Essay Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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Tucker Deming Mrs. Korando Young Adult literature April 12, 2024 Protagonists in a Patrichary Society In "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, the main characters are females. In "The Yellow Wallpaper", a husband and wife move into an old house for the summer in hopes of curing his wife's illness. They set their bedroom up on the upstairs level of the house because it has the best views and is the largest room. The bedroom had old yellow wallpaper, which the wife hated because it was discolored and the pieces did not match up. Her husband John locks her in the room and won't let her write because he wants her to keep her strength. She drives herself crazy trying to make sense of the pattern and eventually starts to think that she was in the wallpaper and …show more content…

Whoever's name is drawn shall be stoned to death because it is a tradition. Tessie Hutchinson held the black dot for her family, so she was stoned. In both stories, the protagonists live in a patriarchal society with rules and traditions that they can't escape. In "The Yellow Wallpaper", the unnamed narrator is forced into a room by her husband and isn't allowed to do anything that she enjoys because he wants her to save her strength to improve her health. He didn't feel like there was anything wrong with her mental health because they live in a patriarchal society, where mental health wasn't thought of as a problem. The narrator states, "I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there." (Gilman). Since her husband John is very controlling, he won't let her stay with her family, or even visit them. The female protagonist in this story is also very anxious at the beginning of the