Representation of female madness as an escapade in the works of male and female playwrights

Female madness is a controversial issue from the ancient times. Though previously it is attributed to female biology and reproductive system, recent studies prove that it may also originate from social impositions of a patriarchal society. Male or female mad people are always confined and discriminated from the society. However, women are more prone to be labelled as mad and discarded as outcasts. In this study, the case of women who use madness as an escapade against male inflicted traumas is investigated. The purpose of this research is identifying similarities and differences in portrayal of madness in works of male and female playwrights. Textual analysis of four contemporary theatre plays namely By the Bog of Cats... by Marina Carr, Beside Herself by Sarah Daniels, The Wonderful World of Dissocia by Antony Neilson and Woman in Mind by Alan Ayckbourn is supported with semiotic analysis and sectioning. Results indicate that unfortunately male playwrights consolidate the traditional role distinctions and male oppression in selected pieces of drama. They depict women as fragile, submissive, subservient, physically and mentally weak characters in their domestic prisons. Their female protagonists suffocate under the responsibilities of childbearing and childrearing while also they are blamed for everything that goes wrong in a family. Conversely, female writers produce solutions through the powerful, independent female protagonists who revolt against the womanhood roles. Rather than domestic spheres, they depict women in unbounded landscapes with a determined standpoint against lustful and greedy male characters. Men cannot judge or outcast women according to their unreal norms of beauty, youth, ageism and fertility in woman writers' plays. Instead of decorating their works with the victimization of mad women, they propose solutions or alternative ways to successfully cope with it. Women playwrights render female madness as a way of emancipation or revolt against patriarchy, while men only present the plight of mad women under male dominance without a solution. Consequently men present female madness as a mental breakdown, but women as a breakthrough.