Tags
Capabilities, Chambers Edinburgh Journal, Harriet Martineau, invalids, Lower Class, Sickroom, Victorian Bodies, Victorian Culture and Thought, Working Class
By A. De Nat
Harriet Martineau published an essay entitled “Power of Ideas in the Sick-Room” in 1844 within her collection of essays Life in the Sickroom. In her essay, Martineau discusses the power of mind over body, otherwise referred to as “great thoughts,” in regards to invalids (Martineau 159). She believes the real tragedy of illness lies in the “sickening of the soul,” and that through faith-based thought these sufferings can be overcome (161). In an essay titled “Capabilities,” published anonymously in the Chamber’s Edinburgh Journal in 1845, a similar sentiment is expressed in reference to great men. Here the author argues that it is both a great mind and social elements that make up a great man, and that a great mind cannot be achieved without the necessary circumstances. Although the essay does not create the direct correlation between faith and the mind, as Martineau’s does, both essays remark that there is strength and assertion within the power of thought. Each presents the same thesis for the power behind thought; however, “Capabilities” maintains that a great mind is achieved through social circumstances, whilst “Power of Ideas in the Sick-Room” regards illness as the root from which powerful thoughts must emerge. This essay will seek to use the Martineau’s notion of a sick-room as an example of the social circumstance presented in “Capabilities,” through which each other emphasizes the power of thought.
Both Martineau and the author of “Capabilities” share the opinion that power is held within the mind. The essays differ in their approach; however, the sick-room can be applied as an example of the social components found in “Capabilities.” “Capabilities” begins by presenting what the author believes to be an unanswerable question: whether a powerful mind is produced by great crises or the producers of such crises (273). The author’s goal is to prove that great men, in both thought and action, are not created without the presence of both powerful thoughts and social circumstances by which to evoke thought (273). Continue reading