Susan Hill, The Bird of Night

Gina Wisker (University of Brighton)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

In the Gothic

The Bird of Night

the schizophrenic writer, Francis’ diaries, letters and life story are contained within the narrative voice and control of the academic, Harvey, who writes about him. The novel explores the childhood causes of Francis’ madness, guilt over his desire to kill his cruel brother, and his adult state of schizophrenia which leads to decisions about suicide. In its investigations of the journey through schizophrenia, Hill’s novel resembles others of the 1960s and 70s, including Sylvia Plath’s

The Bell Jar

, and Doris Lessing’s

Briefing for a Descent into Hell

. Creativity, and in Francis’ case the production of a long poem, seems to be close to instability if not madness, and to need nurturing. This is in accordance with RD Laing’s contemporary…

316 words

Citation: Wisker, Gina. "The Bird of Night". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1455, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1455 The Bird of Night 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.