Susanna Kaysen
Susana Kaysen is eighteen years old at the beginning of
her memoir. She is a bright but troubled teenager with a surprising
breadth of life experience. At this age, Kaysen has already abandoned
school, had an affair with her high school English teacher, and
half-heartedly attempted suicide. During a fateful consultation
with the doctor who will usher her into nearly two years of hospitalization,
Kaysen's overriding emotion is exhaustion. She signs herself into
McLean Hospital with a sense, at least initially, of relief.
Kaysen narrates Girl, Interrupted in
a cool, dispassionate voice, sketching the characters and scenes
that illustrate life in a mental hospital for the affluent in the
late 1960s. The nearly
emotionless narration reflects both the detachment Kaysen feels
from life as an adolescent, and a desire to leave certain conclusions
to her readers. As she explores the nature of sanity and social
conformity and the manner in which they interrelate, Kaysen avoids
outright indictment of the system that confined her. The scenes
she narrates are complicated and offer no easy lessons.
In the course of her time at McLean, Kaysen learns about
the nature of mental illness, the cruelty and compassion of other
people, and the obstacles that women face in society. She draws
connections among the various stigmas she faces as a young woman.
As an adolescent, petty rebellions and refusal to follow rules alarm
her parents. Later, at a short-lived typing job, unconcealed sexism
in the workplace shocks Kaysen. Once a patient at McLean, she feels
the discomfort with which outsiders greet her and the other patients,
an experience repeated when she tries to find employment outside
the hospital.
The adult Kaysen confesses to fighting a mild revulsion
toward the mentally ill, born of fear that she might backslide into
that “parallel universe.” She hopes never to return to the sad place
where mental instability collides with a society quick to isolate
it.
Lisa
Lisa is the most powerful personality on the ward. Her
utter disregard for authority makes her a frustrating and entertaining
figure in the eyes of the other girls. Whether engaging in complicated
pranks or escaping from the hospital, Lisa ensures that the routine
of the ward never goes uninterrupted for long. Lisa is proud of
her diagnosis as a sociopath and revels in the attention her antics
earn her. Lisa is a dangerously attractive figure for the other
girls, and the dark side of her personality can appear without warning.
Lisa veers from extravagantly kind to perversely cruel. Kaysen meets
Lisa some years after their time at McLean and is shocked to see
her old friend dressed as a suburban mother, child in tow. In the
course of their conversation, however, it becomes clear that Lisa's
personality is as unpredictable as ever; her new life can't conceal
Lisa's impulsiveness and volatility.
Georgina
Georgina, Kaysen's roommate, is a fragile depressive who
serves as a constant companion to Kaysen. Georgina aspires to an
almost domestic kind of normality at the hospital. She develops
a serious relationship with Wade, an unstable and violent patient,
and often serves as the voice of calm and reassurance. The depth
of her unhappiness is revealed, however, when Kaysen pours scalding
hot caramel on Georgina's hand; she has no reaction at all. Georgina
is similar to many of the other girls, who show no obvious signs
of illness. The ward can seem deceptively calm at times, as though
it were a dormitory instead of a psychiatric unit with barred windows
and locked doors. When truly alarming mental illness appears, it
comes as a shock to the girls. Georgina sums up their fears when,
while visiting the wretched and shockingly changed Alice Calais,
she urges her ward-mates never to forget what they have seen, and
never to let it happen to them.
