"It is a hell for one" : "psychotic depression" and suicide in David Foster Wallace's Infinite jest

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This Master's thesis analyzes one particular character in David Foster Wallace's novel, Infinite Jest (1996): Kate Gompert, a suicidal marijuana addict afflicted with "psychotic depression." I argue that Gompert's character serves as a kind of mouth-piece for Wallace, that is, a kind of platform from which Wallace attempts to better understand and explain the painful and indescribable depression that fermented within his own Self. While the novel consistently posits a neuroscientific, material explanation for such an illness - i.e. the primacy of the body and the tyrannical oppression of brain chemistry - there also exists a spiritual philosophical undercurrent that posits a construction of Self defined by experience and choice. My thesis is organized as follows: first, I provide a brief summary of Infinite jest, before examining the cyclical form of the novel and its manipulation of time and space. Finally, I unpack the crux of my argument - that is, Wallace's understanding of psychotic depression and "the feeling" that drives one to suicide, which remains most thoroughly elucidated in the character of Kate Gompert.