Loneliness to Insanity and Madness in A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wall-Paper

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper” we are introduced to a woman who enjoys writing. Gilman does not give the reader the name of the women who narrates the story through her stream of consciousness. She shares that she has a nervous depression condition. John, the narrator’s husband feels it is “a slight hysterical tendency” (266). She has been treated for some nervous habits that she feels are legitimately causing harm to her way of life. However she feels her husband, a physician, and her doctor believe that she is embellishing her condition. The woman shares with the reader early in the story that she is defensive of how others around her perceive her emotional state. This causes a small abrasion of animosity that

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

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s "The Yellow Wall-Paper," does more than just tell the story of a woman who suffers at the hands of 19th century quack medicine. Gilman created a protagonist with real emotions and a real psych that can be examined and analyzed in the context of modern psychology. In fact, to understand the psychology of the unnamed protagonist is to be well on the way to understanding the story itself. "The Yellow Wall-Paper," written in first-person narrative, charts the psychological state of the protagonist as she slowly deteriorates into schizophrenia (a disintegration of the personality).

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

In William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” his main character Miss Emily Grierson’s deranged behavior leaves the reader questioning her mental status.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” symbolizes the restrictions and limitations imposed onto women by their domestic life and the dominant patriarchal society. Due to the patriarchal society, the narrator’s husband is considered as the head of the family; therefore, the narrator has to comply and obey him. When her husband decides to treat her nervous troubles with the “rest cure”, she doesn’t have the power to act upon her husband’s decision, even though she believes “that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her] good”. Especially since her husband is a physician, she has to respect his decisions since that is his field of expertise. All she is able to do is express these thoughts in her journal, but even with that, she has to do in

Homer entered her life by courting her publicly; by not wanting to marry her, he would have robbed her of her dignity and high-standing in the community. The ladies of the town felt that Miss Emily was not setting a good example for the "younger people" and their affair was becoming a "disgrace to the town" (75). The traditions, customs, and prejudices of the South doomed this affair from the beginning. Emily could not let Homer live, but she could not live without him. He was her only love. When she poisoned him with arsenic, she believed he would be hers forever.

In the short stories “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper”” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonists experience mental illness, loneliness, feelings of being in control of their lives, and feelings of being insane. Both main characters struggle against male domination and control. The two stories take place in the late 1800’s - early 1900’s, a time where men’s place in society was superior to that of women. Each story was written from a different perspective and life experiences. “A Rose for Emily” was written by a man and told in third personal narration, while “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by a female and told in first person.

During this time, women were considered weak, ignorant, and fragile. They were expected to be home makers that could not do anything independently. Both authors used minor characters to support that belief. Gilman used Jennie who was the husband’s sister, and Faulkner used Tobe, Emily’s servant. At the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator was ripping the wallpaper off the walls trying to help “the woman” get out of the wall or “prison”. She said to her husband, “And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” This shows that she is independent. She is proving to her husband that she can get out of this literary cage without anyone’s help. She might’ve lost her sanity, but she finally became

In “A Rose for Emily” she grows up with her father who was very controlling over Emily’s life. He controlled all aspects of her life such as any men who were interested in Emily were sent away by her father. This kept Emily isolated from everyone in the town and she never left her house. According to Watkins “The Structure of ‘A Rose For Emily, “The inviolability of Miss Emily’s isolation is maintained in the central division, part three, which no outsider enters her home.” In “The Yellow Wallpaper” it is shown that the female narrator is desolate and is put in an attic room away from everyone. It is also revealed that she is not treated fairly or well taken care of when her husband who is a physician does not help her get better. From “Gender in The Yellow Wallpaper” Carmen Esposito says “However, her husband never

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two well written short stories that entail both similarities and differences. Both short stories were written in the late 1800’s early 1900’s and depict the era when women were viewed less important than men. The protagonist in each story is a woman, who is confined in solitary due to the men in their lives. The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” is the mutual voice of the townspeople of Jefferson, while Emily Grierson is the main character in the story that undergoes a sequence of bad events. The unnamed, female narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is also the main character whose journal we read. This difference in tense gives each story a

Just as Emily is destroyed by her father's over-protectiveness, the first-person narrator of "The Yellow Wall-Paper," is secluded from both life and reality by her over-protective husband. The narrator is both creative and eccentric; her husband is "practical in the extreme" (160). She believes that "congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her] good" (160). Her husband, however, believes in the strength of conventional medicine such as the "rest cure" for nervous diseases (164). Like Emily's father who denies her a family and a life of her own, the husband of Gilman's narrator denies not only her desire to write, but also her craving for "society and stimulus" as she struggles to find a creative outlet (160). This appears a type of solitary confinement for such a creative being, and it should come as no surprise that she is crazed after months of lying in bed with no company other than

First, in “A Rose For Emily” written by William Faulkner, the isolation found in the story and the male superiority are shown throughout the story. Emily Grierson’s father is strict, in addition he protects Emily by chasing away all the men in her life. In the story the protagonist who is Emily Grierson, she had a controlling father. He believed that she was to good for any man, because of this belief her father would chase away all the men in her life who would chase after her. Nevertheless her father’s teachings from when she was younger, when she was younger her father forced her to make a choice between due two ideas.

Ms. Emily loves the man so much that she does not want to him with other women, so she poisons him with arsenic. She loves Homer with all she has that when he dies she sleeps with his corpse until the day she dies. “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indention of a head… we saw a long

In the early dawn, before Homer’s unanticipated disappearing, he traveled to Miss Emily’s house. He had made plans to take Miss Emily out to a fancy restaurant outside of town, but this was not the case in his misfortune. When he got there, he saw Emily holding a ring with his first and last name, initials,H.B, printed on the shiny, pure silver ring that would fit his finger perfectly. Instead of speaking to her calmly, he then snatched the ring out of her small hands and threw it into the now flaming fireplace across the room. Miss Emily had a depressing look in her eyes as she watched the ring fly across the room as if in slow motion. Miss Emily now realized that this change of events has led her to feel the same as when her father died.“Must I tell you over and over again woman? I am not a marrying man!” Homer exclaimed with anger boiling inside him. “How could you do such a terrible, awfully rude thing such as that? I spent so much money on that ring to give it to you as a gift for redeeming my