Comparison of the “Death by Landscape” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Terror, a feeling shared by all beings with emotions, With such an influence in the well-being of a human being, terror is something that creates interest and research while repelling and frightening an individual. The gothic literature is an evoked presence of terror by humans to create a sense of confusion with a reader leaving them with no explanation of the unrealistic events and removing the ability of control and comprehension. Margaret Atwood and Charlotte Perkins Gilman master the unexplained supernatural and unrealistic events in their own stories, “Death by Landscape” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The first follows the abrupt and unexplained loss of the main
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This is due to the state that Lois is in throughout the story. Lucy is not alive in a body, but in the obsession of Lois’s mind. Society deals with death in many ways, whether it is in ritual or locking it behind a wall in the mind. Lois locks Lucy in the depths of her perception and mind as shown by the paintings she has collected, “every one of them is a picture of Lucy. You can’t see her exactly. But she’s there, in behind the pink stone island or the one behind that.” (Atwood 129). Due to the disturbance that Lois is dealing with it’s explainable that this is Lois’s way of coping with Lucy’s death. However this end doesn’t solve the question the reader frequently asks. Where, why and how did Lucy die? The questions which cannot be answered neither by the reader or Lois. Leaving out the answer creates the dreadful terror that humans pursue, the answer of death and it’s unexplainable control of events.
The temporary feeling and atmosphere of terror that is throughout the story exemplifies the unexplained supernatural by showing Lois as a victim of an event she has no comprehension or power over. She is affected to a point where “she would never go up north… to any place with wild lake and wild trees and the calls of loons. (Atwood 129). In the rugged landscape of the wilderness, it is equal to death where in that the wild is very similar to the uncontrollable nature of death. Lucy’s presence is emphasized by her absence as she continues
Lucy had heard stories before, about the pillaging the "savages" would do in a town after exacting vengeance. The newspapers loved to exaggerate moments like these to sell and try to find people to give "first hand" accounts, but she also knew that many of these reports had some truth to them.
I’ve killed her.” This is a crucial moment in the book because Linda dies after saying some hypnopaedic phrase which reemphasizes the prevalence of hypnopaedia in the society. Linda’s death may lead John into harmful paths. “As the Savage stepped out of his taxi copter a convoy of gaily-coloured aerial hearses rose whirring from the roof and darted away across the
“ Dr. Flint, a physician in the neighborhood, had married the sister of my mistress, and I was now the property of their little daughter” So after Linda’s mistress die, she goes to live with this new family. She relate, when she got to this new home as “ When we entered our new home we encountered cold looks, cold words, and cold treatment”, meaning, she could feel, that things are not going to be as they were before with her last mistress, and that she had nobody “I felt so desolate and alone”. When her father die, she didn't have the opportunity of say a proper goodbye to his body, instead she was ordered to go for flowers for her mistress’s house might be decorated for an evening party. “ I spent the day gathering flowers and weaving them
Discrete — Linda was the only person that new Willy was suicidal which is mainly why she cares for him greatly however she was the reason for Willy’s death. If she would have told someone else Willy could have got the help he needed before he was driven to kill himself.
In Tim’s first up-close and personal encounter with death, Linda, his girlfriend, dies of cancer before turning ten. When Tim attends her wake and sees her body, he is unable to cope with the reality of her death. Instead, he imagines that she is awake and normal and having a conversation with him. Through this conversation with a dead person, Tim comes to realize that his imagination - the stories that he makes up - can keep people alive after their deaths. If he remembers Linda’s corpse, that is all she can ever be, but if he continues to have conversations with her, to imagine her alive, to tell stories about her, then she remains alive as he portrays her. Though told at the end of the book, this vignette becomes a lens through which Tim views death throughout and explains why Tim, the character, and O’brien, the author, tell stories about dead friends. Tim tells stories about death - the death of his friend Kiowa, the postwar suicide of Norman Bowker, the corpse of the man he killed, the tragic accident that killed Ted Lavender, and Linda’s battle with cancer - to preserve the life of people he
Gothic literature is a style of writing dating back to 1764, some of the most important elements of this writing style are of an eerie setting and mental decay, stories that made great use of these elements are: “The Raven”, “Black Cat”, “The House of Usher”, and “The Devil and Tom Walker”. The authors use the gothic element of eerie setting so that they can enhance the mood of the story and of mental decay to highlight what the conflict in the characters’ lives is causing.
When Harry is fourteen, a flood sweeps through the town, taking Linda with it; “[she] rose under a jam of logs, her body full of creek water [and] weeds”. Linda’s death scared the residents of the town “into nightmares”. Characters would rather swim in the dangerous pit at the Army Reserve, than to swim in the swamp where Linda’s body was found; “No one swam at the swamp… beside the ghost of Linda”. After her death, Linda’s family leave town, planting a white cross and a patch of daisies before they moved. the only remnant of their daughter’s death. Linda showed a trait that not many characters in the novel exhibit- the willingness to accept death and to reach out to others. This was demonstrated when Harry’s mother passes away and Linda gives him cake and a hand drawn card; “I’d never tasted a cake so sweet and delicious… [I appreciated] Linda’s drawing of my mum in heaven, with god, and the angels”. Harry also shares this attribute, as he chooses to acknowledge and commemorate the death of his dear friend. Citizens of the town regard Linda’s death as an event to forget, but Harry would “weed [the cross] so the town had something worth remembering”. This is a mechanism in which Harry deals with the loss of his
The short story "Death by Landscape" well describes the psychology of Lois, the heroine of the story. One incident that occurred to her when she was 13 years old, affects her whole life. As a thirteen year old, she looses her best friend, Lucy, on a canoeing trip in a summer camp. While Lucy was going to the bathroom behind a tree on the edge of a cliff overlooking a river and Lois waiting where she wasn't able to see her, Lucy disappeared without a trace. The story's setting and characters shows the existence of two egos in one person's life.
In “Lives of the Dead”, O’Brien’s own innocence is preserved through the memory of Linda, a memory that remains untarnished by the inevitable corruption that results from life. O’Brien’s writings “save Linda’s life. Not her body--her life” (236). Storytelling and memories preserve the value of Linda’s existence while simultaneously allowing O’Brien to process death and destruction in a way that maintains a degree of optimism regarding his own life and future. Juxtaposing the images of body and life emphasizes his desire to save the idea of Linda while accepting the loss of her physical presence. O’Brien rejects the idea of death as absolute and final; instead he suggests that “once you are alive, you can never be dead” (244). Linda’s death solidifies her importance in O’Brien’s own development; she teaches him about life and real love as much as in death as in life. O’Brien’s paradoxical statement defines the lasting impact of Linda on him; her presence in his stories keeps her alive through memory; memories that even her death
Death by Landscape does not end at this point. Lois is looking at the paintings on her wall. In all her paintings she sees her friend Lucy and she still can hear her shouting. On page eight block one Atwood writes that a dead person is a body and occupies space, a grave, but Lucy has no body, no grave. She only exists in Lois’ mind and – in her pictures on the wall. “You can’t see her exactly, but she’s there…” (page 8, block 2). Everyone has to be somewhere and the paintings are where Lucy is. In Lois’ mind she is still alive. Lois was going through the happenings of this particular day again and again, throughout her life, torturing herself with guilt and never really finding peace. This feeling of guilt was implanted in her mind from the frustrated owner of Camp Manitou, knowing about the consequences of the loss of a child in her camp. Lois knew that she didn’t push Lucy off the cliff, but she left her alone, just for a moment, unattended and unwatched, knowing about her unhappy family situation, knowing Lucy didn’t want to return to her
In modern society, people tend to enjoy terrifying and horrific films and novels because of the anticipation and thrill of the character’s fear, in which they are not aware of. One of these common and popular genres is known as Gothic Horror. Although this entertainment is common in our society today, in past time periods, it was written during a mass transition. The age’s in which there are religious, cultural, and technological advances and changes, is a particular time when novels in this genre come to light. People are typically not comfortable with change, which is why these transitional times can cause anxiety, in which causes novels in this genre to be written. The short story, The Judges House, written by Bram Stoker is properly categorized
Later, Linda turns out to be a genuine person, very precious and willing to give, and, in spite of the cruel way in which the news were given to her. Linda becomes the one with the power of giving new life. At that point, she chooses instinctively not to repeat the actions of her birth mother. With the play of events Linda attempts to connect the presence she felt her entire life being Linden. “ I had never before thought of the presence in relation to my twin, who’d grown up not an hours drive away from me, but that night the combination of the phone call out of the blue and twelve-letter word in my puzzle set my thoughts flowing.” (Erdrich page 3)
Fear is in the core of every person. It is the defense mechanism that keeps us from danger. It is an unpleasant emotion internally warning us that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause us pain. In gothic literature fear is a topic that the genre is soaked in. It is one of the main elements. Authors use literary devices to make a reader feel, think, and react in a certain way. Mary Shelley and Ann Radcliffe are both prominent gothic writers, with the works Frankenstein and The Mysteries of Udolpho respectively. They are both works that are thought of as key reads in the genre and both have a pervasive theme of fear throughout. The two women portray these very well using literary devices. Both authors explore fear as a theme. Mary Shelley’s novel
Lucy should remain in Fairy Tale for three reasons: Fairy Tale strong, Lucy is important to Fairy Tale, and Lucy has created many friendships. This matters to Fairy Tale because it would not be the same without
He repeatedly insists that Lucy press charges against her attackers while she maintains her defence of saying he wasn’t there, and “you don’t know what happened” (134). With Lurie continuing to bombard her with commands to inform the authorities, Lucy finally offers an explanation for not wanting to go to the police: “ʻWhat if this is the price one has to pay for staying on? … They see me as owing something. They see themselves as debt collectors, tax collectors. Why should I be allowed to live here without paying? Perhaps that is what they tell themselves” (158). As suggested by Barnard, Lucy is “accept[ing] her fate as a symbol of the redistribution of power in post-apartheid Africa and sees her rapists as gathering apartheid debts”, as her attackers were black (Barnard 74). Lucy also says that her decision to stay silent is “Freedom of speech. Freedom to remain silent” (Coetzee 188). With this reasoning, she is silencing herself as a rape victim and accepting the consequences of the attack by deciding to keep one of the attackers’ children she becomes pregnant with , in addition to marry her black neighbour