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The Yellow Wallpaper Comparative Essay

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During the mid to late eighteen hundred women were considered second class citizens that were refined to the interest of the home and family. Women were not able or encouraged to pursue careers, education, or liberty at this time. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Charlotte Bronte were aspiring feminist writers of this period who broke down worldly standards and helped to spread the news of and encourage the women's rights movement, which began to take the world by storm. Both Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” utilize imagery, symbolism, and personification to sanction uprising ideologies of the freedom and empowerment of women in the mid to late 17th century that challenge the traditional classist …show more content…

This is symbolic of keeping his wife static. If he allows his wife to reform in one area then her mindset on life and the current status roles may change and lead to the empowerment of his wife against him. The two authors' similar utilization of symbolism greatly expands and reflects the growing rebellion of traditional societal and gender roles in the 17th century. Continuously, Gilman, along with Bronte, apply vivid imagery throughout their stories. In chapter 25 of Jane Eyre, a picture is painted of a scene underneath a shattered chestnut tree where Jane and Rochester would unite, soon to be married. Gilman illustrates the characteristics of the tree when she states, “... I faced the wreck of a chestnut tree; it stood up, black and riven; the trunk split down the centre, gaping ghastly. The cloven halves were not broken from each other, for the firm base and strong roots kept them unsundered below.” (Bronte 318). The vivid imagery of the broken chestnut tree represents a long, tempered, and untamed life. Greatly similar to that of Jane’s. Underneath this tree, their love kindles a flame. Jane's pursuit of love may not look like it from the beginning, but once you dig deeper, it is a semblance of empowerment. Commonly in the 1800s,

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In the nineteenth century, woman had no power over men in society. They were limited in their freedom, as their lives were controlled by their husbands. Some women did not mind this lifestyle, and remained obedient, while some rebelled and demanded their rights. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are short stories that exposes the lifestyle women lived in the nineteenth century. The protagonists from both stories, Jane and Georgiana, similarly lived a male dominated lifestyle.

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A Monster is Never Just A Monster Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Yellow Wallpaper is an early American feminist literature that delves into the pervasive oppression faced by women in marriage and society during the late 19th century. This era has drawn significant criticism from feminist literature due to its patriarchal values and gender roles, which place men in a position of superiority over women. Due to the lack of legal rights in that period, women were subjected to lives of servitude and oppression, leading them to be confined to expectations of submissiveness, silence, and unquestioning acceptance of their husbands' dictates. Within the short story, the female narrator grapples with postpartum depression and the dominance of her husband,

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It is no secret that men and women are treated differently still to this day. However, during the Victorian Era women were treated with very little respect. They were expected to be homemakers, and not voice their opinions. "The Ruined Maid" by Thomas Hardy and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman were both written during this time. Even though these stories were written in the same time period, the protagonist thoughts about the Victorian Era were different.

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Emily Dickerson asserts “Much madness is a divinest Sense– To a discerning Eye–” which incorporates the idea that people who are different are given the title “mad”. Madness is described as a state of insanity, demonstrating foolish or unusual behaviors, or having a mental illness. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author portrays a young woman who is struggling with depression and is driven to “madness” because of the failure of her peers to accept her condition/feelings. The Yellow Wallpaper was written in the Victorian Era when a woman's role in society was to be a wife and/or mother, while a man's role consisted of being the head of the household and the wife was their property. Exploited within this short story as the narrator's husband is controlling and conformation to society.

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Mohra Gad Dr. Meloy HON 272 19 April 2024 Gender Confinement The main character in Charlotte Gilman’s novel “The Yellow Wallpaper” experiences confinement – both physically and mentally. Similarly, Suzanne is physically jailed in the convent, which spirals into numerous other forms of confinement in Denis Diderot’s epistolary novel “The Nun”, including mental incarnation. " The Nun," which was written in 1796, and "The Yellow Wallpaper," which was published in 1892, over a century later, are set in quite different eras. However, both female characters face oppressive forces in their respective societies.

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In the Literary Eras of Romanticism and Realism, the theme of hysteria is written about in multitude, which is apparent in the two short stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Kate Chopin and “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe. These two short stories highlight the unnamed narrator's descent into insanity. The man and the woman emphasize madness during this period in different ways. Kate Chopin’s goal in her writing about women was to stress the stigma and lack of knowledge during this time of women’s health. This is why the narrators reason for going insane is different as the man abuses alcohol, avoiding a real problem.

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin were both authors in a time where women were seen as objects and not as a person. Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper and Chopin wrote The Story of an Hour, both texts were frowned upon they were written since they went into depth on what a marriage looked like at the time and how one sided they usually were. Gilman did a better job at going into the depth of the marriage and how it can affect a women, and have the possibility of making a wife go a little crazy. She shows how her husband, John, runs her life and tells her what she can and can’t do and how an illness not seen by the eye doesn’t count as a real disease. She is able to give a better picture and insight than Chopin did in her story.

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In Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", the wallpaper itself, albeit only a thing in nature, becomes a vital part of the story's narrative, even seems to present itself as more alive than the other characters in the narrative. This "life" enables the "thing" to mirror the main character's intentions and progress throughout the story, mainly because of how the main character observes the paper and because of its relative physical and psychological relation towards the characters inside the story. This qualifies the wallpaper as an It-narrator, and thus enables it to become a vital narrator for the short story. Character and paper are linked: it is a reflective surface, but it is also the confinement, a body encasing the protagonist,

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A specific love that she looks for is Romantic love because she has never felt strong feelings towards someone. She was always by herself, and when she arrives at thornfield, she doesn't know what i'll cross her pathway.

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Plot: “The Yellow wallpaper” is a story where woman is transferred to different house so that she can recover from mental illness she was suffering from. She didn't like that house pretty much initially and once she was comfortable, she had conflict with her room’s wallpaper specially that women in yellow wallpaper. The author’s husband is a doctor, who is taking care of her illness. He is very caring and loving husband but the only thing which he dont like is author’s writing as he thinks writing make her think more then she needs to which is affecting her health so she(author) write a story with her husband not knowing, in which she mention all about bedroom wallpaper, due to which she is not happy. Author is having both kind of conflict

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Women in the 1800’ and early 1900’s were treated the same as slaves, second class citizens who had no voice or decision over their lives. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 with a late American 19th century setting. The main character, a nameless woman, fights depression and anxiety along with being oppressed by her husband John and wanting to rise against the norms of

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The 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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2036 Words | 9 Pages

As seen when Jane starts to see the deeper side of Mr. Rochester due to her interest in him, “I believed he was a naturally a man of better tendencies, higher principles, and purer tastes than such as circumstances had developed, education instilled, or destiny encouraged” (Bronte 188). Something that is excessively stereotyped about men during this time period, is the thought that men were supposed to be strong willed, demanding, and honest. So when Jane sees this other side of Mr. Rochester she is confused. Women were so used to men being that way during this time that they have no clue what to do when the men become less demanding and secretive, “He smothered in secrecy and sank in oblivion!” (Bronte 267).

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Unfortunately, humans do not and will never know all there is to know. Some questions will remain unanswered; however, the questions are still important. While intelligence tends to present itself as knowledge, it should instead be associated with imagination or curiosity. One important topic Charlotte Perkins Gilman addresses in her story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the tendency for society to hold those in authority to the highest prestige; experts may seem entirely knowledgeable in their area of expertise while not having the entire picture. It is better to question even the most accredited individual or established subject matter due to information possibly being absent or misunderstood.

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Gender Inequality: A Woman’s Struggle in “The Yellow Wallpaper” In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman captures the lives of women in a society based on societal expectations during the late nineteenth century. She focuses on the issue of gender inequality where women were often discriminated against and expected to fulfill the role of a perfect wife and mother. The narrator is based on on Gilman’s personal experience of suffering from her treatment for postpartum depression due to the social restrictions on women which represents a reflection on women's social status in society. The narrator, who remains anonymous, is depicted as a depressed and isolated prisoner who is oppressed under her husband’s control and struggles to break free.

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