Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And Maupassant's The Birthmark

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark," the narrative unfolds around the central characters Aylmer and Georgiana. The story revolves around the human nature and relationships as Aylmer, the husband, becomes fixated on removing a birthmark on Georgiana's left cheek, viewing it as an imperfection. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," the protagonist is suffering from depression, is confined to a room by her physician husband, John. As she spends more time in isolation, she becomes increasingly obsessed with the wallpaper in the room, leading to a descent into madness. In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” the narrative revolves around Madame Loisel, a woman who becomes consumed by her desire for wealth and status. When she …show more content…

The main character, Madame Loisel, is unhappy with her simple life and longs for the luxury she thinks will make her happy. "She was unhappy all the time...because she had no fine clothes and no jewels...she was never invited to balls or parties," Maupassant (1884). Madame Loisel's obsession with material goods is an example of the basic human need for wealth images to provide social approval. The story begins sadly at a ball when Madame Loisel loses the borrowed diamond jewelry. Fearing refusal from people and driven by pride, she and her husband make efforts to replace it, ending up in poverty. Years of suffering go on by Madame Loisel, who gives up her youth and beauty to pay back the debt. "She played her part...with sudden heroism...suffering silently and heroically," (Maupassant, 1884). Madame Loisel's journey highlights the fallout from arrogance and dishonesty as well as the adaptation that comes from hardship. In the end, "The Necklace" highlights the advantages of being calm and humble over the chase of proud wealth. Madame Loisel's dreams are crushed when it is discovered that the missing jewelry was only a fake, exposing the dumbness of her strong search for social position. Guy de Maupassant shows the importance of accepting one's situation with grace and enjoying life's small pleasures during her journey. Madame Loisel's realization is a moving reminder of …show more content…

It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper!" was how she expressed her views about being held. It reminds me of everything yellow I've ever seen—old, ugly yellow objects, not pretty yellow things like buttercups’ (Gilman). This powerful imagery shows the mental result of her being held and the negative feeling of her surroundings. The character's obsession with the wallpaper grows as her sense of loneliness grows, and she starts to transfer her own sense of feeling helpless. "Despite the wallpaper, I'm growing quite fond of the room," Gilman writes. Possibly as a result of the wallpaper (Gilman). Her husband's manipulation of her identity and her dismissing her worries and limiting her business is reflected in her elevation into sense. The wallpaper starts to represent her failing mental health and the people who are trying to limit what makes her different. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is eventually an effective attack of cultural race and a call for the freedom of women through the consideration of the female's path into madness. The protagonist confronts limits created by gender roles and social rules as she fights to establish her rights and recover herself. With a focus on the value of personal freedom and the struggle for freedom, Gilman's story forces people to face the harm that comes of the rule of men on women's lives. "The

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