Compare And Contrast A Rose For Emily And The Yellow Wallpaper

Katie Markham

Professor Kidd

English 1302

April 6, 2015

Compare and Contrast “A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” Essay

“A Rose for Emily” by Emily Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, take on the topic of living in a society dominated by men. The difference between the two works is the extreme way the protagonists react to their male-dominated antagonist. Both works undergo the ongoing theme of women rejecting the male-dominated society. This is seen in both works in the way the protagonists are isolated, how they share the same social class struggles, and how both have a dominant male antagonist.

“A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” take place within families of the same social

class. In this timeframe woman were inferior to men and did not have much of a purpose other than to obey the male dominant figures in their life.

Both of the protagonists reject this social norm when they refuse to abide by their superior male to do what they want to do. Emily Grierson was from the Old South “a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head” (Faulkner 517). The author, William Faulkner, describes how Miss Emily depicts to the audience that she no longer associates with the New South town she lives in currently. The way Miss Emily dresses symbolizes her rebellion towards society, which is dominated by men. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the family thinks they live a standard life, but in fact they are not normal because there is a housekeeper and a nanny at the residence. The narrator may live in a certain social class and have these

people in her house, but she does not want them there and even feels like the housekeeper is out to get her. “It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer” (Gilman 478). The reason the family in “The Yellow Wallpaper” have this help is because the husband does not allow his wife to do anything, therefore showing his dominance over her. Both protagonists are stuck in isolation, but rebel against the dominant male society in the end. The social class tells about the time frame in which the protagonists are living. Both stories have companions that stayed with the protagonist in their time of isolation.
The protagonists in “A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” both go through a feeling of isolation.

This feeling they have is because neither woman is trusted to be independent. Instead of feeling protected, their domineering man puts them into solitude where they go mentally insane. “He is careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (Gilman 479). Gilman included this sentence in “The Yellow Wallpaper” to show that the narrator is not accepted to be independent and that her husband does not trust her to be by herself. In “A Rose for Emily”, Emily is summoned to her house where she is isolated from the town she lives in. Her father isolated her from the young men attracted to her, because he thought he was protecting her, “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away…” (Faulkner 518). Neither woman is trusted to be independent and therefore has to have a housekeeper to keep an eye on them. Feminism and isolation is a common theme in literature because feminist support the equality of women, but in this time the women were not accepted as equals and therefore went into a feeling of isolation. Society treated women in an unrealistic way and therefore the protagonists took it upon themselves to find their identity through it. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, John, the husband of the narrator, uses his occupation of being a doctor to inform his wife that he knows best about her and her illness. The two coincide in these stories

because the women felt the authority the men put over them, which resulted in a consequence to their actions.
The ideal woman of this day and age is to be a good wife and follow directions given by the husband. Also, they are not to partake in activities they enjoy such as writing or china painting. The narrator is showing the male dominance that her husband has over her, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one…”(Gilman 478). Because John is a physician, he reasonably knows what is best for her by ignoring the right to give her a decision. An example of this is when John summoned his wife to the upstairs bedroom instead of letting the narrator pick the room she really admired, “the downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings” (Gilman 479). Both John and Emily’s father took away their rights by isolating them. “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (Faulkner 518). Faulkner uses this quote to show that Emily was trapped by the restrictions of her father and society. Her father wanted her to be dominated by men, whereas Emily wanted to be independent. In both of these stories, feminism has given the women their own true identity by going through the struggle of male-dominance and accepting their social standards. Unlike the social norm, these protagonists go against society and stand up to the men keeping them in isolation but in their own unique ways.
In “A Rose for Emily”, Emily lashes out on the society, which results in revenge. In the story Emily purchases arsenic “and that was the last we [town of Jefferson] saw of Homer Barron” (Faulkner 520). It is inferred that Miss Emily took matters into her own hands and settled the way she felt about Homer by killing him. This consequence occurred because of her rebellion towards her father and how he took her away from men and isolated her. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator keeps her frustration inside “and I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Gilman 489). The narrator is standing up to the male-dominated figure in her life by referring to herself as the wallpaper. She stands up by letting her inner mind be set free and makes it known to her husband that she cannot be controlled. Homer died in the story, whereas the husband did not. This indicates that both protagonists acted out in violence, but in their own way.
In “A Rose for Emily” by Emily Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, both protagonists go through the struggle of living in their social class, a feeling of isolation, and finding their true identity while standing up to the male-dominated society in which they live. In contrast, both women take action in their own way; one with violence while the other lets her inner, crazy mind be set free. The narrator is released from her husband; likewise, the lady is set free from the yellow wallpaper. Both stories are a reference to women rejecting the social norms of a society dominated by men and the emotional conditions they have to undergo.