The Yellow Wallpaper
Introduction
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century modernism gained great importance in fictive writing. Mentioning modernist writing, one of the first, most influential authors that should come to one’s mind is Virginia Woolf. The following work will take a closer look at her short story “The Mark on The Wall” as well as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” regarding gender roles and feminist perspective that is portrayed in these short stories. Both stories focus on the objects which are first mentioned in the title of each story. Although they might seem to be insignificant for the reader they reappear several times throughout each story, guiding the narrator’s thought process. Moreover, a closer look
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In the beginning the differences are not quite obvious. One thinks about what they see, the thoughts drift off, leading to further thoughts. Yet, as the stories evolve, the differences become more obvious. Woolf’s protagonist first thinks of the mark, then thoughts about historical events, life in general and metacognition follow, always leading back to the mark. The protagonist of Gilman’s story begins to think about the house and the garden, then she thinks about the room and its history until she starts thinking about the wallpaper and her mind is so fixed on it that she becomes obsessed with it. The mark and the wallpaper evoke different thoughts and feelings for each protagonist. Hence, when looking beyond the surface one realises that the topics are not as similar as they appear to be in the beginning. The only thing they have in common is that in both stories the walls or rather the wallpaper and the mark play a significant role. As Harker states, “‘The Mark on The Wall’ is a story of a body actively working to control its vision” (8) in which the protagonist is preoccupied by the mark on the wall. Whereas, “The Yellow Wallpaper” as described by Kolodny tells the story of a woman with “a sane mind entrapped in an insanity-inducing situation” (154). In this case the protagonist is not preoccupied by the wallpaper, but much rather becomes obsessed with it. …show more content…
The topics both stories deal with vary in such a way
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Identity In The Yellow Wallpaper
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1292 Words | 6 PagesThe woman the narrator spots appears to be trapped within a bar like pattern of the wallpaper, as she moves the pattern she tries to break free. It could be argued that, the woman is a symbol of femininity. As the narrators insanity deepens, she believes she is trapped within the wallpaper too. Unable to break free from the wallpaper, like the narrator, the woman in the wallpaper has only the stereotypical option of taking the role as a wife or mother.
The Yellow Wallpaper Point Of View Analysis
814 Words | 4 PagesThe short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story full of imaginative symbolism and descriptive settings. However, without the narrator’s unique point of view and how it affects her perception of her environment, the story would fail to inform the reader of the narrator’s emotional plummet. The gothic function of the short story is to allow the reader to be with the narrator as she gradually loses her sanity and the point of view of the narrator is key in ensuring the reader has an understanding of the narrator’s emotional and mental state throughout the story. It’s clear from the beginning of the story that the narrator’s point of view greatly differs from that of her husband’s and other family in her life.
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562 Words | 3 Pages(678) in this statement she is challenging herself and this shows the reader she is facing some confusion. The yellow wallpaper in the main characters (the narrator) bedroom is a major point in the story. The yellow wallpaper plays a major role in the woman’s insanity. The woman’s obsession with the wallpaper creates her problem and affects her mind and judgment. This is shown in, “It dwells on my mind so!”
Yellow Wallpaper Sane
611 Words | 3 PagesThis observation also serves as the narrator recognizing the paper’s, or boundary’s, relevance to herself; she sees a “woman”--a reflection of herself--trapped behind the paper, confined by that thin line that separates herself from total insanity. Her behavior becomes obsessive: she keeps a constant vigil of the wallpaper at night, and claims that the woman behind the wallpaper “is all the time trying to climb through” (348). And the narrator aids her escape--as soon as she is given the opportunity: “I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper” (349). The destruction of the wallpaper is symbolic of her fully delving into the world of insanity. From this point
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484 Words | 2 PagesThe woman was obsessed with the wallpaper she begins to hallucinate that something was creeping on her. She had locked herself in the room and would not let anyone in the bedroom with her because she was trying to trap the creeper that she thought she saw. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” say,“‘Open the door, my darling!’ , ‘I can’t,’ said I. ‘ The key is down by the front door under a plantain leaf’”
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Tobias Wolff Bullet In The Brain Analysis
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Literary Criticism Of The Yellow Wallpaper
802 Words | 4 PagesIt 's here where she discovers the yellow wallpaper that leads to her mental demise. What is the symbolic meaning of the yellow wallpaper and how do her interactions with the wallpaper represent the change in her feelings towards her husband and society. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes women 's suffrage and the struggles women went through, and her interactions with the wallpaper represent the problems woman had with their husbands and society. The main symbolism present in the story is how the yellow wallpaper represents woman suffrage and the problems they endured during the 19th century.
What Is Feminism In The Yellow Wallpaper
1155 Words | 5 PagesEnclosed to the four wall of this “big” room, the narrator says “the paint and paper look as if a boy’s school had used it” because “it is stripped off” indicating that males have attempted to distort women’s truth but somehow did not accomplish distorting the entire truth (Perkins Gilman, 43). When the narrator finally looked at the wall and the paint and paper on it, she was disgusted at the sight. The yellow wallpaper, she penned, secretly against the will of men, committed artistic sin and had lame uncertain curves that suddenly committed suicide when you followed them for a little distance. The narrator is forced to express her discomfort with the image to her husband, he sees it as an “excited fancy” that is provoked by the “imaginative power and habit of story making” by “a nervous weakness” like hers (Perkins Gilman, 46). Essentially, he believes that her sickness is worsening and the depth of her disease is the cause of the unexpected paranoia.
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