Is It Happily Ever After, or Happily Never After? Romance, most women want the fairy tale. Man, and woman meet, man sweeps woman off her feet, they fall madly in love, they get married, and then they live happily ever after. However, the saying of happily ever after is questionable in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. In both stories the women are in one sided relationships where the men tend to dictate what the women will do and how they will feel, which in turn creates conflict in the relationships. Hemingway and Gilman use a similar portrayal of the women being oppressed and who give into the demands of their men at the expense of their own happiness, however Hemingway’s male character appears to be more loving and affectionate and the female tends to be a little more outspoken while Gilman’s male character is more of a dictator and the female quieter. The main female characters in both The Yellow Wallpaper and Hills Like White Elephants are seemingly weak and vulnerable which is brought on by their men, while the men in each story are the primary decision makers. The communication going on between the girl, called Jig and her boyfriend, the American in the story, Hills Like White Elephants, is not an honest one. The boyfriend seems to lead the conversation whereas the girl is quiet. They are talking about an operation, which is believed to be an abortion. The boyfriend never says the term abortion, he continues to call it an operation that is no big deal to manipulate her into thinking that it really is
Francis 2 not a big deal at all. He even states that it really isn’t even an operation. The boyfriend keeps insisting that they will be happy after it is done and that the baby is making them unhappy. He states, “That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.” (Hemingway 924) He was referring to the baby. The girl questions him asking if he thinks they will be happy afterward to which his reply is “I know we will.” (Hemingway 925) The girl is clearly torn on what to do, but the man has his mind made up that he does not want the baby or care about it. He does not even understand that when she
The man, however, is not the sole contributor to the communication breakdown. Right away the girl begins to show her weakness and inability to express herself. When the man initially directs the conversation to the operation (abortion), her reaction is described: "The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on [and] . . . did not say anything" (275). Failure to state her conviction is illustrated in this example, and is further indicated by frail hints of her desire to keep the baby: "Once they take it away, you never get it back" (276). An obvious hint, yet she never clearly voices her hunger to have the baby. She continues to desire his will over hers in lines such as this one: "Then I?ll do it [have an abortion]. Because I don?t care about me" (275).
Both of these short novels told stories about couples with relationship issues. Both stories spoke of people with conflicting interests. In "Hills like White Elephants" the girl Jig, loved The American and wanted to have his child. I feel as if she might have seen the child as something that would strengthen her and The American’s bond. The only actual want or care the American seemed to portray was that he just wanted things to go back to normal between the two. To me it was as if he didn’t want any strings attached to the relations he was having with this girl. I felt as if Jig cared more about The American than he cared for her. I also think that if the American hadn’t said anything to Jig about having an abortion and simply allowed her to have the child; they would have more than likely ended up like the couple in Bobbie Ann Mason’s story, where they would run out of things to say and eventually end up parting ways because of either their different wants out of life or their conflicting views on issues would have kept getting in the way. There were also various dissimilarities between the characters Leroy and Norma Jean in the story “Shiloh”. In "Shiloh" the woman Norma is pushing herself to become a better person; she works out, goes to school and practices her music. Her husband enjoys sitting around, building models, and smoking weed. They were two people going
Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.
Through history women have fought for equal rights and freedom. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. In the nineteenth century, women in literature were often portrayed as submissive to men. Literature of this period often characterized women as oppressed by society, as well as by the male influences in their lives. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as second-class citizens. Two interesting short stories, "Hills like White Elephants" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" focus on a woman's plight near the turn of the nineteenth century. Both authors, Hemmingway and Gilman, leave an open end to the stories and allow readers to create
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.
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.
She is just trying to do what he wants to do, to please him, even though she does not like it. He says that, "It's really an awfully simple operation…not really an operation at all.'; He does not know the feelings and pressure that the girl is under, and not being the person who has to have the operation, he could say that easily. However, if he really cared about her, he should listen to her inner thoughts. There should be a more serious and honest conversation between these people. The girl should not compromise if it bothers her, and she should clearly state what she thinks. What the girl wants is not the sweet words such as, "I love you now,'; or "I care about you,'; but real action where he shows his caring and loving by truly understanding her.
The ending of the story is rather ambiguous as it is not completely obvious what decision the two end up making. The man could have talked the girl into undergoing the procedure, or not. At one point toward the end, Jig tells him to “please please please please please please please stop talking”, and when he doesn’t she threatens to scream. This probably means that she had made up her mind, but it could be in either direction. In the end, she smiles at him, and he asks her if she feels better; she says that she feels fine. That could mean that she had made peace with the decision to abort their child or that she was proud of herself for finally standing up to him and making her choice not to abort final. Either way, making this choice is harder on her as she would be the one to undergo the operation, and she very well knows that he most likely will not stay with her if she decides to keep the child. No matter what she chooses, however, their relationship will never be the same.
The narrator in the novel “The Yellow Wallpaper ” and the main character, Lily, in the novel “The House of Mirth” are both women in the 19th century. They both face the gender roles driven by the society they live in. The gender politics imprison the women physically and mentally. While both women struggle to find their place in their gender roles, only the narrator survives, whereas, Lily falls victim to society and perishes.
In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, both women are suffering from emotional situations. This pain is coming from the controlling male influences in there lives. The protagonist in “A rose for Emily” is a young, slender girl who is tormented by her father’s influence in her life. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane, is a wife who is suffering from post partum and loneliness. Both of these women suffer from similar emotional depression, but differ in the way they go about becoming free.
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.
One similarity between the two works is the that we are limited on where we get our information. Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” we see everything through the eyes of the narrator. The entire story is told from her secret diary when she has the time to write as shown in the line, “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal-having to be so sly about it” (Gilman 527). Due to this, we can only make assumptions based on the information we get from her. She tells us she is in “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate” (Gilman 526) and that she stays in “a big, airy room…It was a nursery first and then a playroom and gymnasium” (Gilman 527). However, once we reach the end of the story, with the
He tells her that she does not have to have the operation, but tells her it is the best thing to do. The girl begins to think, “And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be okay like they were and you'll love me” (Hemingway 107)? He reassures her that he loves her now. Jig is more realistic about the situation and the consequences in front of her. She knows that she is going to make the ultimate decision, although she is asking for reassurance from the American(Short Stories for Students). The girl also knows that regardless of her situation, their relationship might not work out anyway. The choice to abort or not abort the baby ultimately leaves her with the same consequence: life without the American.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Sinclair Ross’s “The Painted Door” are both stories about women protagonists who feel emotionally isolated from their husbands, who both go by the name John. Ann in “The Painted the Door” and the wife whose name may or may not be Jane in “The Yellow Wallpaper” are women who deal with emotional isolation. Emotional isolation is a state of isolation where one may be in a relationship but still feel emotional separation. In these two stories, both women feel emotionally isolated from their husbands due to lack of communication. In both stories, lack of communication results from one individual failing to disclose their true feelings and instead he or she are beating around the bush, hoping the other party will know what they want. If both parties directly disclose their desires and feelings to one another, there would be a better understanding of each other which as a result would help save marriages. This paper will look at how both women lack communication, how they both their approach their emotional isolation differently, and how their failure to communicate to their husbands and their approach, results in the failure to save their marriage. “The Painted Door” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” are stories that show how both women protagonists are emotionally isolated due to their failure to communicate their feelings and desires to their husbands. Instead of direct communication to their husbands, the women find other
In comparison with Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, both female’s thoughts and feelings are oppressed under the demanding obedience of the male. With this being the case, can the women in both stories honestly believe their truly happy with whom they want to spend their lives with? In these two short stories, the females are both being portrayed as characters that capitulate to the demands of their male-orientated significant others, causing the distressing departure of the connection between these relationships.