This led to a correspondence between the two, and soon to a courtship, in which Browning's earnestness finally overcame Miss Barrett's scrupulous hesitation to lay upon him (as she felt) the burden of her
invalidism. Indeed her
invalidism at last helped to turn the scales in Browning's favor, for the physicians had declared that Miss Barrett's life depended on removal to a warmer climate, but to this her father, a well-intentioned but strangely selfish man, absolutely refused to consent.
Additionally, persons who were unfit for work (because of their age or
invalidism) were also frequently released "on exceptional grounds": these were individuals who had been deported alone and whose family agreed to accommodate and support them after their return.
By the turn of the century, many American "new women [...] distrusted marriage" (Matthews 98) and viewed it as a life of imprisonment,
invalidism and submission.
when the fountains of youth dry up" and she "ceases from the periodical discharges, which in health and with care are the secret of her beauty, her attraction, her charm." (113) Accordingly, once the "stamp of derangement" had been impressed upon the womb, there was little comfort for the woman who had "had her own way against the dictates of her conscience" as she could look forward to a future marked by "possible disease,
invalidism or death as the direct consequence of her folly." (114)
117) reminds us, however, that despite much biographical and analytical work since the 1970s, EBB is still widely misperceived as "a semi-invalid" (because of falling from her horse at age fifteen) who was "rescued" by Robert Browning not only from her overbearing father but "from an
invalidism continued through habit and nerves." (The single bibliographical entry cited by the entry is Alethea Hayter's 1962 Mrs Browning: A Poet's Work and Its Setting.) Work obviously remains to be done!
Invalidism also became a normalised aspect of femininity: the ideal woman was 'naturally' fragile and weak, suffering and confined to the house or even the bed (Appignanesi 2008, 110; Brumberg 1988, 110; Byrne 2011, 30-31; Gilbert and Gubar 1979, 53-55; Showalter 1985, 52-55; Sontag 1977, 33-34).
Also included are "The Birthmark" (1843), where Hawthorne addresses the plight of women living during the era of the Cult of True Womanhood; "Egotism; or, The Bosom Serpent" (1843); "Rappaccini's Daughter" (1844) a story where Dunn links drug dosage and experimentation to Hawthorne's own experience through his wife, Sophia, her own father being the first of many doctors medicating her throughout her life and "perhaps the original cause [for] her
invalidism" (101); and "Ethan Brand: A Chapter from an Abortive Romance" (1850).
In that sense it is entirely appropriate that the chapter on Sanditon in John Wiltshire's seminal Jane Austen and the Body should have as its central theme "the enjoyments of
invalidism" (197-221).
"
Invalidism was a big thing in the 19th century and it was mostly women who had it," said Shelagh.
In a new assessment of their relationship, Anthony suggests that William McKinley's famed desire to protect his wife, coupled with the politically advantageous image of the president caring for Ida, may in some ways have reinforced Ida's
invalidism in her own mind as well as the public eye and hampered her improvement.