The Tempest by William Shakespeare and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Between both William Shakespeare’s 1610 play, “The Tempest” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short novel “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the portrayal of love is a present theme in both genre’s that through the distinctive forms, is expressed in differing ways. Between the relationship of Miranda and Ferdinand in “The Tempest” and the narrator and husband John in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” love is presented uniquely and exposes the creative development of literature within differing genres throughout history. Throughout this paper I will be looking at the both of the mentioned literary genre’s, combined with the presentation of character, language and form, in an effort to evaluate ways all of these attributes contribute to the writer’s distinctive depictions of love and relationships.

Between both ‘The Tempest’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, we see a contrast between love at first sight pre marriage between characters Miranda and Ferdinand and the aftermath and stresses of a family life after marriage between the narrator and John. In ‘The Tempest’ we see the characters become infatuated with one another and an emotional connection quickly established. This romance and love is contrasted in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ with the birth of a child presenting tension between both the speaker and husband John. Romance and love is a key theme presented in “The Tempest” as we see through the presentation of characters Miranda, a young daughter of the King of Milan named Prospero, and Ferdinand, the son of the Duke of Naples. After becoming washed up on the shore of Milan from the tempest cast upon the sea by Prospero with the waves of the “Mediterranean float” (Shakespeare: 1. 2. 234), Ferdinand’s character shows an immediate romantic admiration of Mi...

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...lack of understanding between John and the narrator’s true feelings and emotions, hiding any values they consider themselves to have in their relationship; the narrator is not receiving the care and attention a wife deserves from a husband in a marriage. Due to the novel being written through the narrative voice of the protagonist a false empathy between John and the speaker may be being presented, making it seem that her illness is unnecessary and a plea of attention rather than one of needed attention. The one-sided narrative voice in which Gilman uses throughout her short novel allows the reader to understand the emotions being felt of the narrator but tarnishes John’s viewpoint. The use of the passive voice in this novel emphasizes only one side of the, something Gilman may have intended to stress the tension and strain in the relationships felt by the narrator.