Psychopath
Does psychopathy effectively explain the paperhanger’s behaviors in William Gay’s short story, “The Paperhanger”?
Introduction
The current generation, like the generations before experiences numerous mental disorders. The disorders have different characteristics and allied to different causes. Effective diagnosis is thus required to establish the real causes and particular effects of a mental disorder before it is categorized. The psychopath is thus one of the mental disorders affecting the human race. A psychopath is a person suffering from chronic mental disorder exhibiting violent or abnormal social behavior. Psychopathy is an anti-social or mental disorder in which a person manifests anti-social and immoral behavior, showing an inability to love and develop significant personal ties, as well as expression of egocentricity at extremes. People with the disorder thus; demonstrate a failure in learning from experience besides. William Gay in his book, ‘The Paperhanger’ gives a story of a child’s disappearance that resulted in the integration of the marriage and lives of the parents, then an astonishing miracle facilitated by the paperhanger who is a strange dispassionate person. The narrator presents the story unfolding his yarn with portentousness and consummate skill vacillating between grim, almost wisdom, biblical, and brutal irony. The paper, therefore, intends to establish whether the psychopathy fully explains the behaviors of paperhanger in William Gay’s Short Story.
The child’s disappearance, the Short story “The Paperhanger” causes confusion, havoc, and a lot of pressure that consequently interferes with the family and the parent’s marriage. Moreover, the news about the child’s disappearance causes a mental disturbance to the doctor upon receiving the message. The narrator records a strange, weird behavior in the doctor upon learning of the child’s disappearance a factor that corroborates psychopathy in the story. The narrator says, “…His hand snaked out like a serpent and closed on her throat and snapped her neck before he could call it back….” (Gay 268). The use of simile in the quote explains the devastating effects of the child’s disappearance hence psychopathy. “…The tray of the toolbox was out before he knew it; he was stuffing her into the toolbox like a ragdoll… “(Gay 268). The behavior described by the narrator explains a confused state of mind hence mental disorder prompted by the child’s disappearance. The paperhanger, the doctor, and his wife are therefore subjected to a state psychopath by the child’s disappearance.
Another character that exhibits psychopath characteristics is Dr. Jamahl. He engages in estranged as well as despondent behaviors, revealing loss of mental stability. Mental instability is consequently witnessed in the paperhanger. How he murders, the lost girl depicts his mental instability. The Paperhanger hand snakes the little girl like a serpent by closing her through and consequently snapping her to death before disposing of her body (Giraldi, 330). The inhuman treatment the girl is subjected to before she meets her premature death reveals.
The Paperhanger does not plan the murder does it unexpectedly. It is therefore clear from his behavior and how he executed the murder that the Paperhanger suffers greatly from psychopath a mental disorder that makes the individual losses his mental stability. The paperhanger’s behavior in this context, therefore, fits into reading’s description of psychopathy. The paperhanger’s behaviors are indeed in line with psychopathic behaviors, albeit with slight differences, especially in the context in which he murders the little girl. Paperhanger’s lack of empathy and motionlessness are the main traits that explain his behavior. He does feel an iota emotion or empathy to the murdered child despite being responsible for her death (Giraldi, 330). It is, therefore, clear from his lack of emotions and empathy that the paperhanger is psychopathic. This is indeed in line with psychopathic personality. Placing the murdered child beside her sleeping mother is paperhanger’s proof of lack of both empathy and emotion, thus psychopathic.
The paperhanger’s encounter and subsequent behaviors towards the doctor’s wife at the family building site is another instance that proves the Paperhanger’s behavior as psychopathic. The paperhanger sexually proves the doctor’s wife a step that makes the wife abuse her. The context and theme of discussion between the two characters do not warrant an abuse from the paperhanger. However, his current state of mind makes him abuse her. This indicates that the paperhanger has lost his mental stability and is thus behaving awkwardly. Paperhanger’s psychology is not stable and gets into provocative and immoral behaviors and actions that he is psychopathic.
“Suffering Souls’ by Seabrook offers a comprehensive analysis of the Psychopathy, and its effects, especially on male adults. Mental disorders often bear far-reaching consequences on the victims. The disorder affects the behavior and mindset of the victims, thus rendering them unable to control their behaviors. Suffering Souls illustrates hoe Dr. Kiehl MRI scanner is examining the brains of victims of psychopaths (Seabrook, 57). Poor control of an individual’s impulse is the main effect of Psychopathy according to the article. Victims of the disorder, therefore, show impulsivity in both argument and of numbers. “… I guarantee that by the time we reach the gate the entire inmate population will know I’m here…”, says the doctor (Seabrook par2). The doctor, just as other psychologists before him believe that severe emotional detachment is the main effect of psychopathy.
The Suffering Soul, however, records that signs of Psychopath, unlike other mental disorders, are very hard to be seen. “… Psychopaths don’t exhibit the manias, hysterias, and neuroses that are present in other types of mental illness. Their main defect, what psychologists call…” (Seabrook, 56). Through the narrator in “Suffering Souls,” it is evident that the narrator sees the disorder as an anti-social personality disorder. The observations made in this article support the behaviors of the Paperhanger, thus proving that his behaviors were indeed psychopathic.
In conclusion, the paperhanger never had thought before killing the little girl and putting her next to her sleeping mother. Even though his hand went to the extent of strangling the girl “before he could call it back” and the fact that he had the toolbox “before he knew it” indicates this “poor impulse control.” If the murder had been thought of earlier, the paperhanger would have planned on the murdering of the girl and hence disposing of the body in the right place rather than next to the mother. It is therefore evident that the way the girl was killed and disposed of shows a weak impulse control instead of premeditation or prior planning of the action, indicating that paperhanger is a psychopath.
Works Cited
Seabrook, John. “Suffering souls.” The New Yorker 10 (2008).
Giraldi, William. “A World Almost Rotten: The Fiction of William Gay.” Southern Review 45.2 (2009): 330.