on the level of, “being a witness to the process of witnessing itself” in another respect. She was cut off from the social of which she was used to and later thrown back into that same social but with a new view on all that lays before her. Defining the social as everything to which Rowlandson is accustomed to and survived on, we can she was completely cut off. She had her society, status, family, values, and prestige ripped out from under her, as she became cultured in a new world, a new social and a new paternal order. Through living through this extreme, traumatic change in her life style, Rowlandson shows many signs of Melancholia. Melancholia, as defined by Freud, is “a loss of a more ideal kind” (Freud 245). It is an object that has not, “actually died, but has been lost as an object of love” (Freud 245). In addition, melancholia brings on the feelings of the loss of self-regard, self-esteem, and self-respect. These symptoms are clearly seen in Mary Rowlandson throughout her trauma and adjustment to the social, which was sprung upon her as the Indians took her captive. It is because Rowlandson is so sharply cut off from her social and the paternal order of which she knows that she experiences melancholia. It is at the time of reentering the social which she knows, when she is sold back to her husband, that she realizes what she has been through and becomes a ‘witness’ to not only the trauma which she faced but the Truth to the process of witnessing. Rowlandson realized why it was of importance to be the witness to both the socials from which she was originally from and the social from which she endured trauma for eleven weeks and five days. It is at this point that we can clearly see why there was a ‘collapse of witness’ to the process of witnessing and why Rowlandson chose and was forced to be a ‘witness’ on all levels.Both Rowlandson and Teresa a...
