Gothic tales are known for being mysterious and gloomy. Certain elements are integrated throughout the narrative to create the desired effect, and simultaneously suggest other ideas. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson are significantly similar, by the way both settings highlight the idea of madness. The relationship between setting and madness is induced by the display of physical isolation, disturbing elements, and hallucinatory incidents.
To begin, with intent of initiating mystery in gothic stories, the locale is often portrayed as being physically isolated, triggering insanity in the characters. This idea can be demonstrated by the seclusion of the institution for the criminally insane in Shutter Island, as it stands alone on an island, trapping the patients indefinitely. For instance, when Teddy and Chuck were lost in the cemetery during the hurricane, the Warden found them, and Chuck said “it’s an island, boss. They’ll always find us” (154) as Teddy was lost in astonishment. This passage shows that anywhere the patients go, they will always be found, which also demonstrates how the lack of freedom and privacy can drive someone crazy bit by bit. On the other hand, in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, the protagonist’s room is in “a colonial mansion […] quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” (249- 250). Additionally, “the place has been empty for years” (250) and that scares Charlotte as she says that it “spoils [her] ghostliness” (250). Moreover, the residence’s seclusion manifests an emotional isolation on the narrator as she mentions that keeping a journal “is such a relief” (255) for the reason that she “must say what [she] feel[s] a...
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...of delusions all along the novel presents an evident relationship between hallucination and lunacy as the mind is being controlled, preventing the characters from having a good sense of self.
In conclusion, gothic literature, identified as the genre of literature that revolves around romance and horror, illustrates nonetheless insanity in several stories such as Shutter Island and “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” As both authors employ physical isolation of the locale, disturbing elements and hallucinatory incidences in the narratives, the reader gradually captures the effect the components have on lunacy. Therefore, all three elements combined confirm the influence of setting on madness.
Works Cited
Lehane, Dennis. Shutter Island. New York: Harper, 2003. Print.
Perkins Stetson, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” New England Magazine Jan. 1982:
249-263. Print.
This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
The inclusions of gothic conventions of the same variety create a gothic genre for the novel. The use of the weather in the form of pathetic fallacies is particularly important in the way this forms the novel to be gothic. As the description of the weather evokes an atmosphere of suspense and the many connotations associated to the weather in particular the stereotype...
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