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Compare And Contrast The Yellow Wallpaper And Jamaica Inn

Decent Essays

The way women are treated in The Yellow Wallpaper and Jamaica Inn are very different. In the Yellow Wallpaper, John is acting on what he thinks is right for her wife, but in Jamaica Inn, Aunt Patience is intimidated by Joss Merlyn and is unable to express her feelings and opinions as she is too scared to speak up. We begin to see the way Aunt Patience acts when Joss is around when they are sat having their tea at the table, "Her aunt, who had not uttered since her husband entered the room.... In a minute she had dropped it, uttering a little cry of distress" (page 21). Aunt Patience becomes anxious and nervous when in the presence of her husband. We see how she is treated by Joss when he says, "One fool is bad enough without making a couple of them" (page 21). This shows us the Joss has no respect for his wife and begins to treat her like a child and by calling her a "fool" it appears to have insulted her. The use of the noun “fool” implies that Joss sees her as being quite senseless and doesn’t seem to see her on the same level as him which further emphasizes the difference in men and women in the 1900s. The use of the noun “child” further implies the difference in respect as a child is quite timid whereas Joss is more powerful and gives the idea of him overpowering this child.
In comparison to this, the way John treats the narrator and the way Joss treats Patience is very similar. The narrator begins to feel entrapped in these four walls and begins to think about how

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