Is It Happily Ever After, or Happily Never After? Romance, most women want the fairy tale. Man, and woman meet, man sweeps woman off her feet, they fall madly in love, they get married, and then they live happily ever after. However, the saying of happily ever after is questionable in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. In both stories the women are in one sided relationships where the men tend to dictate what the women will do and how they will feel, which in turn creates conflict in the relationships. Hemingway and Gilman use a similar portrayal of the women being oppressed and who give into the demands of their men at the expense of their own happiness, however Hemingway’s male character appears to be more loving and affectionate and the female tends to be a little more outspoken while Gilman’s male character is more of a dictator and the female quieter. The main female characters in both The Yellow Wallpaper and Hills Like White Elephants are seemingly weak and vulnerable which is brought on by their men, while the men in each story are the primary decision makers. The communication going on between the girl, called Jig and her boyfriend, the American in the story, Hills Like White Elephants, is not an honest one. The boyfriend seems to lead the conversation whereas the girl is quiet. They are talking about an operation, which is believed to be an abortion. The boyfriend never says the term abortion, he continues to call it an operation that is no big deal to manipulate her into thinking that it really is
Francis 2 not a big deal at all. He even states that it really isn’t even an operation. The boyfriend keeps insisting that they will be happy after it is done and that the baby is making them unhappy. He states, “That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.” (Hemingway 924) He was referring to the baby. The girl questions him asking if he thinks they will be happy afterward to which his reply is “I know we will.” (Hemingway 925) The girl is clearly torn on what to do, but the man has his mind made up that he does not want the baby or care about it. He does not even understand that when she
The two texts I am going to analyse are The Yellow Wallpaper and The Picture of Dorian Gray. I am going to compare and contrast the theme of madness and mystery around the main characters. Both texts were published in the era of 1890. During 29, 1890: the artist Vincent Van Gogh died in France at the age of 37 after shooting himself two days earlier. This may have inspired The Picture Of Dorian Gray as Basil is an artist who also dies as a result.
One similarity between the two works is the that we are limited on where we get our information. Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” we see everything through the eyes of the narrator. The entire story is told from her secret diary when she has the time to write as shown in the line, “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal-having to be so sly about it” (Gilman 527). Due to this, we can only make assumptions based on the information we get from her. She tells us she is in “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate” (Gilman 526) and that she stays in “a big, airy room…It was a nursery first and then a playroom and gymnasium” (Gilman 527). However, once we reach the end of the story, with the
Both of these short novels told stories about couples with relationship issues. Both stories spoke of people with conflicting interests. In "Hills like White Elephants" the girl Jig, loved The American and wanted to have his child. I feel as if she might have seen the child as something that would strengthen her and The American’s bond. The only actual want or care the American seemed to portray was that he just wanted things to go back to normal between the two. To me it was as if he didn’t want any strings attached to the relations he was having with this girl. I felt as if Jig cared more about The American than he cared for her. I also think that if the American hadn’t said anything to Jig about having an abortion and simply allowed her to have the child; they would have more than likely ended up like the couple in Bobbie Ann Mason’s story, where they would run out of things to say and eventually end up parting ways because of either their different wants out of life or their conflicting views on issues would have kept getting in the way. There were also various dissimilarities between the characters Leroy and Norma Jean in the story “Shiloh”. In "Shiloh" the woman Norma is pushing herself to become a better person; she works out, goes to school and practices her music. Her husband enjoys sitting around, building models, and smoking weed. They were two people going
Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.
"Hills Like White Elephants" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" are both about couples dealing with a delicate situation in a time when the power of men over women is obvious. The characters in both stories show that the man has more control and authority than the woman. "Hills Like White Elephants" demonstrates this through the use of the setting, time restrictions, and poor communication exhibited by the couple. In "The Yellow
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Sinclair Ross’s “The Painted Door” are both stories about women protagonists who feel emotionally isolated from their husbands, who both go by the name John. Ann in “The Painted the Door” and the wife whose name may or may not be Jane in “The Yellow Wallpaper” are women who deal with emotional isolation. Emotional isolation is a state of isolation where one may be in a relationship but still feel emotional separation. In these two stories, both women feel emotionally isolated from their husbands due to lack of communication. In both stories, lack of communication results from one individual failing to disclose their true feelings and instead he or she are beating around the bush, hoping the other party will know what they want. If both parties directly disclose their desires and feelings to one another, there would be a better understanding of each other which as a result would help save marriages. This paper will look at how both women lack communication, how they both their approach their emotional isolation differently, and how their failure to communicate to their husbands and their approach, results in the failure to save their marriage. “The Painted Door” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” are stories that show how both women protagonists are emotionally isolated due to their failure to communicate their feelings and desires to their husbands. Instead of direct communication to their husbands, the women find other
Like most stories, the women are mostly known for their vulnerability and being less powerful than men; this is one of the major comparisons between these two different works. In “Hills like White Elephants”, the foreign woman Jig, and her boyfriend the American, are contemplating on going through with an operation, seeking to be an abortion. Hemingway demonstrates to the reader hands on how much Jig depends a lot on the American. Since she couldn’t even order herself something to drink without him, let alone make such a difficult decision. The American, otherwise known as the more stronger character, knows exactly what he wants and sticks by his choice when filling the girl’s mind with promises of being happy and being able to go back to the way things used to be. Because of Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” distracts most of the
In the short stories “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper”” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonists experience mental illness, loneliness, feelings of being in control of their lives, and feelings of being insane. Both main characters struggle against male domination and control. The two stories take place in the late 1800’s - early 1900’s, a time where men’s place in society was superior to that of women. Each story was written from a different perspective and life experiences. “A Rose for Emily” was written by a man and told in third personal narration, while “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by a female and told in first person.
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.
She is just trying to do what he wants to do, to please him, even though she does not like it. He says that, "It's really an awfully simple operation…not really an operation at all.'; He does not know the feelings and pressure that the girl is under, and not being the person who has to have the operation, he could say that easily. However, if he really cared about her, he should listen to her inner thoughts. There should be a more serious and honest conversation between these people. The girl should not compromise if it bothers her, and she should clearly state what she thinks. What the girl wants is not the sweet words such as, "I love you now,'; or "I care about you,'; but real action where he shows his caring and loving by truly understanding her.
The narrator in the novel “The Yellow Wallpaper ” and the main character, Lily, in the novel “The House of Mirth” are both women in the 19th century. They both face the gender roles driven by the society they live in. The gender politics imprison the women physically and mentally. While both women struggle to find their place in their gender roles, only the narrator survives, whereas, Lily falls victim to society and perishes.
The conflict between couples in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” results in the stubbornness and selfishness in the males of the relationship. The men in both stories make the women feel like they are problem in the relationship. The American man in “Hills Like White Elephants” tells the woman that the baby is the problem and that is why they are unhappy. While John makes his wife unhappy by isolating her and making her feel insane. In both stories the authors use imagery to create the theme of communication.
Symbolism in short stories is when a person or object represents something else other than its literal meaning. Throughout “Young Goodman Brown,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” there are many allegorical moments. In “Young Goodman Brown,” there was many people and objects with symbolic meanings. His wife Faith is an example of this symbolism.
The unspoken trouble was the unborn child. The American man did not want to have a child, and did not want to face the responsibilities of having one, so therefore he was trying to be in control of the women by telling her she should have an “operation.” In the story, the author does not quit explain what the operation is, but signs from the reading the reader can conclude that the American man is talking about an abortion. He later on tries to confront her, and tries to make her believe that it is the right thing to