Disability During the Romantic Period Sabrina Marie Martinez College

Disability and deformity is a very interesting topic to have come out of the Romantic period. It challenged stereotypes and what the public saw as crippling. The literature written by disabled writers or that feature disabled writers made literature more inclusive and gave insight into their lives. In the eighteenth century, disabled people were sort of a taboo topic of conversation since there was little to no knowledge behind their disabilities or deformities. These works shifted the cultural understanding of disability to be more inclusive, and frame them as more as just “crippled,” beings but also lead to an increase in pity.

Mary Robinson wrote about disability from a unique viewpoint since she was born able-bodied and only became disabled after a rheumatic fever left her disabled. In her poem, The Maniac, Robinson becomes fascinated with a manic man outside of her window. She questions the man’s behavior and describes him as animalistic and wild. “Why dost thou strip the fairest bow’rs, To dress thy scowling brow with flow’rs, And fling thy tatter’d garment to the wind? Why madly dart from cave to cave, Now laugh and sing, then weep and rave, And round thy naked limbs fantastic fragments bind?” (The Maniac, lines 25-30)...