Insanity and Madness in A Rose For Emily and Yellow Wallpaper

Barbara Angelis stated “Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away” (Angelis, BrainyQuote). This statement reflects the theme of isolation and how one can truly understand themselves through self-reflection and time spent in loneliness. In the short stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, both female protagonists, experience a time of seclusion leading to self- realization. Hence, both of these pieces of literature illustrate the troubles of women in a male-dominated society. As a result, both characters experience oppression by overbearing male influences and are physically and emotionally

Emily’s father, as well as the people of Jefferson, had always pressured Emily to marry. Her father was never able to find a match for her though, and he eventually passed. Emily then met Homer Barron, a contract worker for the town. They begin to see each other more often, and the townspeople are shocked that Emily would lower herself to being with a man of low class. This shows a bit of irony, in that there has always been pressure for Emily to marry, yet when she finally meets a man she loves, people think she is wrong in her decision. Another piece of irony in this relationship, comes after Emily dies. The body of Homer Barron is found in the attic of Emily’s home. Next to the body are signs that Emily had been sleeping next the corpse. It can be assumed that Emily did murder Homer with the arsenic she had purchased earlier in the story. It

Emily simply wanted to be freed from her father past control and from being a proper lady. After what look like she was going to get married, her boyfriend Homer just disappeared. After Homer's disappearance Emily was not the same. She barely left the house and kept aging terribly. At the end she died and the towns folk discovered that she had kept Homer’s body and a head.

In the story, “A Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator tells her story of her life living with her husband and she comes off as a distressed, morose wife. In “A Rose for Emily” Emily is struggling with keeping a tradition in her family and is also and also distressed. Both women deal with the struggles of their husbands who do not give them attention or treat them well. They both show similarities in their qualities of life. In William Faulkner's, “A Rose for Emily” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” both have female characters who have to endure and overcome struggles of loneliness, isolation, insanity, and depression as the female protagonist.

In the Victorian era, women were thought to be weaker than men, thus prone to frailty and "female problems." They were unable to think for themselves and only valuable as marriage material. The women in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" are driven insane because they feel pigeonholed by the men in their lives. They retreat into their own respective worlds as an escape from reality, and finally rebel in the only ways they can find.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator stays at a house with her husband John, and his sister Jennie, to help cure her nervousness. The narrator is under strict regime during her stay at the house, due to her husband, who is also her physician. You would think that a physician would treat an ill patient with the upmost care, but that is not the case in this short story. John forbids her to write or have any visitors that are too stimulating. He makes all the decisions for her, and eventually, she’s driven insane.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose For Emily” both have insanity when they stay in a

In Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator is being treated as a child by her husband. He is dismissive of her worries and “assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression” (Gilman 956). She was not happy with the decision to remove herself from society, but her husband felt it would be the best choice for her. She does not go against her husband because he is a doctor and knows what is best for her. His decision is also supported by her brother who is also a physician. He has restricted her every move, so that she can rest and get well. The isolation the narrator feels has contributed to her mental decline. She is unable to “stir without special direction” (Gilman 957) from her husband. Emily Grierson chose to isolate herself from family and the community even after her father’s death. The narrator’s choice was

In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Gilman, the narrator descends into rebellious insanity through the course of the story. In the selected passage both the unreasonableness that is her mental insanity and her rebellious nature can be seen. Both of these attributes can be noticed clearly when directed at the husband. The husband can be seen as the fuel for both of this woman’s struggles, her struggle for freedom and her struggle with the disease. Through the course of this selection the narrator’s relationship with her husband can be seen degrading and ultimately falling apart, as the narrator loses trust of her husband and begins to resent his presence.

Both men and women support patriarchy, men and women can both be equally hurt by patriarchy, but individually men and women are hurt in different ways. Patriarchy is a system in a society where the father, or the oldest male or even the husband, is the head of the household, also the family’s descent is traced back through the male’s line. Although patriarchy can still be found in today’s day and age, it is a subject that is argued about often. Both William Faulkner and Charlotte Perkins Gilman address this issue in both their stories “A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, respectively. William Faulkner gives a depiction that Emily needed the feeling of control, whether that is being controlled or by controlling someone, which may

Introduction The presentation of both A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman unearths certain striking similarities and noticeable differences. While the similarities and differences are wide ranging, the scope of this paper only allows limited coverage that focusses on the treatment of the woman and narration. Notably, the similarities and differences help to highlight the plight of women in increasingly patriarchal communities. Similarities between the texts

After living so long as a victim of loneliness perpetrated by her father, Emily decides that she will be vindicated-she will have her man. She orders a toiletry set to be engraved with Homer's initials, purchases an outfit and a nightshirt for him, and buys the arsenic that is to seal his fate. When the townspeople enter her house for the first time in forty years, they find a bridal tomb: a tarnished toiletry set, a neatly pressed suit, and a rotting Homer Baron clad in the nightshirt wearing a "profound and fleshless grin" (87).

At the end of the story “A Rose For Emily” the town folk finally make their way into Ms. Emily's home. I don't think anyone expected to find the bizarre scene that they found themselves stumbling across. Mr. Homer is found dead and decaying in this bed wearing the shirt that people had seen Ms. Emily buying for him. If thats not bad enough it almost seems as if Ms. Emily had been laying in the bed next to him. Possibly cuddling up to his dead body. It is mentioned throughout the text that Ms. Emily's father had scared off many of men over the years before his death, leaving her a single woman over the age of 30. The question is never answered as to weather Ms. Emily killed Mr. Homer or not, but you cant help but question it. I think Mrs. Emily

A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper are similar to each other. These stories both take place in the same era which is when men are the most powerful and orders woman around. In both “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman experience struggles within their society throughout their respective stories. In “ A Rose for Emily” Her father is very demanding and very dominant to Emily. As in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is ordered around by her husband and telling her what she needs to do in order to get well.

Her first appearance of insanity when her father died, since he was the only one that closed to her so she refused to accept that he's dead: "She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body." (page 486) Later when Emily met Homer Barron, "a Yankee - a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face." (page 487), she fell in love with him. However, people thought that it is a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people because they Emily was a Southerner while Homer was a Northerner and also a laborer: "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer." (page 487) Because of all the rejecting from the people in town and her relatives that pushed her to the edge and into insanity, Emily did what she could to stay with her lover even kill him.