Fraction of a Man': Disability and Silas Weir Mitchell's 'The Case of George Dedlow

Continuing upon Libow’s discussion of Gilman’s relation to health, Vivian Delchamps — in her paper “‘Fraction of a Man’: Disability and Silas Weir Mitchell’s ‘The Case of George Dedlow’” — considers how... [ view full abstract ]

Continuing upon Libow’s discussion of Gilman’s relation to health, Vivian Delchamps — in her paper “‘Fraction of a Man’: Disability and Silas Weir Mitchell’s ‘The Case of George Dedlow’” — considers how Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell famously invented a “rest cure” treatment for hysteria, a treatment Charlotte Perkins Gilman condemned in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”  Delchamps reframes Mitchell as a literary author, whose writings depict disability as effeminate and tragic. A famous doctor working during the Civil War, the unseen enemy of Gilman’s story, and a literary author himself, Mitchell uniquely represents some of the intersections of medicine, disability, and literature in 19th-century America.  Delchamps’s paper focuses on Mitchell’s short story “The Case of George Dedlow,” to explore the problematic ramifications of Mitchell’s use of disability as metaphor for a fractured America after the Civil War.  Ultimately, she argues that Mitchell associates physical disability with femininity, which he understands as moral and mental weakness.