“Madness” and Desire: Jane Eyre and Wittgenstein’s Nephew

Abstract

This comparative study of “madness” applies David Mitchell’s concept of “narrative prosthesis,” by which is meant that “disability has been used throughout history as a crutch on which literary narratives lean for their representational power,” to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Wittgenstein’s Nephew by the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. In particular, it examines the ways in which cognitive disability in one character is instrumental in the development and success of other characters’ undertakings, and argues that the treatment of madness highlights first and foremost the two novels’ emphasis on social achievement.