Essay on The Yellow Wallpaper, A Rose for Emily and Babylon

688 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay about the yellow wallpaper main character

The Yellow Wallpaper, A Rose for Emily and Babylon

It is amazing how differently people see the world. People from different walks of life interpret everyday experiences in different ways. This is ever so apparent when discussing the gaps that occur in stories by great authors.

In The Yellow Wallpaper, a woman is being "treated" by a doctor (her husband) for a condition he refers to as anxiety. She is placed in a room, apparently one that was previously inhabited by a mental patient, and told to rest. Over the course of a few weeks the woman begins to exhibit signs of paranoia and regularly has hallucinations. Through the course of the story, the woman continuously makes reference to the yellow wallpaper. The first, and possibly the greatest, gap in the story comes when interpreting the meaning(s) behind the wallpaper. Does the color yellow infer something about insanity? The woman repeatedly refers to the patterns that the peeling wallpaper makes. Do the patterns suggest order from chaos? It is apparent, from the number of times that it is mentioned, that the wallpaper plays a role in the mental changes the woman experiences (and details her changes) throughout the story. Part way through the story, she begins seeing a woman moving behind the wallpaper, as if trying to escape it. Is she actually seeing herself in the wallpaper, as suggested by Chris Tildon, or is the hallucination what she fears she is becoming? At the end of the story, she takes on the role of the "creeping" woman and follows a smudge around the room and over her fainted husband. This supports the idea that she is the woman that has been trapped in the paper. Maybe she feels trapped and tormented by John's lack of sympathy for her condition.

Another story that benefits from gaps is Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The gaps in this story are numerous, but the most important gaps involve Charlie's previous bout with Alcoholism, and his struggle to retrieve his daughter Honoria. Charlie claims to be a reformed man. However, after reading deep into the story, it is apparent that Charlie plays a role in his own downfall. Does Charlie actually try to rid himself of his past, or is he actually perpetuating it? In the story, Charlie visits his old "haunts", maintains a "one drink a day" attitude, and inadvertently brushes elbows with a couple of old drinking buddies.

Show More
Related

  • How Does The Yellow Wallpaper Reveal About A Woman's Gradual Descent Into Insanity

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    The wallpaper in her bedroom is a hideous yellow. "It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others" (pg 393) The wallpaper is symbolic of the sickness the author has by the end of the story. Yellow is often a color associated with illness. It’s been suggested that she herself was clawing at the paper during moments of insanity. But there are many times when she is sane, and sees the marks on the wallpaper, and she writes about how others who had spent time in this room tried to remove the paper as well.

    Read More

  • Comparison of Themes in The Yellow Wallpaper and the Metamorphosis

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    The woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is slowly deteriorating in mental state. When she first moves into the room in the old house, the wallpaper intrigues her. Its pattern entrances her and makes her wonder about its makeup. But slowly her obsession with the wallpaper grows, taking over all of her time. She starts to see the pattern moving, and imagines it to be a woman trapped behind the wallpaper. The total deterioration of her sanity is reached when she becomes the woman she imagined in the wallpaper and begins creeping around the room.

    Read More

  • Diction In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, through expressive word choice and descriptions, allows the reader to grasp the concepts she portrays and understand the way her unnamed narrator feels as the character draws herself nearer and nearer to insanity. “The Yellow Wallpaper” begins with the narrator writing in a journal about the summer home she and her husband have rented while their home is being remodeled. In the second entry, she mentions their bedroom which contains the horrendous yellow wallpaper. After this, not one day goes by when she doesn’t write about the wallpaper. She talks about the twisting, never-ending pattern; the heads she can see hanging upside-down as if strangled by it; and most importantly the

    Read More

  • Bernard Williams Utilitarianism Essay

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion Williams’s argument about Utilitarianism can be looked at in many different angles. Williams believes utilitarianism obstructs humans from the basic human moral of integrity. The word integrity means that you are living your life in way that you act in accordance with your commitments and moral code. If a system like utilitarianism tells you that integrity is not important and denies what is important to an individual has a serious problem in the eyes of Bernard Williams.

    Read More

  • Figurative Language In The Yellow Wallpaper

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the narrator’s mental state changes so does the way she perceives things around the house. The most prominent example of this is the imagery of the wallpaper and the way the narrator’s opinion on the wallpaper slowly changes throughout the story; this directly reflects what is happening within the narrator’s mind. At the beginning of the story the narrator describes the wallpaper as “Repellent...revolting... a smoldering unclean yellow” (Gilman 377). As the story continues the narrator starts to become obsessed with the wallpaper and her opinion of it has completely changed than that of hers from the beginning. Symbolism plays a big part in “The Yellow Wallpaper” too. This short story has a multitude of symbols hidden in it but there are specific ones that stand out the most. The recurrence of the wallpaper definitely makes it a symbol. An interesting interpretation is that the wallpaper represents women, in the sense that the 18th century woman was considered almost decorative and that is exactly what the purpose of wallpaper is. Another prominent symbol that runs parallel with the wallpaper, are the women the narrator would see in the wallpaper. The women appear trapped behind bars in the paper and one could argue that the women the narrator sees represents all women of her time, continuously trapped in their gender

    Read More

  • Mediations of First Philosophy by Descartes

    1291 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the “Meditations on First Philosophy” Descartes gives a couple of major arguments about the existences of god, he gives one argument in the third meditation and on in the fifth meditation. The argument in meditation three and the one we will focus on is known as the “Trademark Argument”. This argument comes from the fact claimed by Descartes that inside of everyone is a supreme being, which is placed there by whatever created us. From this statement Descartes can say that a mark from a God has been place inside of every one of us. This argument involves the acknowledgement of such an idea is within ourselves, this idea that God is a being who is eternal and infinite and a creator of all things. This is Descartes first premise. His second premise is the “Causal Adequacy Principle.” The p...

    Read More

  • Prove the Existence of God Using Who Has the Idea of God

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this paper, I will explain how Descartes uses the existence of himself to prove the existence of God. The “idea of God is in my mind” is based on “I think, therefore I am”, so there is a question arises: “do I derive my existence? Why, from myself, or from my parents, or from whatever other things there are that are less perfect than God. For nothing more perfect than God, or even as perfect as God, can be thought or imagined.” (Descartes 32, 48) Descartes investigates his reasons to show that he, his parents and other causes cannot cause the existence of himself.

    Read More

  • The Cartesian Circle is Wrong

    1602 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rene Descartes meditations on the existence of God are very profound, thought-provoking, and engaging. From the meditations focused specifically on the existence of God, Descartes uses the argument that based on his clear and distinct perception that cannot be treated with doubt, God does exist. In the beginning of the third meditation, Descartes proclaims that he is certain he is a thinking thing based on his clear and distinct perception, and he couldn’t be certain unless all clear and distinct perceptions are true. Before diving into the existence of God, Descartes introduces smaller arguments to prove the existence of God. For example, Descartes introduces in his argument that there are ideas in which he possess that exists outside of him. Utilizing the objective versus formal reality, Descartes states “If the objective reality of any of my ideas turns out to be so great that I am sure the same reality does not reside in me, either formally or eminently, and hence that I myself cannot be its cause, it will necessarily follow that I am not alone in the world, but that some other thing which is the cause of this idea exists” (29). In other words, the ideas of objective reality that resides in Descartes can potentially only come from a supreme being, which is God; God possess more objective reality than he does formal reality. We as humans, as Descartes states, are finite substance, and God is the only infinite substance. The only way for us as a finite substance to think of an infinite substance is possible if, and only if, there is an infinite substance that grants us the idea of substance in first place. After these smaller arguments, Descartes states that while we can doubt the existence of many things, due to the fact that ...

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On The Yellow Wallpaper

    1313 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman (herself) that is somewhat trapped within a room covered with yellow wall paper or trapped within the times? Is she trapped by the wall paper that symbolizes her illness or by her husband? Gilman was the protagonist of this story. She tells the story as she relates it to her own life dealing with depression and a marriage that proved to be prison within itself. Is the yellow wall paper contributing to her illness or is this something her husband uses to control her? “John is a physician and perhaps that is one of the reasons that I do not get well faster. But John, her husband who is a physician doesn’t feel that she is sick “ if a physician of high standings and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do?” (pg. 648) You see he does not think I am sick.” John uses the fact that he is a physician to convince his wife that she

    Read More

  • Treatment of Mental Disorders Exposed in The Yellow Wallpaper

    1986 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the story of a woman descending into psychosis in a creepy tale which depicts the harm of an old therapy called “rest cure.” This therapy was used to treat women who had “slight hysterical tendencies” and depression, and basically it consisted of the inhibition of the mental processes. The label “slight hysterical tendency” indicates that it is not seen as a very important issue, and it is taken rather lightly. It is also ironic because her illness is obviously not “slight” by any means, especially towards the end when the images painted of her are reminiscent of a psychotic, maniacal person, while she aggressively tears off wallpaper and confuses the real world with her alternative world she has fabricated that includes a woman trapped in the wallpaper. The narrator of this story grows obsessed with the wallpaper in her room because her husband minimizes her exposure to the outside world and maximizes her rest.

    Read More

  • No Child Left Behind

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Making the Grade,” which was published in the Salt Lake Tribune in September of this year, is an article arguing the negative sides of the No Child Left Behind Act. Through this article, a majority of the discussion regarded the budgeting involved with NCLB. This article calls No Child Left Behind a “one-size-fits-all formula for improving education in America” (Making the Grade). According to President Bush, the NCLB Act is “’the cornerstone’ of his administration” (Salt Lake Tribune). Like with any legislation, however, come both positive and negative sides.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    In literature, women are often depicted as weak, compliant, and inferior to men. The nineteenth century was a time period where women were repressed and controlled by their husband and other male figures. Charlotte Gilman, wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper," showing her disagreement with the limitations that society placed on women during the nineteenth century. According to Edsitement, the story is based on an event in Gilman’s life. Gilman suffered from depression, and she went to see a physician name, Silas Weir Mitchell. He prescribed the rest cure, which then drove her into insanity. She then rebelled against his advice, and moved to California to continue writing. She then wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which is inflated version of her experience. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the main character is going through depression and she is being oppressed by her husband and she represents the oppression that many women in society face. Gilman illustrates this effect through the use of symbols such as the yellow wallpaper, the nursery room, and the barred windows.

    Read More

  • A Summary of Descartes and His Thoughts

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...e. He argues that the essence of God implies the existence of God. While the idea of God is present to the human mind, it is different from other ideas because such an idea is that of a supremely perfect being. God would not be a perfect being if there was the impossibility of his existence. Consequently, God’s existence cannot be separated from His essence. His essence is to exist and his existence is necessary. Using the criteria for truth, Descartes notes that he clearly and distinctly apprehends God’s essence to be supreme perfection. Such perfection is void of limitation. This argument is not contingent on Descartes recognizing his existence first as per the previous proof for God’s existence. God becomes the subject and existence the predicate. God is seen by virtue of His own existence. Such knowledge is clear and distinct and guarantees truth for Descartes.

    Read More

  • Empiricism Vs Descartes Essay

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    He expands on this by explaining the notion that there is a divine, infinite being, such as God, that is innate. Among these statements, Descartes doubts everything he has ever been told in his life, and only keeps the belief that there is an infinite being out there. In Meditations, he explicitly states “Nevertheless I have long had fixed in my mind the belief that an all-powerful God existed by whom I have been created such as I am.”

    Read More

  • Jeremy Bentham's Utilitarianism

    1702 Words  | 4 Pages

    Utilitarianism is a movement in ethics which began in the late eighteenth centaury and is primarily associated with the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham and was later adapted and fully developed by John Stuart Mill in the ninetieth century. . The theory states that we should try to achieve ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’. Utilitarianism is a teleological theory of ethics. Teleological theories of ethics look at the consequences to decide whether an action is right or wrong. Utilitarianism is defined as a doctrine that the useful is the good and that the determining consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of it consequences: specifically: a theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible

    Read More

More about Essay on The Yellow Wallpaper, A Rose for Emily and Babylon

Open Document