Analysis of A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner and The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator, already suffering with Post-Partum Depression, is further constrained when her husband John prescribes her resting treatment for her illness. John clarifies that she must lie in bed in the same, enclosed room, refrain from using her imagination and especially abstain from writing. This, in turn, forces the narrator deeper into her

Not only did Emily Poison him, but gray hairs was found next to his skeleton, revealing that she had been sleeping with a corpse for years. People thought that anyone in their right mind would not do such a thing as sleep with a corpse, especially for that long. Emily's stubbornness to accommodate to the new town officials and their request of taxes supports the argument that Emily is unable to deal with conflicts because she is unable to let go of the past. Along with her refusal to pay taxes, Emily murders Homer Barron, which also emphasizes her inability to be alone or to deal with pain and rejection. At this point Emily is trying to stop time, and embrace the joyous moment she has with Homer still there with her. The killing of Homer, gives Emily the feeling that she has a relationship with a man that she can never be with for a long time .

Through history women have fought for equal rights and freedom. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. In the nineteenth century, women in literature were often portrayed as submissive to men. Literature of this period often characterized women as oppressed by society, as well as by the male influences in their lives. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as second-class citizens. Two interesting short stories, "Hills like White Elephants" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" focus on a woman's plight near the turn of the nineteenth century. Both authors, Hemmingway and Gilman, leave an open end to the stories and allow readers to create

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is about Jane who has a “nervous condition” (postpartum depression) and her journey to madness. Not only was her husband a doctor, but she went to see a doctor as well who prescribed the “rest cure”. The “rest cure” meant that she was not allowed to write, have company, or do very much of anything at all. Her bedroom was on the top floor away from everyone else and it had bars on the windows, this all made her feel isolated from the rest of the world. Something that we would today find depressing even today. Jane begins to have a fixation on the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom and she believes that she sees a woman trapped behind the wallpaper. She

In a struggle to retain what they believe is tangible, two very different, yet so analogous women are introduced in the diverse domains produced by two authors. The first, Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” where the narrator is a woman from an upper middle class upbringing who’s taken to a house by her husband for their summer vacation where she begins to feel confined and the later, William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” where Emily is the daughter of an influential man who does become confined to her house after her father passes away. Although their stories are written by two very different people, the women share an eerie resemblance as they begin to fall into an insanity driven by fixation. To explore and understand these connections, one must look into themes and symbolisms to further magnify the foundation of their stories.

In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, both women are suffering from emotional situations. This pain is coming from the controlling male influences in there lives. The protagonist in “A rose for Emily” is a young, slender girl who is tormented by her father’s influence in her life. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane, is a wife who is suffering from post partum and loneliness. Both of these women suffer from similar emotional depression, but differ in the way they go about becoming free.

In the story, “A Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator tells her story of her life living with her husband and she comes off as a distressed, morose wife. In “A Rose for Emily” Emily is struggling with keeping a tradition in her family and is also and also distressed. Both women deal with the struggles of their husbands who do not give them attention or treat them well. They both show similarities in their qualities of life. In William Faulkner's, “A Rose for Emily” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” both have female characters who have to endure and overcome struggles of loneliness, isolation, insanity, and depression as the female protagonist.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” follows the story of the narrator and her physician husband, John, who move to a colonial mansion shortly after the birth of their newborn baby in order to help his wife recover from hysteria and different forms of depression more than likely linked to postpartum depression caused by the recent birth. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about the progress to insanity and freedom. This story also shows how people tackle and deal with personal obstacles differently. Everyone deals with their personal obstacles in different ways; some people take longer and some people even ignore the trouble itself. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a perfect example because there are several different obstacles throughout the story. The narrator, John

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two well written short stories that entail both similarities and differences. Both short stories were written in the late 1800’s early 1900’s and depict the era when women were viewed less important than men. The protagonist in each story is a woman, who is confined in solitary due to the men in their lives. The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” is the mutual voice of the townspeople of Jefferson, while Emily Grierson is the main character in the story that undergoes a sequence of bad events. The unnamed, female narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is also the main character whose journal we read. This difference in tense gives each story a

In “The Yellow wallpaper”, the wallpaper is a metaphor that expresses women’s protest against the repression of the society and their personal identity at the rise of feminism. During the Victorian era, women were kept down and kept in line by their married men and other men close to them. "The Yellow Wallpaper", written By Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a tale of a woman, her mental difficulties and her husband’s so called therapeutic treatment ‘rest cure’ of her misery during the late 1800s. The tale starts out in the summer with a young woman and her husband travelling for the healing powers of being out from writing, which only appears to aggravate her condition. His delusion gets Jane (protagonist), trapped in a room, shut up in a bed making her go psychotic. As the tale opens, she begins to imagine a woman inside ‘the yellow wallpaper’.

Depression has been a growing illness that’s been present in lives for centuries. Although there has been treatment previously presented, it was not like that for those suffering from a mental illness in the 1800s. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the woman the story is focused around suffers from severe depression while receiving “treatment” from her physician husband who seems to think this is a made up or fake illness. To keep his wife from suffering, the man decides to move her to a house in the countryside and keep her in isolation. The house they live in is large with a beautiful view, but there is a room that seems to be anything but lacking a depressive aura.

In “A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Faulkner and Gilman employ point of view to question gender roles and mental health. Faulkner uses a third-person point of view in order to narrate the story from the perspective of the town. The perspective of an outsider looking in on Emily’s life highlights her lack of control as a woman and later, a lack of control she has over herself. The distant narrator creates a barrier to fully understanding Emily’s character and reflects how the town does not truly know her and her secrets. In contrast, Gilman uses a first-person point of view to narrate from the protagonist’s perspective. The utilization of an unreliable narrator allows for more understanding of the protagonist’s character, but less understanding of her situation as a whole. Moreover, the protagonist only writes when her husband John is not around which provides further insight into her deteriorating mental condition and the lack of control she has as a woman. Faulkner and Gilman use different narrative perspectives to achieve similar results. Each point of view hides or highlights the female character in order to reveal the struggles and insufficient help they receiving. These stories provide commentary on common issues for women and mental illness for their time period.

The trails and tribulations of life can cause a person to go down a road they could have never imagined. Some people are able to rise above the issues that come their way and while others become consumed by their problems. In a male dominated society, the issues of women are often pushed to the side and they are left to deal with them alone. Therefore, some women become abused by their thoughts and problems due to the fact that they do not have the ability to tackle them alone. It becomes an internal and external battle for the scorned woman to please herself, husband (or father) and the society at the same time. In the short stories, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by

Throughout the history of society, specifically during the years prior to the era of feminism, people have place women as the weaker gender. In literature , there have been many instances where women have been outshined and neglected by men because their works or contribution s are deemed to be inferior and noncompliant in the eyes of men. Men are seen as “autocratic ruler” of a household and thus they feel it’s their responsibility to constantly overlook and protect women due to their inferiority that society has placed on them, as a result, men feel superior to women. Nevertheless, men are not mindful of the effects and outcomes of their patriarchal domination on women: depression, losing touch of reality, isolation, and worst of all, losing their sanity. An example in literature that displays this type of structure of society where women can become victims of patriarchal conditions takes place in the short stories “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Yellowpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Both women, the main character Emily Grierson from Faulkner’s story and the narrator from Gilman’s story, though they have different circumstances, are similar in a unique way as they are both held back by the male figures in their households within the patriarchal society, and as a result, they lose touch within each of their societies and are forced to insanity.

In the novel, The Yellow Wall-Paper, the narrator is introduced to the audience as someone who seems normal. She has a husband and a child as well. The narrator begins writing her journal and explaining to us that she has been taken into a summer vacation home wit her husband. She at first describes the house to be an more expensive place and questions their ability to purchase the house. However, she soon begins to explain to us her disorder and how her husband John and her brother as well, doesn't believe in her disorder. John gives her a simple treatment and solution to her issues, he explains to his wife that the treatment she will receive is to do nothing active and that she will get better if she stays in her room in the attic. This room is described as “It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge;