Sybil

Schreiber writes that Dr. Wilbur conceived of having Schreiber write the book because she thought it would be “not sufficient[…]to present this history-making case in a medical journal, because in addition to great medical significance, the case had broad psychological and philosophical implications for the general public” (xiii). Discuss the writing choices Schreiber makes that support seeing Sybil as being in the spirit of a medical report, and the writing choices Schreiber makes that craft the story as entertaining and thought-provoking literature. How do the two sources of inspiration either complement or conflict with each other in the writing style of the book? 

How does Schreiber use free indirect discourse? Contrast the moments in which Schreiber decides to use free indirect discourse with the moments she is either narrating the character’s thoughts directly, fully immersed in their point of view, or writing purely factually, in the voice of a removed third-person narrator.

Though Dr. Wilbur concludes that Hattie Dorsett is the central source of Sybil’s trauma, she is insistent that Willard Dorsett is also responsible. What is the significance of Willard’s trait of passivity in the text, and how does it influence Sybil’s illness?

What picture does Schreiber paint of Hattie Dorsett, and why does she take the time to delve into Hattie’s history?

Throughout the book, Schreiber inserts reflective passages written from the perspective of Dr. Wilbur, in which Dr. Wilbur strategizes about the course analysis should take. Track the ways in which Dr. Wilbur’s theories about how the personalities operate and relate to each other change over time, and what these changes imply for our understanding of identity and selfhood.

A bildungsroman is a coming-of-age story, defined as a plot in which a youth goes out to gain experience in the world and finds himself in conflict with society, before he finally learns to accept the values of society as he is accepted into it as an adult. To what extent does Sybil conform with the characteristics of a bildungsroman? To what extent does Sybil challenge and change the assumptions of bildungsroman, and why?

Sybil depicts three women who are all in some way dominated or abused by authority figures: Grandma Dorsett, Hattie, and Sybil. How do these women’s experiences of abuse influence one another’s, parallel one another’s, and differ from one another’s?

What is the role of gender in this book’s depiction of various forms of domination?