A mother’s treatment toward her child has a direct influence on the happiness, companionship, and maturity of that child in adulthood. In Shirley Jackson’s 1959 work ​The Haunting of Hill House​, I argue that the most effective way for the heroine of the story, Eleanor ‘Nell’ Vance, to find happiness and live a fulfilling life is by overcoming the trauma she experienced from her overbearing mother. Nell, who begins the story as a single woman in her thirties with no place of her own, is drawn to Hill House as it is a chance to mingle with others her age-- making Hill House an opportunity for Nell to find companionship, belonging, and happiness. After arriving at Hill House, she meets the sexually-charged Theodora, greedy Luke, and rational Dr. Montague. No matter how Nell presents herself to these characters, she is always just short of taking her companionship with these characters to anything past a non-emotional, mutual acquaintance. Just three months after the passing of Nell’s mother, it is evident that her mother’s influence continues to affect her, and is malicious and parasitic in nature. Ultimately, it is her mother’s lasting influence that causes Nell’s sexual repression, as evident through her character foils of Theo and Dr. Montague. Sexual repression, for my purposes, can be understood as the inability to form and ​maintain ​romantic and sexual relations with another person. Further, the continuing influence of her mother, as well as the novel’s direct application of the supernatural, causes Nell to be highly susceptible to the supernatural within Hill House-- catalyzing her untimely death.

A Monster in the House: Gothic and Victorian Representations of Female Madness explores female madness and mental illness as perceived by Gothic and Victorian society over the span of three literary works: The Fall of the House of Usher (1839); Jane Eyre (1847), and The Yellow Wallpaper (1892). Each text features a ‘mad’ female character--Madeline Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher), Bertha Mason (Jane Eyre), and Jane (The Yellow Wallpaper)--who symbolizes the vast inequality women of the mid-to-late 1900s endured. Each character challenges social and religious mores and subverts the established order of a sacrosanct, male-dominated perspective. In Victorian society, female divergence was equated with madness and “moral insanity.” The penalty was isolation, confinement, and/or the woman’s complete removal from society. Depression, aggression, overt sexuality and excessive mental or physical stimulation are just a few of the characteristics considered to be socially inappropriate. In assessing these texts, this essay examines and problematizes the prevailing medical practices and beliefs of the time, the mischaracterization and demonization of natural biological female functions, and the prescribed medical treatments and cures for madness (insanity) and mental illness. Furthermore, this essay reveals how each text features female characters who weaponize their madness to usurp their male oppressors, and as tools to speak out against the hegemonic discourse. A common theme to many Gothic and Victorian novels is the threat posed by female characters whose behavior directly challenges then-contemporary social, behavioral and religious standards. In defense of these institutionalized mores, the deviant character is portrayed as “morally insane,” or inherently evil. What bridges these texts together are the unifying themes of female mental illness, sexual prowess, societal stereotypes, and how each of these female characters employed their madness in an effort to resist and overcome persecution.

The effects of biocontrol and the potential risks associated with them are of interest to many researchers. In the Virgin River area of Nevada, natural resource managers have done studies of various removal techniques on the non-native Tamarix spp. strands. One such area of focus is the use of biocontrol in the form of the tamarisk leaf beetle (Diorhabda spp.), and the resulting changes in the environment from the defoliation of the trees. Previous studies have shown that removal of the plants can potentially be beneficial to lizards. But do changes in the environment change the amount of food available? We were interested to see if the amount of arthropod biomass from these areas had a relationship with the lizard abundance. Taking arthropod collection data from the Virgin River, we compared it with arthropod data over several years, before and after Diorhabda was introduced in 2010. Arthropod biomass data was obtained by taking the collected arthropods and drying them in an oven and weighing them. Results show that there is no correlation between the arthropod numbers or biomass with the amount of lizards in the area, that biomass was greatest after biocontrol introduction, and biomass was highest in mixed Tamarix and native tree strands versus just Tamarix strands. In conclusion, arthropod numbers and biomass have shown to be a poor indicator of lizard abundance, and factors such as temperature changes in the environment might be a better indicator of the changing abundance of lizards.