The Yellow Wallpaper

However, the most important aspect of this room is the yellow wallpaper. The narrator despises it, loathing the colour and it’s pattern. She writes that it is “. . .dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.” (Gilman). This description of the wallpaper serves the purpose to show the reader the unjust restrictions of society that the narrator is subjected to; “. . .commentators have seen in this description of the wallpaper a general representation of “the oppressive structures of society in which [the narrator] finds herself” (Madwoman 90), . . .” (Haney-Peritz 116). The statement of “dull enough to confuse the eye” and “constantly irritating and provoking study” are alluding to the narrator’s sense of inferiority and burden while the “lame and uncertain curves” are referencing the absurd suggestions that her husband is providing. Finally the “suicide” is the unfortunate fate that is destined to occur if his counsel is followed. When describing the wallpaper the narrator writes that “The color is repellent, almost

The understanding of eighteenth-century conceptualisations of “gothic” is fundamental to our reading and interpretation of all gothic literature, with focus on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” suggests that the woman behind the wallpaper parallels the narrator’s struggle

The term “Gothic” originates from the ornate architecture created by the Germanic tribes called the Goths. This ornate and intricate style of architecture proved to be the ideal backdrop for both the physical and the psychological settings in a new literary style. This literary style coined the “gothic”, began in the mid-1700s with a story titled, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. As such, the budding genre takes influence from an architectural movement propagated by the Goths, but so too does the term reference the gothic constitution. This to say that the gothic may also be thought of as a product of the revolutionary shock besetting the whole of 18th and 19th century Europe. These polysemous definitions for the term “gothic” can be used to examine how both Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley apply and take inspiration from these interconnected definitions and influences in their respective works. The genre of literature so-called the “gothic” developed through a type of artistic and intellectual osmosis. This to say that, while both of these authors took influence from the tradition of gothic fiction, they also provided their own contribution to the tradition.

An analysis of the novel which will answer the questions like, what elements of the gothic genre are found in the book ‘The Women In Black’? Considering the characters, settings and imagery, tone and symbols.

Both Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis are leading authors within the Gothic genre. Since they are contemporaries of one another and their interpretations of the Gothic are so different, it is reasonable to expect these authors engaging in major debates about the nature of the Gothic. The fact that Radcliffe published The Italian just a year after Lewis published The Monk combined with Radcliffe’s contrasting definition of Gothic conventions from that of Lewis’s motivates literary critics to consider The Italian as a direct response to The Monk. In fact, Radcliffe’s and Lewis’s works fall into distinct categories within the Gothic genre with The Italian representing the female Gothic and The Monk epitomizing the male Gothic. As a result,

The yellow wallpaper plays a key role in supporting the theme of the short story. Gilman utilizes the wallpaper as a symbol for two things. However, the wallpaper itself is a symbol of symbol. First of all, it represents John, the husband, who is intended to represent the majority of men at that time. As the narrator’s madness grows, she begins to

There is no end to the different approaches presented in critiques of "The Yellow Wallpaper." A prominent

The gothic literary movement is a part of the larger Romantic Movement. Gothic literature shares many of the traits of romanticism, such as the emphasis on emotions and the imagination. Gothic literature goes beyond the melancholy evident in most romantic works, however, and enters into the areas of horror and decay, becoming preoccupied with death. “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe is a powerful example of gothic fiction, whereas James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans serves as the romantic predecessor, illustrating the differences and the similarities between romantic and gothic literature.

      In comparison to “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” Henrik Ibsen also brilliantly dramatizes the link between

Gothic literature has an incredibly vast and important history. It is based off of gothic architecture and became a genre in literature in the late 1700s. This genre was created by the rejection of predictability and this sent writers to the “murky past”, The Middle Ages, to write about (Snodgrass). Overall, this time period provided substantial inspiration for gothic literature because it was highly contrasting with its prominent improvements and horrible crimes. Later on, in the 18th century, gothic literature evolved from being about the Middle Ages to current problems with contemporary culture and social problems of the specific time era. Each time period and each different place in the world had different subjects that gothic literature

The dark and imaginative scope of gothic literature is reflective of the middle ages. This was a time when human curiosity was high and artists were bent on disclosing the secrets of human behavior more so the mystic and the aberrant. It was also a time when great writers fled the sanctuary of the age of reason and wrote about science fiction derived from the fields of crimes, piety and religious barbarism.

The term “gothic” originates from the ornate architecture created by the Germanic tribes called the Goths. This ornate and intricate style of architecture proved to be the ideal backdrop for both the physical and the psychological settings in a new literary style. This literary style coined the “gothic”, began in the mid-1700s with a story titled, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. The budding genre takes influence from an architectural movement propagated by the Goths, but so too does the term refer to the gothic constitution. This to say that the gothic may also be thought of as a product of the revolutionary shock besetting 18th and 19th century Europe. These polysemous definitions for the term “gothic” can be used to examine how both Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley apply and take inspiration from these interconnected definitions and influences in their respective works. The genre of literature so-called the “gothic” developed through a type of artistic and intellectual osmosis. This to say that, while both authors took influence from the tradition of gothic fiction, they also provided their own contributions.

The primary section concentrates on the introduction of the Gothic traditions. It is essential to comprehend the customary standards administering the Gothic novel in light of the fact that exactly that point does the need of imitating them to turn out to be clear. The primary part demonstrates the purposes behind

The scope of this chapter is to introduce selected Gothic novels in order to analyse Gothic elements. The Mysteries of Udolpho is presented first, since it is an exemplary novel regarded as a model of Female Gothic literature. Furthermore, four Northanger novels are compared to this model analysis to show whether it is possible to label them as copies of Radcliffe. The analysis focuses on several elements: setting, nature, supernatural, suspense and characters.