On Blushing

Chapter III

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Causes of Blushing – continued. – In this chapter I shall give a number of examples of the most common circumstances of everyday life under which morbid blushing occurs.

Blushing usually takes place more readily before strangers than before acquaintances, and before acquaintances than before intimate friends; also, it nearly always occurs more readily before one of the opposite than one of the same sex. The following cases illustrate these truths: –

Æt. 33 (man). Always blushes when he goes into a shop where young women are serving.

Æt. 32 (man). Blushes when talking to customers.

Æt. 24 (man). Blushes when talking to customers, or if he meets any one in the street; always blushes most readily before women.

Æt. 19 (man). Blushes frightfully when standing behind the counter serving customers.

Æt. 25 (man). Blushes in the society of women; not of men so much.

Æt. 32 (man). Blushes in company, especially if women are present.

Æt. 27 (man). About to be married, yet blushes most painfully in the society of his betrothed.

Æt. 21 (man). Always blushes before women; he even feels restless and uneasy in the presence of men of effeminate appearance!

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Sometimes the tendency to blush is greater before acquaintances than before strangers. As already remarked (p. 150), the exciting cause is not in both cases the same. This is in some cases because the opinion of the former is more valued, or at all events because there is a greater sensitiveness in regard to it. Thus a gentleman tells me that when at school he was always highly nervous when he had to read the prayers before his schoolfellows, but felt no embarrassment while reading the lessons in a church where he was little known. Such cases are common.

Æt. 29 (woman). Blushes intensely before her own pupils.

Æt. 27 (man). Blushes as much before his own family as before strangers.

Æt. 29 (woman). Blushes at breakfast before her own family.

Æt. 29 (woman). Blushes in the morning when she appears before her aunt at breakfast; also before her pupils.

Æt. 31 (man). Even if his wife speaks suddenly or unexpectedly to him the blushing will come on. If his employer, who is very kind and considerate, comes into the office and makes a remark to him, he will blush intensely. He does not blush before his fellow-clerks, seven in number.

Æt. 28 (man). Curate. Blushes much in church when he has to officiate before his rector. When the latter is absent and he has to take entire charge of the services, he does not blush so much.

In these last two cases the subjects were apparently highly susceptible before some one person whose good opinion was probably highly valued.

The more isolated the individual, the more he feels himself to be observed; and consequently the more apt is he to blush. It is for this reason that going into a shop, especially if the attendants are of the

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opposite sex, is so often such an ordeal to the inveterate blusher.

Æt. 40 (man). Finds it very trying to meet any one in a country lane when he is by himself; would not be so embarrassed if with some one else at the time.

Æt. 50 (man). Very apt to blush if occupying a prominent position in church, but would not blush in the pit of a theatre.

The extraordinary readiness with which some people blush is shown by the following cases:—

Æt. 44 (man). Has been very shy for upwards of 20 years. He can scarcely face a stranger or a woman without blushing. The dread of this prevents his doing many things. The mere mention of the word will set up a blush!

Æt. 28 (man). Telephone clerk. Has been shy from childhood; cannot concentrate his thoughts, and is so nervous and confused that he has the greatest difficulty in facing any one in business. He blushes on the slightest occasion, even when speaking to people through the telephone!

Times at which Blushing occurs. The Influence of Solitude and Darkness.—Blushing occurs much more readily in the light than in the dark, and in some cases at particular times of the day. Thus—

Æt. 29 (man). Very liable to blush, even before his own family. He never blushes at breakfast; but always at dinner.

Æt. 19 (man). Chemist’s assistant. Suffers from uncontrollable blushing; has frightful mental suffering when standing behind the counter serving customers, the blood rushing to his face and making it “look like a fire.” This blushing generally begins at about 5 P.M.

The following cases illustrate the fact that darkness, which conceals the face of the individual, is apt to check blushing:—

Æt. 33 (man). Formerly a soldier; is bold and strong, but very shy, and an inveterate blusher. During the day cannot on

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this account meet a stranger in the street, or enter a shop where young women are serving, however necessary and urgent his business. “In the dark of the evening likes to meet young lady friends,” as he does not blush then.

Æt. 22 (man). Cannot go into a shop where there are women, or speak to one in the street without intense blushing and confusion of mind. If he meets them in the dusk, or at night in the dark, he does not feel these symptoms.

Æt. 24 (man). Inveterate blusher. Does not blush when alone, or in the dark.

Æt. 29 (woman). Blushes so much that she avoids going into society and keeps much alone. Blushes before her near relations; also before total strangers, at church, and even in an omnibus, but never in the dark.

Æt. 33 (woman). Blush is preceded by a sensation at the pit of the stomach. If spoken to suddenly in the dark will have the sensation, but no blush.

These cases bear out Darwin’s view that self-consciousness directed to the personal appearance is the primary and essential cause of blushing. Necessarily such self-consciousness is much greater in the light than in darkness, for then the countenance is hid and the individual feels safe from observation; he has, in fact, that concealment which he seeks to obtain by manifold movements when he blushes in daylight. For the same reason many shy people would have much less shyness before company if they could wear a mask, for then the face would be concealed. I remember once witnessing an attempt at dramatic representation by a number of boys ranging from twelve to fourteen years of age. When the moment to begin arrived, one or two made a feeble attempt at a start, but suddenly there was a general stampede, only two remaining on the stage, and it is interesting

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to note that one of them wore a mask while the other had his face blacked. The latter was certainly the braver of the two.

According to Perty,¹ blushing never occurs when one is alone, or in the dark: one must be observed. Similarly, Hagen² observes: “Blushing never occurs when we are alone. Any one can prove this for himself. On reading anything that excites the emotion of shame let him look in the glass and (if he is alone) no blush will be seen.” He also maintains that blushing does not occur in the dark. “Every one knows at once when he is blushing by the heat which mounts to his face, and a certain feeling of fulness in it. Many personal experiences have convinced me that this feeling never occurs so long as a room is dark . . . . from which it follows that blushing does not occur unless one is actually observed.”

As a matter of fact, however, blushing may occur in the dark. Darwin instances such cases, and I have met with two or three. It may also occur in solitude. The following are instances:—

Æt. 33 (man). Blushes at his own thoughts in solitude or in the dark; often dreams he is blushing.³

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¹ “Die Anthropologie,” etc. Band i. p. 302. Leipzig, 1874. “Die Schamröthe tritt nie ein wann man allein ist, auch nicht im Finstern, man muss gesehen werden.”

² “Psychologische Untersuchungen.” D. F. W. Hagen. S. 46. Braunschweig, 1847.

³ This case recalls a passage in Addison’s amusing essay on “Ithuriel’s Spear,” The Tatler, October 14, 1710. Ithuriel’s spear being of celestial temper, had such a secret virtue in it, that whatever it was applied to, immediately flung off all disguise, and appeared in its natural figure. . . . . I could not forbear thinking how happy a man would be in the possession of this spear. . . . . These thoughts made very lively impressions on my imagination . . . . and produced in me the following dream: I was no sooner fallen asleep, but methought the angel Ithuriel appeared to me, and, with a smile that still added to his celestial beauty, made me a

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Æt. 25 (man). When alone, often blushes at his own thoughts, especially if he thinks he has been “making a fool of himself” before his fellow-servants.

Speaking of the effects of darkness and solitude on blushing, Darwin says: “The fact that blushes may be excited in absolute solitude seems opposed to the view here taken, namely, that the habit originally arose from thinking about what others think of us. Several ladies who are great blushers, are unanimous in regard to solitude; and some of them believe that they have blushed in the dark. From what Mr. Forbes has stated with respect to the Aymaras, and from my own sensations, I have no doubt that this latter statement is correct. Shakspeare, therefore, erred when he made Juliet, who was not even by herself, say to Romeo (act ii. sc. 2):—

‘Thou know’st the mask of night is on my face;
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek,
For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night.’”

In defence of Shakespeare it may be observed that sometimes a most inveterate blusher will not blush in the dark under the circumstances which during daylight provoke intense blushing, and Juliet might have been one of this class. Furthermore, the speech of Juliet does not necessarily signify that she was not blushing. Strictly speaking, a blush cannot bepaint

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Footnote (continuation of the Ithuriel’s Spear note from p. 160):

present of the spear which he held in his hand; and disappeared. To make trials of it, I went into a place of public resort.

“The first person that passed me, was a lady who had a particular shyness in the cast of her eye, and a more than ordinary reservedness in all the parts of her behaviour. She seemed to look upon man as an obscene creature, with a certain scorn and fear of him. In the height of her airs I touched her gently with my wand, when, to my unspeakable surprise, she fell in such a manner as made me blush in my sleep,” etc.

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the cheek in the dark, for the physical conditions which underlie the so-called colouring of an object and which consist of a peculiar commotion of ether waves do not then obtain. But Shakespeare may have been more accurate than he knew.