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Comparing Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men And The Yellow Wallpaper

Decent Essays

In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Gilman, both the main female characters are explored through their marriages, their inability to express themselves and the gender limitations of the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Curley’s Wife, in Of Mice and Men, and ‘Jane’ in The Yellow Wallpaper, are controlled by their husbands and the women are seen as inferior. This inferiority, in turn, prevents them from necessary self-expression and their actions against their husband’s wishes characterises them as disobedient. Ultimately, the death of Curley’s Wife and ‘Jane’s’ nervous breakdown highlights these two character’s extensively inferior positions and lack of power in their marriages. Many techniques were used …show more content…

The powerlessness that they have over their own situation is evident through dramatic events they had no way to avoid is the climax of both novels. In Of Mice and Men Curley’s Wife’s death is the climax and in The Yellow Wallpaper it is ‘Jane’s’ mental breakdown. Both major events were foreshadowed by the two authors throughout their novel’s rising tension. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing through the character of Lennie, he killed multiple mice and then a newborn puppy by petting them too hard, so when Curley’s Wife invites Lennie to pat her hair, her fate is no longer under her control and her death is inevitable. Gilman utilises the same technique, foreshadowing, to explore ‘Jane’s’ breakdown, she notices herself “the smudge” around her bedroom and Jennie notices that the marks are on her clothes, but the narrator does not make the connection that she has created the continuous line around her room. (Gilman, 5) All sparked through the characterisation of her obsession with the wallpaper. Through this, it is clear that females in this time period were not in any position of power over their situation or

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