Introduction
The book is based on the important area of research, which has been neglected by society for a long period of time. It assesses the intersection of lovesickness and gender, which is a major phenomenon in the study of lovesickness. The prevailing study is about strong love, which is considered to be the main cause of erotic desires in females. The work was done by Dawson with the aim to diagnose the disease of lovesickness and analyze gender in modern English literature. The study indicates “the recognizable category of illness”, and it also provides with very essential information on culture.
Early Modern Sicknesses and Gender in England
Robert Burton, who emphasized the internal story of melancholy, introduces the public, which was interested in a book about the diversity of the situation based on ‘melancholy’ in the early years. He focuses on the variation of melancholic methods, which are well described. The book has more details on the brooding and melancholic lovers, who had court clothes and small traditional houses, which indicated low signs of lovesickness in the region. Lesel Dawson analyzed the problem and its contribution to the past situation, in which the women of England were tied by diverse and confusing issues regarding melancholic love, affecting women in the 17th and 16th century. It indicates the recent madness and poor health conditions of women in England as it was pointed out by Carol Thomas in Madness and Gender in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture, Helen King in The Disease of Virgins, and finally Marion Wells in her book The Secret Wound: Love, Melancholy and Early Modern Romance. Dawson investigated the problem, which was found in the body of women. Therefore, their behavior should not be questioned since it can cause the problems of the uterus. Lovesickness cannot make women be unstable and does not indicate any physiological symptom of the disease but can take part in spiritual ennobling, which gives a bad image of melancholic love.
The text begins with the medical melancholic consideration and explains the way, in which various medico-philosophical bodies are available in that season. It also highlights a complex explanation of lovesickness, which is influenced by humoral imbalance and fixation of mental in both men and women. It is also described because of the frustration of sexual bad behavior and visible fascination resulting from the perception of a doctor. The above specification indicates the varied kinds of ailments, which were described in the documentation of Galen and Ficino, but the majority of physicians and writers could not identify the difference. It is found that this electronically intellectual way of life originated in a “rich vocabulary” aimed at guessing the erotic passion, and Dawson vividly points out the different methods, which writers and doctors apply in the vocabulary. Lovesickness is detected to be of great advantage for men since it is genius inspiration, and it is supposed to be very dangerous for the other gender. It can be compared to a great disorder of females, which is considered to be “a negative and pathological state”. There is also evidence that the state is a belief, which is organically influenced, and women can use the existing conditions for their individual lives, both in history and literature.
In the context of Neo-Platonism, the resistance of women is indicated, and physiological details explain how women’s love and their passion are common to health. The last chapter elaborates the manner, in which the disease is being cured in medicine and literature. The closing verse of “menstrual cure” indicates the way writers pass information to healers to put out besotted male to woman’s menstrual blood in their sexual relationships in order to encourage revulsion. The main theme of Dawson is based on lovesickness, but it can be applied by many scholars with the intention of studying gender.
The disease of lovesickness is grouped under the species such as melancholy, which has very scarce methods of treatment. Lovesickness is represented in medical terms, which are about gender and recognition. It also takes into account that the desire of women plays a very essential role in their body and manner, in which the role of gender during courtship is encoded in society. There is also an involvement of psychic body ailment and good feelings as a result of misplaced passion. The book elaborates the variations, which exist between female lovesickness and other diseases such as hysteria, and gives details on how women can suffer from intellectual melancholy. The primary sources like historical books were used to collect the information, which was based on the lovesickness and gender imbalance. The main reading, which was applied by Dawson, was on the “cultural study”, where males and females were shown in relation to the ailment of separate person in society, and this was called as a “cultural stereotype”. The methods of data collection used to create the book include the interview, through which many people provided information. The secondary information was gathered through journals and dramas, which contained material about lovesickness and gender imbalance in society.
Conclusion
Lovesickness and gender imbalance is a disease, which was very common in England long time ago during Modern Times. It affected very many women because of love and passion they had for their men when they were in relationships. The scholars worked very hard to find a solution and study the course of the disease through constant observation aimed at finding the resultant cause of the disease.