Compare And Contrast The Yellow Wallpaper And To Room Nineteen

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Recommended: Short note on depression

Depression is an illness oftentimes misunderstood by the individual and their family. One symptom of depression is isolation and in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Doris Lessing’s short story, “To Room Nineteen,” the protagonists feel trapped and unfulfilled in their ordinary lives causing them to become depressed. The battle both these characters undergo reveal many compelling similarities, despite the origin and breaking points of their disturbing thoughts and actions. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “To Room Nineteen,” the two protagonists experience isolation from the world and people around them. Susan, the protagonist in “To Room Nineteen” feels trapped by her life and her family, and afflicted by her husband’s infidelity. Everyone assumes Susan and her husband are the perfect couple who have made all the right choices in life, but when Susan packs her youngest children off to school and discovers that her husband has been having an affair, she begins to question the life decisions she has made. Susan chooses to isolate herself from her own family by embarking on a journey of self-discovery in a hotel room that ultimately becomes a descend into madness. Unlike Susan, the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” initially wants contact and interaction with people, but is …show more content…

In both stories, the protagonists become different people behind closed doors choosing to keep their disappoint hidden from their husbands. However, the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” gives in to insanity and becomes the character her imagination created while Susan in “To Room Nineteen” gives in to her addiction of isolation, letting it take her life. The individuals in these two stories show how easily depression is misunderstood and how easily it is to become

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