Hysteria (2011 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Hysteria is a British romantic comedy film directed by Tanya Wexler. It stars Felicity Jones, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy. The film, set in the Victorian era, is about the [probably fictitious[1]] invention of the vibrator. The film's title refers to the once-common medical diagnosis of female hysteria. The film connects the germ theory of disease, Victorian morality and Victorian technology; central being the invention of the vibrator but also various other applications of electricity such as the telephone.
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Plot
Set at the end of the 19th century, the film depicts the management of “hysteria”, a then popular diagnosis of women displaying an array of symptoms including nervousness, insomnia, exhaustion, depression, cramps, and sexual frustration. Medical practitioners of the day tried to manage hysteria by massaging the genital area, decently covered under a curtain, eliciting "paroxysmal convulsions", far from recognizing that they were inducing orgasms. In the movie, the young physician Dr. Mortimer Granville gets a job to help Dr. Dalrymple who runs a successful practice treating women. He seems to be good at massaging, getting a sizable following. The job is strenuous and his hand musculature is unable to keep up with the task. Fortunately, his friend Lord Edmund St. John-Smythe has developed an electrical fan, and its vibrations give Dr. Granville the idea to modify the gadget. As such, the vibrator enters the stage as a medical device for the treatment of the condition. Parallel to this story Dr. Granville seems to develop a liking for the demure Victorian girl Emily Dalrymple, before falling in love with her older sister Charlotte, a premodern feminist firebrand.
Historical background
Manual genital massage of women had been a medical remedy since antiquity, and hysteria was a recognized malady until the American Psychiatric Association discontinued this term in 1952. Joseph Mortimer Granville filed the first patent for an electromechanical vibrator termed Granville's Hammer in about 1883. Granville, however, did not apply his invention in the treatment of hysteria, rather he used it to treat muscular disorders; other physicians started to apply the vibrator for the treatment of hysteria.
Cast
- Felicity Jones as Emily Dalrymple
- Maggie Gyllenhaal as Charlotte Dalrymple
- Hugh Dancy as Dr. Mortimer Granville
- Rupert Everett as Lord Edmund St. John-Smythe
- Jonathan Pryce as Dr. Robert Dalrymple
- Ashley Jensen as Fanny
- Anna Chancellor
- Gemma Jones
- Tobias Menzies
- Sheridan Smith as Molly the Lolly
- Kate Linder as Lady Cherwi
- David Ryall
- Dominic Borrelli as Man at Edwards
- Georgie Glen
- Malcolm Rennie
- Jonathan Rhodes as PC Fugate
- Jules Werner as Jack
- Elisabet Johannesdottir as Mrs. Pearce
- Kim Criswell as Mrs. Castellari
- Leila Schaus as Tess
- Catherine Meunier as Patient
- Corinna Marlowe as Lady Perrigott
- Teresa Mahoney as Woman1 Queuing
See also
- The Technology of Orgasm
- The majority of women are not very much troubled with sexual feelings of any kind
- Germ theory
- Victorian morality
- Victorian technology