Silence

To be still is the equivalent of a sort of death. "Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot...they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation..." (Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, 113)

When a person is repressed, silent, the body will take over the speech. The crisis state expressed by the hysterical body reflects the pain and disorder of the role the afflicted has taken or been forced to take. This is frequently described in Victorian literary narrative as being augmented by the Other's arrival - this Other may be an alternative self, a woman who is NOT subverted and so who is disruptive, or it may be a male figure who illustrates the non-subverted possibility. In some cases, as in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, the male figure who arrives is viewed quite negatively by the text, and rather than simply upsetting the status quo, he in fact changes the female character in some way, turning her into a New Woman who "so disrupts narrative that her inclusion sends the texts themselves into a crisis of control." (Claire Kahane, Passions of the Voice)