Hushed Realities: Examining Mental Health and Feminine Silences in Sally Rooney

Abstract

This paper critically explores the various ways silence represents the mental anguish of women in Sally Rooney’s novels, Normal People and Conversations with Friends. The study investigates silence, both inner and outer, as a narrative and psychological mechanism reflecting the intricate emotional challenges faced by women in modern society. Specifically, this paper examines silence’s role in understanding mental health and gender, showing how it’s both a reaction to social expectations and a path to self-knowledge. In Rooney’s work, Marianne and Frances, in particular, cope with relational and personal difficulties by using silence to control their emotions, avoid vulnerability, and deal with miscommunication. Using feminist literary theory and psychoanalytic critique, this research analyzes pivotal silences in key texts to explore their role in shaping the protagonists’ emotional experiences. This analysis demonstrates silence’s paradoxical role: it’s more than just a lack of speech, it both conceals trauma and fosters resilience. The study demonstrates silence’s ability to articulate the unsaid in women’s experiences by analyzing it alongside other contemporary women’s literature. Examining silence reveals societal constraints on expressing emotions, but also highlights opportunities for self-understanding and emotional clarity, thereby adding to our understanding of women’s mental health in literature.