Jessica Flores Flores 1 Mitchell Eng 1123 English Composition II 6 October 2011 The Effect of Surroundings in “Paul’s Case” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” In Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” readers are introduced to two different characters who have similar outlooks on the living situations that they have each been forced into. Paul and the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” feel trapped by their surroundings, but the way they attempt to solve their problems is different. The authors vividly describe the feelings of the protagonists toward their respective environments, and the use of tone, style and symbolism allows the reader to connect with the protagonists. …show more content…
When Paul finds out that he was being tracked down, he uses what is left of the stolen money to escape into the countryside where he finds an overpass and ends up jumping in front of a train to end his life. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is told she needs to rest constantly to overcome her sickness, so she is forced to stay in the old nursery where there is yellow-orange wallpaper with a busy, obnoxious pattern that she hates. She tries to study the wallpaper to distinguish the pattern, and as time goes on she believes she sees a woman moving around in the background of the pattern. Also, during this period of time the character’s condition is worsening, because her husband is causing her mind to weaken by not allowing her to exert herself at all; he says she is not to think about her condition, walk through the garden or visit family. All she can do is sleep and trace the wallpaper, and being cooped up in the room causes her to begin hallucinating. The narrator sees the woman trying to escape from the wallpaper throughout the night, and she ultimately completely breaks down and believes that she is the woman. In both stories, the authors use symbolism to show the reader the impact that the characters’ surroundings had on them. Paul reacted by running away and trying to make his dream world a reality. In the end, he decided that he would rather end his life than to return to the mundane lifestyle he left behind. The narrator of
He realizes just like his father and his mother he is using drug and alcohol to cope with his pain is slowly killing them. Paul still didn’t know if he wants to live or die so he flirts with the idea of death, but he stops himself at the last second.
The woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is slowly deteriorating in mental state. When she first moves into the room in the old house, the wallpaper intrigues her. Its pattern entrances her and makes her wonder about its makeup. But slowly her obsession with the wallpaper grows, taking over all of
Instructed to abandon her intellectual life and avoid stimulating company, she sinks into a still-deeper depression invisible to her husband, which is also her doctor, who believes he knows what is best for her. Alone in the yellow-wallpapered nursery of a rented house, she descends into madness. Everyday she keeps looking at the torn yellow wallpaper. While there, she is forbidden to write in her journal, as it indulges her imagination, which is not in accordance with her husband's wishes. Despite this, the narrator makes entries in the journal whenever she has the opportunity. Through these entries we learn of her obsession with the wallpaper in her bedroom. She is enthralled with it and studies the paper for hours. She thinks she sees a woman trapped behind the pattern in the paper. The story reaches its climax when her husband must force his way into the bedroom, only to find that his wife has pulled the paper off the wall and is crawling around the perimeter of the room.
Also, if his parents hadn’t led to Paul he wouldn’t have hated his brother and been afraid of him for so long. In the novel Tangerine by Edward Bloor Paul has made many life changing choices. He made some huige decisions but he also made very small
Lawrence shows many points by applying these obvious symbols: the rocking horse and the whispering house. The wooden rocking horse symbolizes the fantasy quest that Paul takes to attain luck. This magical mysterious wooden horse also tells Paul who will win the horse races. The whispering house symbolizes his mother’s lust for money. The house constantly haunts Paul and his siblings with the
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is the story of a woman descending into psychosis in a creepy tale which depicts the harm of an old therapy called “rest cure.” This therapy was used to treat women who had “slight hysterical tendencies” and depression, and basically it consisted of the inhibition of the mental processes. The label “slight hysterical tendency” indicates that it is not seen as a very important issue, and it is taken rather lightly. It is also ironic because her illness is obviously not “slight” by any means, especially towards the end when the images painted of her are reminiscent of a psychotic, maniacal person, while she aggressively tears off wallpaper and confuses the real world with her alternative world she has
A lifelong dream of Paul occurs when he makes the trip to New York City. The trip to New York City gives Paul the opportunity to live the life he always dreamed of. After being forced to leave his job as an usher at Carnegie Hall Paul gets a job working at Denny and Carson’s office firm. He gets the money to go to New York City by taking the money
Author Charlotte P. Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a complex short story that discusses the thoughts and feelings of a woman who is kept confined in a small upstairs bedroom by her husband. The woman suffers from depression and anxiety, yet her spouse whom is a physician claims that she is not terribly ill. Despite all the strange thoughts she acquires, she continues to force herself to accept her new life style and awkward place of living. As she comes to find herself overwhelmed with her personal bedroom, we soon discover that the room’s yellow wallpaper is what affects her directly and is the reason for her many interpretations. The symbols in the story take a great part in the overall plot and
Paul’s first ambition, writing, would become his final task. When Breath Becomes Air, was unfinished and derailed because of Paul’s rapid decline. But this is an essential component of the truth of the reality Paul faced. “During the last year of his life, Paul wrote relentlessly, fueled by purpose, motivated by a ticking clock.” This example taken from the epilogue directly shows Paul’s strength and his ability to never
The vivid descriptions in “The Yellow Wallpaper” help to bring the reader along in the narrators decent into a kind of psychosis. It starts mildly, with her describing the color of wallpaper as “repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow” (Gilman 528). As more time passes she begins to see more things in the paper such as “a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes start at you,” and for it have “so much expression in an inanimate thing” (Gilman 592). As the pattern and descriptions get more twisted, we get visual clues of the madness that is slowly consuming the narrator. The color of the paper even begins to become a physical thing she can smell descried as, “creep[ing] all over the house...sulking...hiding...lying in wait for me…It gets into my hair” (Gilman 534). In the end we get a graphic visual representation of her full psychosis
Paul feels completely isolated home, which is where he should feel safe and secure. He feels as though he needs to hide who he is to prevent facing his father. After Paul comes home late from work he attempts to sneak in, for the fear of facing his father makes him nervous and visibly uncomfortable, showing his complete disconnect. “Then, again, suppose a day should come when his father would remember that night and wish there had been no warning cry to stay his hand?” (Cather). Paul feels so isolated from his father that he contemplates whether or not his dad wants him alive. The secluded nature of Paul’s personality informs the reader on how Paul may be struggling with who he is, not only in his father’s eyes, but in his own as well. The reader can tell that Paul is lonely, and the theater is his only means of escape. The grandeur lifestyle intrigues him and that is something his father will never understand. The attachment and pleasure he gets from viewing the upscale, rich art brings him so much happiness, his father does not understand that huge part of his life; ultimately, leading to their broken
Throughout history, women have struggled to be seen as equals and have had to fight for their freedom from the roles society placed upon them. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman both use their literary works to show the challenges women went through, and how they battled for the freedoms they desperately wanted. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman that goes to a summer home to rest and get well under the supervision of her husband who is also a physician. Her husband decided it would be best if she sat in a room alone and did nothing. In the end, she becomes insane and finally finds her freedom. “The Story of An Hour” is about, Mrs. Mallard, a woman who has just found out her husband has died. Mrs. Mallard
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a nervous wife, an overprotective husband, and a large, dank room covered in musty wallpaper all play important parts in driving the wife insane. The husband's smothering attention, combined with the isolated environment, incites the nervous nature of the wife, causing her to plunge into insanity to the point she sees herself in the wallpaper. The author's masterful use of not only the setting (of both time and place), but also of first person point of view, allows the reader to participate in the woman's growing insanity.
This story is basically about a little boy sacrificing his life for his selfish, ungrateful, materialistic, and oblivious mother. She never acknowledged that he was only doing this to get her attention. She only cared about the money nothing else nothing more. My heart goes out to Paul because he died not knowing whether he accomplished his main
Trapped in the upstairs of an old mansion with barred windows and disturbing yellow colored wallpaper, the main character is ordered by her husband, a physician, to stay in bed and isolate her mind from any outside wandering thoughts. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, describes the digression of the narrator’s mental state as she suffers from a form of depression. As the story progresses, the hatred she gains for the wallpaper amplifies and her thoughts begin to alter her perception of the room around her. The wallpaper serves as a symbol that mimics the narrator’s trapped and suffering mental state while she slips away from sanity reinforcing the argument that something as simple as wallpaper can completely