its fabric. The psychological ideas of the day made a great impact on the technique and style of many authors, as well as the characters portrayed by these authors.

One author of the day who was very obviously influenced by psychological ideas is Henry James. James, the brother of the famous psychologist William James, incorporates many psychological concepts into his work "The Beast in the Jungle." A very introspective work, "The Beast in the Jungle" explores the mind of John Marcher. Marcher is an individual who has lived all his life waiting for some great event to happen to him which he thinks will mark his life. Marcher says that he is waiting for a symbolic "crouching beast" that he thinks is "destined to slay him or [by which he will be] slain" (James 349). Marcher has one primary friend, May Bartram. She is the only individual to whom Marcher will confide his thoughts and expectations of what will happen to him. Through his interaction with May, Marcher’s thoughts and expectations are made known.

Ultimately Marcher spends his whole life searching for this imagined beast. He realizes too late that May is the thing that he has been waiting for. He has missed out on the opportunities he could have had to love May and have a life with her. Before her death, May realizes that she is what Marcher has been waiting for. This work is different from traditional works of the day in that it contains little plot or details of Marcher’s and May’s lives and interactions. Instead, it deals primarily with the evolution of their thought processes through the years. Throughout the work James tries to portray closely the essential quality of events and human experience. He does this by spending most of the work describing the thoughts of Marcher, as Marcher spends his life looking for the beast. This work attempts to describe accurately the internal thought processes and resulting conflict that occur in Marcher’s mind while he seeks and struggles to find the beast in his life.

In this story James is definitely influenced by his brother’s ideas as well as by those of Wilhelm Wundt. James, in accordance with Wundt, seeks to communicate the "‘atoms’" of John Marcher’s "thought," the most essential and basic parts of Marcher’s cognition (Morris and Maisto 13). However, James also upholds the views of his brother that "perceptions, emotions, and images cannot be separated" (Morris and Maisto 13). Throughout the work, Marcher’s thoughts and emotions are closely related, for the most part inseparable. They occur in a fluid stream of consciousness. The advancements in the burgeoning field of psychology of the day clearly had a major impact on this work, which explores the thought processes and the cognition of the human mind.

Another work of the day which was strongly influenced by the psychological advancements and theories of the time is Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story "The Yellow Wall-paper." This fictitious story, which is based upon real-life experiences of the author, attempts to provide a grimly honest depiction of an individual suffering from severe depression. The woman in this story suffers from a fairly severe depression--probably postpartum depression--after the birth of her child. The woman and her husband, John, who is a physician, are spending the summer in a large "colonial mansion, a hereditary estate" (Gilman 657). Her husband, believing in the conventional medical wisdom of the day, prescribes a rest cure for her, the most common way of treating depression in this time. However, John’s wife does not respond well to the rest cure. She feels as if she is being restrained and kept prisoner because she is not allowed to participate in any creative activities such as writing or painting. The story’s namesake comes from the room where the woman resides. The walls of this room are covered in a garish yellow-orange wallpaper. In this room John’s wife spends most of her time. However, as her depression deepens, she begins to hallucinate. She thinks that there are people behind the wallpaper. The woman asserts that "Sometimes I think that there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over" (Gilman 666).

In addition to her hallucinations, the woman displays a classic example of a Freudian coping mechanism, regression to a prior stage in development. She begins to pace around her room on all four limbs, much as a toddler would do. This maladaptive coping mechanism is only one of the many that Freud had proposed during this time period, suggesting that Gilman was likely influenced by some of Freud’s theories. The detailed descriptions that Gilman gives of John’s wife’s mental illness are not typical of the societal customs of the day. This topic was not one that was spoken of during this time. Psychological disorders were considered taboo topics that were not to be broached. However, this work is not merely a description of an individual with a serious psychological illness. It is also a condemnation of the medical ways of treating psychological illnesses during this time. The woman in this work repeatedly states that the rest cure her husband has prescribed is not working and is possibly making her depression worse. Throughout the work Gilman points out the ineptness and ineffective nature of the treatment of mental illnesses during this time. This work is fraught with psychological influence. As a result of its accurate description of psychological illnesses, it was on the cutting edge in its day.

Early psychological concepts even pervade the works of some of the most famous and widely ready authors of the day, such as Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway’s well known work "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" indicates that Hemingway was also influenced by the new field of psychology. In this work Hemingway incorporates psychology into the literary framework and technique of the piece, unlike Gilman who portrays psychology through her characters and plot. Hemingway’s story deals with a man, Harry, and his wealthy wife. They are on a safari in Africa attempting to photograph animals. During this trip, Harry gets a minor scratch that becomes infected. At the beginning of the work, Harry and his wife are waiting for a plane that is supposed to come and take Harry to a hospital. Harry is in a good deal of pain and is not far from death. At this point, Harry becomes very bitter and cynical about his life. He blames his wife for causing him to lose his literary potential by pampering him and by giving him anything he wants. During the time that Harry and his wife are waiting for the plane to arrive, Harry begins to have flashbacks about his prior life and the decision he has made that have shaped his life. These flashbacks, which Hemingway places in italics to set them apart from the rest of the work, are streams of consciousness in accordance with the functionalist views of William James. They skip from place to place and from setting to setting with no apparent structure. Information is presented that appears nonessential to an outside individual. This technique is reminiscent of the way the human consciousness flows. Through these flashbacks, Hemingway tries to mimic closely the way in which the mind would present and process information in a continuous and steady flow. Hemingway’s streams of consciousness refute the ideas of Wundt, that cognition is based on basic pieces of perception which are free from association. In accordance with William James’ functionalist ideas, Hemingway fuses Harry’s "perceptions, emotions, and images" throughout the flashbacks, showing that they "cannot be separated" (Morris and Maisto 13).

The end of this work also has a very psychological grounding. Hemingway chooses to let Harry die while Harry is asleep and dreaming. Harry dreams of flying over Mt. Kilimanjaro as he dies: "all he could see, as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Kilimanjaro" (Hemingway 1703). Hemingway’s decision to use a dream to depict Harry’s death is very Freudian in nature, as Freud placed a great deal of emphasis on the importance of dreams and their hidden, symbolic meaning. Freud asserted that dreams were representative of unconscious thoughts and desires. Hemingway’s "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is very representative of the effect that psychology had on the style and technique of many authors at the end of the time period.

One other author whose work is steeped in psychological concepts of the day is William Faulkner. Faulkner was evidently greatly influenced by the work and ideas of William James, as Faulkner’s work is teeming with incidents of the stream-of-consciousness technique. At times, Faulkner will go for a page or more without using a period in his attempts to mimic the scattered and continuous way that the human mind works in perceiving situations. This is no surprise, for Faulkner was one of the foremost and most successful of the writers who utilized this specific literary style. Faulkner’s story "Barn Burning" is a good example of his psychologically oriented technique. This story takes place in the South shortly after the Civil War. Faulkner’s work tells of the struggles of a boy, Colonel Sartoris Snopes, or Sarty, who cannot accept his father’s violent and vindictive personality. Sarty’s family moves from place to place because his father has been run out of town or fired at all of his previous places of employment. In the most recent example, his father has been told to leave the town for allegedly burning the barn of his last employer. Sarty and his family move to a new farm where his father has obtained work. However, Sarty’s father gets into a dispute with his new employer over a rug that Sarty’s father has ruined. As a result of the employer’s promising to dock the father’s wages, the father goes to burn the barn of the employer. Sarty’s conscience will not allow him to sit by passively. Thus, he warns the employer who ultimately shoots the father. Partly out of guilt and partly out of a desire to escape his father’s way of life, Sarty does not return to his family.

Throughout Sarty’s tumultuous experiences, Faulkner employs the stream-of-consciousness technique. In these extended glimpses into Sarty’s cognition, Faulkner does an excellent job of mimicking the way in which the human mind processes information and incoming signals. His style characterizes the very anthithesis of Wundt’s theories of separate pieces of experience. Instead, it reveals the way human cognition works, showing that "perceptions, emotions, and images cannot be separated" in exact accordance with the functionalist theories (Morris and Maisto 13). He blends all three of these together into a seamless whole that cannot be dissected into separate pieces. Faulkner is at his best when he is describing the thoughts rushing through Sarty’s head at the death of Sarty’s father. He describes Sarty as "stumbling, tripping over something and scrabbling up again without ceasing to run [. . .] running among invisible trees, panting, sobbing, ‘Father! Father!’" (Faulkner 1642). In this instance Faulkner’s stream-of-consciousness technique portrays the blur of events that seem to happen all at once to Sarty. Thus, in his work Faulkner endeavors to imitate and represent closely the way that the human mind processes information. For Faulkner, psychology is the basis and essence of his style.

As a result of its widespread acceptance as a scientific field, psychology has played a major role in the style, technique, and content of many authors of the late nineteenth century, as well as those of the modern era. It has integrated itself into much of the literature of the time. Consequently, the birth of the modern psychological field has caused literature to be more realistic and representative of the human experience. This accurate portrayal of the human experience, as the noted critic W.D. Howells asserts, should be the author’s ultimate goal. He declares that in literature "the only beauty, is truth to the human experience" (Howells 243).

Works Cited

Baym, Nina, et al. eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 5^th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1998.

Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." Baym, et al. 2: 1630-1342.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wall-paper." Baym, et al. 2: 657-669.

Hemingway, Ernest. "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Baym, et al. 2: 1687-1704.

Howells, William Dean. "Novel-Writing and Novel-Reading." Baym, et al. 2: 241-257.

James, Henry. "The Beast in the Jungle." Baym, et al. 2: 341-370.

Morris, C. G., and A. A. Maisto. Psychology: An Introduction. 10^th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1998.