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Use of symbolism in the yellow wallpaper
Perspectives of the yellow wallpaper
Perspectives of the yellow wallpaper
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Many people on this earth will commit a sin, they find they wish they had not, and 1 in every 5 Americans suffer from a mental illness. In a story named “Young Goodman Brown” by the author Nathaniel Hawthorne, the people in his story have all sinned and meet with the Devil. Then in another story named “The Yellow Wallpaper” by the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman the main character is suffering from a mental illness while her husband, a psychiatrist, tries to help her, but in doing so only makes her condition worse. Throughout both literary texts of “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Young Goodman Brown,” the authors show numerous entries of Gothic Literature. And although “Young Goodman Brown” and the “Yellow Wallpaper” share similar Gothic elements, the two stories are very much different.
Even though the two Gothic stories have different meanings overall, there are still some arguable similarities. Some could say that the mood is somewhat alike, while others could say the setting of both stories are near the same. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne sets a mood by describing the setting saying, “He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest…”(Hawthorne, 1). The mood is near the same in “The Yellow Wallpaper” where the main character lives in an old,
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dark, and gloomy mansion. While the setting and the mood have their similarities in these stories, they are still different in many more ways. For example, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the main character is mentally ill. She say, “...that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression…”(Gilman, 1).However, the main character in “Young Goodman Brown” is sinner. That one small quote alone shows that the story line/plot behind the stories is going to be different. Even with the similarities in setting, the purposes behind writing these stories takes two opposite approaches very early on in the texts. Modernization can determine the way on how stories are told, and in “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the times differ. In “Young Goodman Brown” the story takes place possible in the 1700’s “There may be devilish Indians behind every tree”(Hawthorne,1). This shows that back in the time period of which “Young Goodman Brown” took place, is when settlers still feared of Indians. In a story a time zones can really change the way a story goes. So to say that “Young Goodman Brown” takes place back in the 1700’s is a big deal too, were as Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in 1899. That's near a 200 year difference. Another difference is the endings. In “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne ends with him having a miserable life and Gilman ends hers with her main character treating herself. In Hawthorne's story he says, “And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse...for his dying hour was gloom” (Hawthorne, 9). But then Gilman ends her completely differently with, “I’ve got out at last ...in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back” (Gilman, 1). Both of these quotes show completely different endings and meanings behind writing the stories. “Young Goodman Brown” showed that doing evil only leads to a miserable life, while “The Yellow Wallpaper” shows that every person is different and it also sheds light on nervous depression. These both compliment my thesis by showing that the two stories have two different meanings behind writing them and one end on a sad note, while the other ends on a more positive, yet mysterious, note. Throughout the two stories of “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” there has been a lot of differences, ranging from differences in characters, to settings, to endings, to the just plain meaning behind writing it.
The character in Gilman's story is sick, while the character in Hawthorne's’ is a sinner. One took place in early America back in the 1700’s while the other was more modern in the early 1900’s. Then one showed how miserable life could be for being a sinner and the other showed the protagonist making a difference in their life, This shows that even if the genre is the same that there can be different meaning and endings behind it and not to judge a book by its
cover.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is a nineteenth-century American writer of the Romantic Movement. Hawthorne was born is Salem, Massachusetts, and this is the place he used as the setting for some of his works: such as "The Scarlett Letter", "the Blithedale Romance" and "Young Goodman Brown". In writing, Hawthorne was known for his use of allegory and symbolism, which made his stories a joy for everyone to read. Hawthorne was said to be the first American writer who was conscious of the failure of modern man to realize his full capacity for moral growth. His stories contain much about the life he knew as a child being brought up in a Puritan society. As Hawthorne's writing continued it was filled with the same amount of sin and evil as his first writings. Evil that was revealed through his works. "Young Goodman Brown" was said to be one of the best stories ever written by Hawthorne (Adams70). "The Marble Faun: and "the Scarlett Letter were some of the other stories written by Hawthorne, and they were said to be "Young Goodman Brown" grown older. In this selection there is a question of maturity for Goodman Brown and whether he is good or evil. There is also a transition from childishness to adolescence to maturity. This short story in particular has a feeling of adultery, betrayal, and deception as in some of his other works. It was said by Richard P. Adams that "young Goodman Brown" was a germ for nearly all his best work that followed (Adams 71).
Both of these stories revolve around a lot of symbolism. These stories, since they really don't make a lot of sense on their own, force the reader to look deeper in an attempt to understand the ideas that Hawthorne tries to get across.
Hawthorne and Poe showcase a theme of darkness but differ in their approach to the setting. In Young Goodman Brown, the story primarily
In Young Goodman Brown, Hawthorne tells the story of a young man discovering man's true nature in a fantasized visit to hell. He encounters a world where everyone is equally evil, including the most "holy" of people. Hawthorne's hell is a parallel to the influence of the Church on the real world.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, Young Goodman Brown is a story of sex, sin, and the Devil, all the entertaining things in life. Hawthorne uses many literary devices to impress strength in his work. Hawthorne uses these techniques to bring out the religious themes within the story.
In the early 1900’s societies were strictly defined. Members within society regulated rules in regards to gender, social class, racial groups, and education. Socializing and integrating with members of the society outside of your prescribed gender, social, and racial roles were not accepted in historical time periods. Members of society were expected to follow these roles and those whom deviated from them were punished, isolated, or frowned upon. During the early 1900’s author’s Charlotte Perkins Gilman and W.E.B. Du Bois wrote pieces which went against societal standards. Their literature pieces addressed issues in which were progressive issues of their time. However, both their pieces of work have reflected major social
Word by word, gothic literature is bound to be an immaculate read. Examining this genre for what it is could be essential to understanding it. “Gothic” is relating to the extinct East Germanic language, people of which known as the Goths. “Literature” is defined as a written work, usually with lasting “artistic merit.” Together, gothic literature combines the use of horror, death, and sometimes romance. Edgar Allan Poe, often honored with being called the king of horror and gothic poetry, published “The Fall of House Usher” in September of 1839. This story, along with many other works produced by Poe, is a classic in gothic literature. In paragraph nine in this story, one of our main characters by the name of Roderick Usher,
The genre of a story can’t truly be known without the proper setting. The setting and a storyline tie together creating the perfect background for characters to truly live their roles. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman Brown is faced with the conflict of giving in to true evil or remaining pure. The setting; a dark, mystical and haunting place connects perfectly with the idea of Brown being faced with taunting devil-like temptations. Hawthorne’s short story would be incomplete without this kind of geographical location, proving that setting does infact provide significance for a storyline.
Each author sets a gothic tone first and foremost by the techniques used to describe setting and characters. Irving and Hawthorne set their stories in ghostly mysterious forests. Each author uses phenomenal to truly connect the reader with the stories. Hawthorne’s use of similes to tie in what the forest was like gives a sense of letting the readers feel like they are there with young goodman Brown, “ . . . surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems
In "Young Goodman," Goodman Brown is a very vulnerable person because he is torn between what path he should take. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the grandmother is living two different worlds that make her contradict herself by sayin she is a Christian but carries herself on top of a pedestal because she believes she better than everyone and she always to the right thing. Well, Based on the characters of both stories of O'Connor and Hawthorne both Goodman Brown and the grandmother took the wrong path on life that they thought would lead them to happiness but the path they took with no faith of God, gave them the turn for the worse based on their decisions they made. Using the mythological approach to both of the stories of O'Connor and Hawthorne on the character of Goodman Brown and the grandmother were based on making wrong decision in life and how you can learn from them and move with your life to become a better
There are notable similarities between Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. These similarities include the treatment of space, the use of a gothic tone with elements of realism, a sense of male superiority, and the mental instability of women.
With her extensive knowledge of mental institutions and mental illnesses, Susan Vaught draws readers to her completely creepy and fascinating novel Insanity intertwining the accounts of four young people who find themselves tormented beyond their imagination in the Lincoln Hospital. It is a place where the living and the dead cannot find peace. Forest, an 18-year-old girl, works the graveyard shift at Lincoln Hospital, her colleagues and herself knew this when she asked for the job. Lincoln is a large state mental institution, a great place for Forest to earn some money to pay her college tuition. Along with hundreds of extremely unstable patients, it also has hidden underground tunnels, bell towers that ring surprisingly, and a closet that carries more than donated clothes. A dead husband of one of Forest's patients shows up late one night apparently accompanied by an advocate of the Devil, Forest drops all sense of reality and all judgment of time. Horrified, she understands she has a role to play, and when she does so, she discovers a heritage that she never anticipated. In his paper, I will take an in-depth look into five archetypes: the journey, the task, the orphan, the fairy god mother and the quest in Vaught’s work.
Women's roles within society have changed drastically throughout history. Today, women assume relative equality in society with men; women have the right to vote, own property, get divorced, and hold the same jobs, among other things. Prior to 1919, however, women were dominated by the largely misogynistic society that existed in the United States; women did not have the right to vote and were not regarded as equal to men in marriage or otherwise (“woman suffrage”). The late nineteenth century in the United States was also a time when society viewed individuals with mental illnesses as “a threat to public safety” (Holtzman). Therefore, “people with mental illness were cared for by family members, who quietly attended to their needs in rural areas” (Holtzman). These are the conditions the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” was living within.
It is impossible to fairly analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown" around a single literary approach. American novelist, essayist, and poet, Herman Melville, once wrote about Hawthorn's short story that it over time, like wine, it only improves in flavor and body (The Life and Works of Herman Melville). Hawthorne's short story continues to get better with age, and carries today's readers into a world filled with a plethora of meanings for them to pick from its symbolism. Modern readers have interpreted the meaning of Goodman Brown's experience in many ways, but to pigeon hole the story into one view would destroy its veracity.
The story, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, appears, on the surface, to be a story about a man who struggles inside himself between good and evil. However, as one analyzes the story deeper, a reader will find it is indeed ambiguous. There have been many interpretations all of which find something different hidden among the passages. Upon deeper analysis, I have discovered many similarities as well as differences with real historical events. Historical events are drawn from Hawthorne’s own Hathorne ancestors and their Puritan roots, The Salem Witch trials, and other evil deeds that are interwoven into the story.