Insane in the Dark

In the second half of the excerpt read from A Whisper in the Dark, the reader is made aware that the narrator is in an insane asylum. Due to this, the question arises on who to trust. 

The introduction of insanity in the text definitely changed my opinion of Sybil. I found myself feeling sorry for her in the second half of the excerpt, as opposed to seeing her as a strong, independent woman at first. As Louisa May Alcott described Sybil's slow deterioration while in the asylum, I started to wonder if the whole first half of the excerpt was the imagination of the narrator. It came to my attention that the relationship between Sybil and her uncle could have been exaggerated or even made up. For example, on page 218, Sybil is trying to get information out of her uncle by seducing him. She then describes her uncle's reaction as: "My uncle stopped laughing, his hand tightened its grasp, for a moment his cold eye glittered and a grim look settled round the mouth, giving to his whole face a ruthless expression that entirely altered it." After knowing that she was sent to an insane asylum, I questioned whether this scene happened the exact way the story was told, or if her mind somehow changed the situation to make her look like the victim. In fact, the entire story could possibly be a twisted version of the truth. If you think about it, all of A Whisper in the Dark is written from the perspective of Sybil, who is, at one point, thought to be insane. The entire story could be false. 

When it comes to Sybil's mother being insane, another interesting element is added to the story. After Sybil has been in the asylum for a good amount of time, I started feeling like she was placed there not because she was insane, but to make her insane. Knowing that her mother had psychological issues, it was easy for Sybil's uncle to get his way by convincing others that Sybil had her own psychological problems. Although her mother was mentally ill, she still had enough maternal instincts to provide help and support for her daughter. This is displayed in the text when Sybil explains, "I believed her dead, yet I had seen her, knew where her solitary grave was made, and still carried in my bosom the warning she had sent me, prompted by the unerring instinct of a mother's heart." Even though insanity was in the picture, the relationship between mother and daughter remained similar to other texts we have read - due to instinct, a mother is willing to do anything to protect her daughter and give her what she thinks is best to live her life to the fullest.