Short Story : ' Cabin 10, By Richard Bullmer

Gilman uses indirect characterization in revealing the narrator’s private thoughts and feelings through the narrator’s secret journal. Since the narrator is diagnosed with nervous depression, – “conventional women’s disease of the nineteenth century” – her husband John, who is also her physician, recommends that her treatment be a rest cure, where she is not allowed to do anything active, especially reading and writing (Treichler, 1984, p.61). Treichler writes that during that time, doctors dictated this therapy because it was believed that too much intellectual stimulation would cause women to experience this illness (1984). But, because the narrator insists that the freedom to read and write would improve her condition, she decides to keep a secret journal as an outlet for her thoughts and imagination (Gilman, 1892).

The theme of this novel is to look at the good you do in life and how it carries over after your death. The moral of the book is; "People can make changes in their lives whenever they really want to, even right up to the end."

The reader must take into consideration the word choice when analyzing this story, for it is here where Gilman hits her strides and gives an early look into how the story will develop. “Pronounced enough to irritate the eye”, depression is made evident early in the story. “Provoke Study”, John knows not the cause of his wife’s emotions, himself as a physician prescribes dealing with the illness in a moderate way. An aspect of this is the reduction in intellectual play, also known as a rest cure, in which the stimulation of the mind is thought to have a negative effect on women dealing with depression. In our characters case, once an avid writer is now told to put down the pen, she later confers her belief of the wonders of “congenial work (2)” and change in response to her current condition. The reader then acknowledges the perspective of women in society, where her treatment or response is simply ignored so much that it leads to her sly ways of writing. Immediately following this comes the most certain anecdote dealing with depression. “When you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide” (2) Gilman’s boldness to this statement leaves the reader with little interpretation. The reader is taken to acknowledge the dark theme Gilman so wishes to employ. “Plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. (2)” The woman in question eventually plunges into madness due to the deficiency in life’s joy. She destroys her ability to cope with the wallpaper (depression). Eventually seeing a reflection of herself in it, she delves into it. This all happens during a 4-month span and it is only in the end to which John sees the effect and toll it has taken on his beloved wife, destroyed in an “un-heard of contradiction”.

The critical nature of modern society causes people being judged to feel isolated, ashamed, and worthless. Due to this, contemporary individuals believe that they have to be perfect, in appearance and character traits, in order to conform with others. As a result, people spend tremendous amounts of time developing certain traits to make themselves more likeable. Unfortunately, they are missing vital information regarding the danger of positive personality traits. Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis, authors of The Boy in the Suitcase, and Julia Alvarez, author of In the Time of the Butterflies, investigate the transformation of positive character traits into tragic flaws through their main characters. In their novels, the authors

Human behavior is often based of the laws and expectations set by community surrounding them. Breaking these norms results in many arrays of emotions. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, and The Help by Kathryn Stockett all exemplify the consequences of breaking standards in societies with set norms to uphold. The various authors have crafted societies that behave in distinct manners, and classify people as either normal, or abnormal. These works show that breaking societal standards, familial standards, and ones own standards sprouts disaster, and in serious cases, leads to the demise of characters.

Logically, we must first analyze the nature of these women’s personal confinements and establish that their marriages were, in fact, prison-like in design. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, female author Charlotte Perkins Gilman develops a clear power dynamic between her main character, Jane, and her husband, John. Meant to aid as a representation of all/most of men in marriage, John’s tendency to assert entitled dominance over Jane indicates the overall tendency of marriage to encourage male superiority. As Jane explains why they happened to recently move into their current house, mainly due to her “nervous condition”, she asserts that despite him being a doctor, “John does not know how much [she] really [suffers]. He knows there is no reason

The depiction of gender roles and the stigma of mental illness in “The Yellow Wallpaper” can be taken different ways. When reading the actual work, the narrator really does seem to have a very difficult time in her life. It is obvious through several of the articles that he has had a difficult time trying to find her identity, and it has shown through her mental stability. The comparison of the Panopticon method and Gilman’s own experiences, helps to provide a clearer view as to what she was actually experiencing in the time that she was confined to her room. Even though by the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman seems to have escaped from the thing that was holding her back, did she really escape completely?

In the midst of a tragedy, a person’s morals and ethics can be put to the test. Under certain stressors, a person can make decisions that drastically change the outcome of their situation. This is shown comparatively in the readings Trifles by Susan Glaspell and Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Manson. Both readings contain societies with stereotypical gender roles that impact the ethics of the women and men in the stories while also making the characters questions their own morals.

The reader can conclude that Lola doesn’t respect men using the evidence of her expressed opinions whenever she comes in contact with one. On the other hand, Lola adores her father and is the only man she will ever love. Unfortunately, Lola finds her father dead and later discovers the cause was from a heart attack and stress. She describes, “I sat there trying to blank my mind it was too much” (208).

     Throughout the story, Gilman holds us attentive and sympathetic due to the specific positioning of the narrator; the narrator confides in us and us alone. The whole story is told as journal entries and personal thoughts. In reading the journal entries we fell privileged and intimate. Yet it is the personal thoughts that actually hold us captive in the realm of lunacy, a literal invitation into an insane mind in which we have no other option rather than actually "seeing" the twisted world that she sees, through her own eyes.

The narrator deals with a deep depression, forced by the direction of her physician to stay in a locked room and unable to think or express herself. Gilman wrote this story based upon events that happened in her life. After the birth of her first child, Gilman sank into depression and suffered nervous breakdowns. She was not only forbid to work, but her doctor applied the rest cure, which caused to come near borderline mental ruin. Gilman portrayed her emotions in that

A fundamental theme throughout Gilman’s work is that the narrator is not allowed to go to her creative outlet, or be around people who might elicit creativity. She should not be able to express herself due to John’s prescription of the “rest cure”, which resorts to her keeping a hidden journal. Gilman presents men in her narrator’s life as having high standing in the medical world, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression--a slight

Written in 1986, during the beginning of the feminist movement’s opposition, Margret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. This novel, which contemplates on the 1980’s political group, The New Right movement and it’s severe antifeminist messages, provides a bleak future on what might had followed if they had succeeded in getting power: Women getting reduced into being mere objects. Atwood wrote this novel as a warning to warn society about what females stand to lose if feminism was to fail. The masculine authority within The Republic of Gilead, assigns women to various classes and their functions: The Aunts, The Handmaids, The Martha’s, and The Econo-wives.

The theme of karma is prompted when the anonymous author, a self-loathing alcoholic , describes the unparalleled pleasure he receives from emotionally abusing the women he dates. He causes this mortifying abuse through a slow process beginning with, stealing the oxygen by making the opposite sex fall in love with him and then proceeding to spit it back in the face of the targeted by breaking their hearts as soon as he knows they are hooked. Trying to avoid the fate of his actions he attends AA classes to sober up and get a job, but meets a young, aspiring photographer in New York and falls in love with her.

Throughout all works of world literature, certain passages will have special significance to the plot progression of that novel. This key passage must provide insight upon the overall theme of that work through characterization, symbolism, and imagery. In Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, the passage selected for commentary uses the literary techniques of archetype, foreshadow, and symbolism to inform characterization. The concept of consanguineous love affairs is also reinforced in this passage along with the idea of the necessity of outside influence on a family. These concepts inform the characterization of