Reality In The Yellow Wallpaper

Women of the 19th century were often confined to a specific lifestyle with a certain set of rules to follow as illustrated through The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and The Yellow

Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Through these literary selections, it is proven that perception of reality can influence reality through the way an individual states their company, mental state and the type of area an individual surrounds themselves in. This is furtherly expressed through the use of symbolism, irony, personification and hyperboles.

The way an individual states their company is significant in the way their perspective reality influences their reality for it can define the individual and the way they see themselves as to being close or affiliated

In The Yellow

Wallpaper, the narrator’s perception of reality influenced reality through believing her husband who was constantly stating how she needed her medication and be kept in a room with no physical activities to get her rest. Through this, the narrator eventually actually goes mad with the medication and confinement. This madness is illustrated through the narrator “cry[ing] at nothing, and cry[ing] most of the time” (650), “the [wallpaper] really did move together or separately” (653), “I pulled and she shook [the wallpaper]” (655). This final quotation of shaking the wallpaper is personification to show that a women in the wallpaper was helping the narrator pull apart the wallpaper. This personification is significant for it helps the reader understand the high mental illness that the narrator has gone through. In The Story of an Hour, Ms. Mallard’s perception of reality influences reality through the realization of her husband’s death being fake and mentally overwhelming her and eventually killing her. “Free! Body and soul free [from my husband]” (2). This is a hyperbole for “free” can give the impression of previously

Although Ms. Mallard felt confined by following her husband’s will, she is over exaggerating by being “free.” This hyperbole can help the reader understand how free Ms.

Mallard felt and the joy she must feel from no longer having a husband. This great feeling of freedom is then toiled with when her husband returns home and is found to actually be alive.

This perception of reality becomes overwhelming and eventually leads to her actual death as ironically described to be “a joy that kills” (3). Both of these characters relate in the sense that their perception of reality harms their mental and health state. Accordingly, leaving them both in a tragic ending.

In The Story of an Hour and The Yellow Wallpaper the main character’s reality is toiled and influenced through their perception of reality. Both authors effectively use rhetorical devices to help the reader take a deeper understanding of how an individual surrounds themselves, states their company and are mentally influenced to alter their reality through their perception of reality. These points are crucial for they allow an individual to understand how our perception can lead a person to their breaking point of madness or even