Although “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Rocking Chair” are diverse stories, the author’s style of writing includes many hidden similarities within. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about a married woman who suffers from depression. Her husband, John, does what he thinks is best for her which results in her becoming isolated within a yellow nursery. “The Rocking Chair” consists of two men who move into an abode, the narrator detects a figure moving throughout the region, however his friend, Hal does not.
One of the key similarities between the two stories is the reader’s perspective. Charlotte Gilman writes both of the stories in first person point of view. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” uses epistolary writing to make the story more emotionally effective for the reader. By using this style of writing, the reader can empathize with the woman who suffers from “temporary nervous depression” and is trapped within a limited territory. “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less
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opposition and more society and stimulus-but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.” (167 Gilman TYW). This quotation makes the audience feel as if they are also constrained by John. In the narrative, “The Rocking Chair”, Gilman most likely wrote the story in first person so that the reader feels present. By using this perspective, the audience knows the same amount of information as the characters at any given time. “We two stopped and stared, and, so staring, caught sight of a small sign in a lower window ‘Furnished Lodgings.’ With a common impulse we crossed the street and knocked at the dingy front door.” (1l84 Gilman TRC), this excerpt makes the reader feel as if they are appraised of the situation. The author makes the short stories seem more mysterious by including the narrator’s name once, if at all. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, at the end of the story, the narrator says, “‘I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’”(182 Gilman TYW). This is the only quote that gives the reader an inkling towards the narrator’s name. “Jane” is never equivocally stated whether it is the narrator’s name or if it is one of Jennie’s sobriquets. In this statement, the narrator finally feels exempt from her melancholia. The only epoch where the narrator’s name is mentioned in “The Rocking Chair” is when Hal discloses, “‘What brought us here so suddenly, Maurice?’ he asked, out of the dark.”(185 Gilman TRC). Hal is talking to the narrator whose name the reader can assume is Maurice. This quotation emerges after Hal and the narrator move into the rooms at “Furnished Lodgings”. Both of the stories include a fanciful female figure.
The wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper” sees a physique which she believes to be a self- reflection. “I don’t want to leave now until I have found it out.”(179 Gilman TYW). This quote represents how determined the lady is to let the silhouette out from behind the wallpaper. She does not yet realize that the silhouette is a symbol of herself, and the wallpaper is a symbol of the negative mentality that she is facing. In the alternative story, the narrator experiences the presence of the configuration, however Hal does not witness the figure. “I marveled in secret, and longed with painful eagerness for another meeting; but I said nothing to Hal of my suprising her- it did not seem fair to the girl! She might have some good reason for going there.”(186 Gilman TRC). This excerpt shows that the narrator has become cautious regarding the topic of the figure with Hal. The man becomes very intrigued with the woman he is
visualizing. Another distinguishing characteristic of the silhouette in each story is that they both materialize during dusk, as a result of the moon light. Charlotte Gilman is recognized as a feminist and the moonlight from each story personifies the protagonist being limited during the daytime, due to their companion’s being cognizant. The shadow in “The Yellow Wallpaper” mirrors the mental activity of the woman. During the day the narrator is disinclined and limited, because her husband is constantly observing her, however at night-time is when her intellectual activity accelerates. “I don’t sleep much at night, for it is so interesting to watch developments; but I sleep a good deal in the daytime. In the daytime it is tiresome and perplexing” (177 Gilman TYW), this citation conveys that at night, her mind is allowed to wander places that it is restricted to when John or Jennie is present. After the narrator in “The Rocking Chair” sees the fanciful woman figure, he discusses his perception with Hal, however he soon realizes that the composition is imaginary and he must analyze why he is the only one seeing it. After a closer evaluation, he notices that the figure is almost nocturnal, “I reached the corner of the street one evening just at sunset, and-yes, there was a rhythmic swing of that bright head in the dark frame of the open window. There also was Hal in the street below.” (187 Gilman TRC). At the conclusion of the stories, the protagonist’s associate is in such a state of consternation that they collapse. The closure of “The Yellow Wallpaper” conveys that the woman finally feels infinite. “‘And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’ Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!” (182 Gilman TYW). John most likely faints due to his bewilderment of his wife’s deranged behavior. In “The Rocking Chair”, after the narrator and Hal’s altercation, the narrator walks back into Hal’s room to find him lying under the window, dead. The cause of Hal’s death is “three heavy marks-blows- three deep, three-cornered gashes...”(192 Gilman TRC), though it is unclear how the gashes were sustained. The author most likely does not state the cause clearly, so that the reader can infer for themselves what happened. One of the most contrasting elements between the two stories, is how the narrator describes the windows. The windows in “The Yellow Wallpaper” make the women feel even more confined. “He said that after the wallpaper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then the gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.” (169 Gilman TYW), this citation conveys to the reader how restricted the house is for the wife. All of those features are a symbol of how limited the roles of women were during the late 1800’s. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the windows created her own prison, however in “The Rocking Chair”, the windows provide a positive connotation for the characters. “‘You only have the street and I have a real ”view”from my window.’”(184 Gilman TRC), this quote shows how the window allows the narrator to feel limitless. Charlotte Perkins Gilman has a very apparent style of writing that is included throughout many of her narratives. As she writes in first person, she keeps her writing mysterious by making the narrator’s name appear once, if at all. Her writings include a fanciful woman figure that only the storyteller can see. Gilman describes the setting of the rooms using many details, so that the reader has a clear view of what the characters are seeing. The author uses a window as a symbol, however the characters of each story perceive its meaning differently.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman recounts, by means of Jane’s journal, the story of Jane and her husband John, following the birth of their baby. Like Gilman, Jane suffers from post-partum depression, and, her husband, who is a physician, locks her in the nursery on the top floor of their summer home. After the first few weeks of her summer in isolation, Jane hides her journal, which contains her true thoughts, so that John will be unaware of...
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story about a woman’s gradual descent into insanity, after the birth of her child. The story was written in 1892 after the author herself suffered from a nervous breakdown, soon after the birth of her daughter in 1885. Gilman did spend a month in a sanitarium with the urging of her physician husband. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story about herself, during the timeframe of when Gilman was in the asylum.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story about an anonymous female narrator and her husband John who is a physician who has rented a colonial manner in the summer. Living in that house, the narrator felt odd living there. Her husband, john who is a physician and also a doctor to his wife felt that the narrator is under nervous depression. He further mentions that when a person is under depression, every feeling is an odd feeling. Therefore, the narrator was not given permission by John to work but just to take medication and get well fast. This made the narrator to become so fixated with the yellow wallpaper in the former nursery in which she located. She was depressed for a long time and became even more depressed. This ha...
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression." In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
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
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator weaves a tale of a woman with deep seeded feelings of depression. Her husband, a physician, takes her to a house for a span of three months where he puts her in a room to recuperate. That “recuperation” becomes her nemesis. She is so fixated on the “yellow wallpaper” that it seems to serve as the definition of her bondage. She gradually over time begins to realize what the wallpaper seems to represents and goes about plotting ways to overcome it. In a discussion concerning the wallpaper she states, “If only that top pattern could be gotten off from the under one! I mean to try it, little by little.” “There are only two more days to get this paper off, and I believe John is beginning to notice. I don’t like the look in his eyes.”
The Yellow Wallpaper was written as a realism story. It showed how woman felt they had the same opportunities as men in their personal choices. In this story, the woman expressed her worries to her husband who through good intentions, required that his wife stay in bed 24/7, and not do any of the things she would normally do. In effect his wife became worse until she reached the limit. The behavior of the husband at this time was completely normal. Men were the higher power over women and women, like the one in this story, felt that they couldn?t stand count for themselves.
They are written during a time period when women were not viewed as important as men. The narrator from the yellow wallpaper is suffering from post-natal depression and has been recommended the rest of her cure by her husband and her brother, both physicians. Instead of curing her, it worsened her condition. The protagonist did try to convince her husband about what she would prefer, but she could not overcome the powerful authority figure. The narrator is restricted from working, writing, which leads to her obsession with the yellow wallpaper and suffocates her into madness.
The central characters in both “The Yellow Wallpaper” and A Doll’s House are fully aware of their niche in society. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator’s husband believes her illness to be a slight depression, and although she states "personally, I disagree with their ideas,” she knows she must acquiesce their requests anyway (Gilman 1). She says, “What is one to do?” (Gilman 1) The narrator continues to follow her husband’s ideals, although she knows them to be incorrect. She feels trapped in her relationship with her husband, as she has no free will and must stay in the nursery all day. She projects these feelings of entrapment onto the yellow wallpaper. She sees a complex and frustrating pattern, and hidden in the pattern are herself and othe...
In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, a woman living in the 19th century is told about a summer she spent in a house, which turns out to be an eerie and gloomy stay. A woman, who is suffering from depression, tells the story from 1st point of view. She tells us about her experience and how she felt. She even lets us in on her thoughts. She eventually finds a way to escape from her imprisonment.
All through the story, the yellow wallpaper acts as an antagonist, causing her to become very annoyed and disturbed. There is nothing to do in the secluded room but stare at the wallpaper. The narrator tells of the haphazard pattern having no organization or symmetrical plot. Her constant examination of and reflection on the wallpaper caused her much distress.... ...
“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.
...Also in, "The Yellow Wallpaper", the narrator gets so loneley and so freaked out about what is happening in the wallpaper in her room that she actually goes insane. She tears everything down and she even bites it. She thinks that there are other people that have smudged the wallpaper when in reality it was her and now she is actually the trapped woman. This is how these two stories relate by the characteization of the authors by them both making their stories disturbing in different ways.
The woman behind this work of literature portrays the role of women in the society during that period of time. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a well written story describing a woman who suffers from insanity and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The author uses her own experience to criticize male domination of women during the nineteenth century. Although the story was written fifty years ago, "The Yellow Wallpaper" still brings a clear message how powerless women were during that time.
The short story titled, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is given its name for no other reason than the disturbing yellow wallpaper that the narrator comes to hate so much; it also plays as a significant symbol in the story. The wallpaper itself can represent many various ideas and circumstances, and among them, the sense of feeling trapped, the impulse of creativity gone awry, and what was supposed to be a simple distraction transfigures into an unhealthy obsession. By examining the continuous references to the yellow wallpaper itself, one can begin to notice how their frequency develops the plot throughout the course of the story. As well as giving the reader an understanding as to why the wallpaper is a more adequate and appropriate symbol to represent the lady’s confinement and the deterioration of her mental and emotional health. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the color of the wallpaper symbolizes the internal and external conflicts of the narrator that reflect the expectations and treatment of the narrator, as well as represent the sense of being controlled in addition to the feeling of being trapped.