Sonnet 87

I’m attempting to write a small writing sample - something brief that lets a potential employer know that I can put together words adequately enough for anyone to digest.  I know I can do this if I try.  One of my problems, though, is that I’m stumped on my topic.  I thought that it would be interesting to write about medicine and women in Early Modern literature - something brief, interesting and informative, something that hinted I could expand on this and write a nice piece on women and the history of medicine.  So, I found a quote that I remembered from my The Spanish Tragedy obsession days.  I spouted out this in no less than 10 minutes:

Literary discussion concerning the mental and physical
sickness of women in Early Modern Europe was frequently couched in
extraordinary and overdramatic terms, emphasizing the idea of the hysterical
women – because such panic was thought to originate from the womb, it is
ascribed almost exclusively to women. Their sicknesses, usually brought on by tragedy, were incurable. Such is the case of Isabella, the unfortunate
mother driven insane by the murder of her only son, Horatio, in Thomas Kyd’s
The Spanish Tragedy:

 So that, you say, this herb will purge the eye,
And this the head?
Ah, but none of them will purge the heart:
No, there’s no medicine left for my disease,
Nor any physic to recure the dead. (III.viii.1-5)

Isabella’s words regarding the hopelessness of her condition
prove to be self-fulfilling; she later stabs herself in the very bower where
Horatio was murdered, permanently cutting herself off from any hope of
treatment or recovery. Although a
character necessary to complete the cycle of tragedy that afflicts the family
of Horatio, Isabella’s madness was ignored and relegated to stage device, an
afterthought in the scheme of the play. Her status as a wife and mother grants her a heavy grief whose only recourse
is suicide.

Unfortunately, the so-called hysteria of women was
overlooked and untreated during these and later times. Rest and peace were the prescriptions given
to the noblewoman, while the inhumane conditions of early asylums awaited the
less prominent in society. The
unavailability of treatment for these conditions sealed a woman to the
permanent label of hysteric,

In the literary scheme of things, that isn’t bad.  I could go with that in a million different directions and come out with a solid paper.  It only takes that little bit right there to know I still have the golden touch - with some research and touch-up, I could try to submit that (had I affiliation, but anyway . . .).  Damnit, I’m still good, I could be great, but double-damnit, that’s NOT what I should be doing!  I should be writing a brief piece on the importance of distinguishing between contraceptions, on the benefits of fitness centers such as Curves and FitZone for Women, on heart attacks in women.  Not starting what is forming in my mind as a major paper and could even lead to a book with what I’m thinking.  ARGH!  Stop it, Early Modern Geek!  STOP IT!