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The Yellow Wallpaper Comparison Essay

Decent Essays

The two texts I am going to analyse are The Yellow Wallpaper and The Picture of Dorian Gray. I am going to compare and contrast the theme of madness and mystery around the main characters. Both texts were published in the era of 1890. During 29, 1890: the artist Vincent Van Gogh died in France at the age of 37 after shooting himself two days earlier. This may have inspired The Picture Of Dorian Gray as Basil is an artist who also dies as a result.
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator uses the psychological gothic genre to present the portrayal of women, women faced in a marriage, within the time frame of the 1890s. Women were seen as the “shadow” as men dominated society. This is presented throughout the book as many readers first interpitation …show more content…

The narrator describes the opening chapter in a more positive way compared to the yellow wallpaper which opens foreshadowing the upcoming event of the gothic genre. “The studio was filled with the rich odor of roses”, juxtaposes with the other text I’ve analysed which is set in a darker environment than the “summer” setting of The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Dorian is well known for his “good looks” as the narrator Basil compares him to a “brainless beauty thing, who should be always here in winter when we have no flowers to look at”. Which connotes to the fact that there may slight references to Basil being a homosexual. The chemistry between Dorian and Basil is shown strongly at the beginning as they always were in each other’s presence. During the error of the 1900s homosexuality wasn’t accepted as you would be arrested and imprisoned for the sin and in some scenarios were killed. linking this to The Picture Of Dorian Gray, I personally think Oscar Wilde was aware of the punishments and therefore hinted the theme of homosexuality but didn’t go into detail due to him being punished for this. Along with this, Oscar himself could be talking about himself in the text as he doesn’t want to reveal his sexuality due to people not accepting it, this is shown through the character of Basil in which Oscar Wilde says ‘I knew that if I spoke to Dorian I would become absolutely

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