Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Mental Illness, Medical Treatment, Feeling, Morality, Piety

    When Charles corrects what he considers his sister Ellen's pride, manifesting itself as a sensibility to affront, he speaks of it in medical terms. He tells her: 'before I begin a search into this mental disease, which may possibly be painful, I must have the assurance of my patient that she will not consider me unkind' (400). Later he speaks of the disease being 'only in its first stage' (402) and looks for the 'remedy' (403).