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Girl Interrupted vs. The Yellow Wallpaper

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The main character in Susanna Kaysen’s, “Girl, Interrupted” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” are similar in the fact that they both were suppressed by male dominants. Be it therapist or physicians who either aided in their mental deformities or created them. They are similar in the sense that they are both restricted to confinement and must endure life under the watchful eye of overseers. However similar their situations may be, their responses are different.
In the stories, there were both positive and negative aspects and characteristics that the two protagonists possessed. Both women were thought insane and although they may not have been originally, being locked up made other …show more content…

She does rebel at times but for the majority of the book, she remains compliant. Gilman on the other hand doesn’t always respond positively to her physicians. Gilman is passive in this sense but aggressive as well because she acts on her own beliefs. Throughout, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman is forbidden to invoke her passion; writing. Her brother and husband, John are both highly respected doctors that believe “Congenial work, with excitement and change,” would only worsen her case. But in spite of them, she writes anyway making sure not to be seen. Gilman’s character is a little more manic than Kaysen because she is locked up in her own house alone for the majority of her time. She is unable to leave without permission or write ever. In this aspect, I feel that being passive aggressive is a positive characteristic because it allows Gilman to fool her husband into believing she is improving. When in actuality, she’s not and she may be going crazy being cooped up in the house all the time. However it is a negative because unlike Kaysen, she acts on her impulses without thinking them through. She doesn’t take into consideration what the consequences of her actions may be. For instance, when she starts to notice the figures behind the wallpaper taking form, she starts to peel off the wallpaper. Although she says she is trying to rescue the girl stuck behind the dreaded colored paper, this act does not show her husband she is not crazy.

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