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The Yellow Wallpaper Comparative Essay

1369 Words6 Pages

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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