Behind the Blue Curtain by Steven Millhauser Essay

The short story presents women as aware but misunderstood by men through use of narrative point of view. In society women are usually seen as inferior to men, and therefore often don’t get the acknowledgement they deserve. “The women held their secrets because when they mentioned it to their husbands or brothers they were laughed at….Instead of sympathy, the husbands and brothers now had a secret weapon”. This shows that women did not share their fears as it gave others ideas to torment them further. Women in the short story are also shown to be fully aware of the boy’s behaviour early on in the story. “The men of his home town said, but how

The other reading of the story might be based on the maturing of a young woman. As it is probably the most important period in every adolescent's life, when they keep searching for their own identity, it should by strongly influenced by their parents. If it is not, a teenager starts looking for directions outside their home, and sometimes has difficulties with distinguishing what is good and evil. They are very often affected by

The narrator is given a sense of oppression from the beginning of the story by keeping a hidden diary from her husband as “a relief to her mind.” Throughout the story her true thoughts are hidden from the readers and her husband, which gives the story a symbolic perspective.

The man helps the narrator overcome his “blindness” by teaching him a new way of seeing. The experience of this effective communication transforms the narrator and the way he sees the external world. He is no longer an ignorant and distant

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When the narrator first encounters the girl, his friend's older sister, he can only see her silhouette in the “light from the half-opened door”. This is the beginning of his infatuation with the girl. After his discovery, he is plagued by thoughts of the girl which make his daily obligations seem like “ugly, monotonous, child's play”. He has become blinded by the light. The narrator not only fails to learn the name of his “girl”, he does not realize that his infatuation with a woman considerably older than himself is not appropriate. He relishes in his infatuation, feeling “thankful [he] could see so little” while he thinks of the distant “lamp or lighted window” that represents his girl. The narrator is engulfed by the false light that is his futile love.

     After living their opposite lives for several years, the narrator fulfills a promise to his mother and watches over his younger brother. Through many revelations, the two find ultimately find a common ground about where they come from, the pain and the suffering of being trapped inside their status no matter how they tried altering it.

As Miss Brill travels from her isolated existence into self-awareness, the reader is also taken on the same trip. The reader's perceptions of Miss Brill during the story mirror and shift along with Miss Brill's perceptions about herself. The reader is given no real clues about Miss Brill other than her profession, a teacher, and that she goes to the park every Sunday. Her age is unidentified and hard to guess; the reader is given no connection between Miss Brill and others her age. In fact, Miss Brill comes across as much younger than she is, mainly due to her disdain toward older people. She finds them "odd [and] silent . . . from the way they stared they looked as though they'd just come from dark little rooms or even -- even cupboards!" (259). Just as she only focuses on other people, the reader is only told about the people surrounding her at the park. When she decides that she is an actress, the reader gains a similar insight about Miss Brill; she sees her world as an intricate show that can be thrown out of balance by one absence. At the climax of the story, when the two young lovers comment on her appearance, the reader is suddenly aware of how old Miss Brill really is and how unaware she was about that fact. Miss Brill and the reader experience the shattering of her self image at the same time. For the first time during the story, both the reader and she see

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However, at the end of the story this stereotype is completely contrasted following the passing of the mother. When the boy, who is now a grown man and father, returns home to his newborn daughter it is he who displays a nurturing and affectionate relationship between a father and his daughter. This role reversal developed by Munsch effectively casts aside the stereotype that women are better suited to raise a child, and demonstrates that affection and the ability to nurture are not qualities that are able to be defined by a persons gender. Munsch instead shows how these qualities are learned by a person and are displayed as they mature with age. Munsch effectively represents this progression though maturity when showing, the love the boy has for his mother is not absent during his childhood, but simply something he does not display as well as he does when he becomes an adult.

He is keeping her locked up under his sister’s watchful eye. The narrator cannot sleep at night for dreaming of ways to get out. Each time her husband comes she attempts to have a “real earnest reasonable talk with him” asking if she would be allowed to go alone to visit relatives. Each time he refuses, which results in her crying hysterically. The narrator seems to be under the spell of the patriarchal norms of her time. She is having an inner struggle with the idea that men are naturally superior to woman. For example she may believe that men are smarter, more dominant, or more logical. The narrator has her own opinions about what is wrong with her and what she believes to be the best ways to improve her conditions, but as a woman transposed by the patriarchal norms of her time, she ignores her own ideas in favor of the ideas of her

When describing his ex-wife to the boy he states the devotion he had for her. He explains his emotions for her as, “‘There were these beautiful feelings and loose little pleasures inside me. And this woman was something like an assembly line for my soul. I run these little pieces of myself through her and I come out complete.’” (McCullers 2). The man believes he cannot function without her, she is needed to make his life complete. These emotions are the reason why the conflict is so devastating to him, and how he learns to accept and love everything. By loving the woman so much he doesn’t realize the truth about her and later he has to face this. After the long travels in a quest to find her and her answers he thinks about love and sees a new perspective. The man explains to the boy that, “‘They start at the wrong end of love. They begin at the climax.’” The old man whispers to the boy, “‘A tree. A rock. A cloud...And now I am a master. Son. I can love anything. No longer do I have to think about it even. I see a street full of people and a beautiful light comes in me. I watch a bird in the sky. Or I meet a traveler on the road. Everything, Son. And anybody. All stranger and all loved!’” (McCullers 3-4). The man finally gives up on asking and finds his own answers. He believes that everything should be loved, and then slowly increase in complexity, to always achieve the best outcome in

The first person narrative is not only sending the actual feeling, emotional from the characters to the reader; therefore, it also illustrates the reality to the reader during the 19th century. The conflict between the protagonist and her husband portrays how her situation and many other women in marriage and society. As the narrator recognizes herself as the woman inside the wallpaper; however, she also realizes other women whom are being trapped outside, creeping around “I don 't like to LOOK out of the windows even—there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast” (Gilman 25). The protagonist’s situation with her husband has an important impact within her minds and her understandings of her powerlessness in marriage; consequently, it can provide the reader an actual perspective from the narrator. Additionally, the first person point of view allows the reader to go along into insanity and encourages the reader to feel sympathy for the protagonist and other women during that time period. As the narrator losing her sanity over the pattern of the wallpaper, she becomes happier and more exciting than ever before. By Gilman’s literary devices, the narrator’s life becomes happier as she becomes insane and obsessed with the pattern of the wallpaper: “Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be” (Gilman 21). The unnamed narrator

(82). Until now, nothing has contradicted any of the things that Miss Brill has thought about herself. Now, however, there is a clear comprehension of what reality is because of the point of view from which the story is told from. In the example of the young couple, a dramatic change occurs in the way Miss Brill acts. She suddenly realizes that she has been creating all of these things in her mind. The realization emotionally destroys her and she quickly goes home and cries. By using a limited omniscient narrator to tell the story, the reader gets a clear sense of how a person can perceive life differently to help them cope with their age and loneliness.