Yellow Wallpaper Gothic

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Don’t Ask Jack by Neil Gaiman and A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner all contain key gothic features. However, The Yellow Wallpaper portrays the most accurate representation of a gothic text through the use of isolation, dull colours, morbid descriptions and an unreliable author.

All three authors create a gothic atmosphere through the use of settings such as a decaying location or the nighttime, Charlotte Perkins Gilman creating the most accurate representation by also including an element of isolation.A Rose for Emily’s author William Faulkner makes a suitable gothic setting by describing a decaying, old and neglected house that had “once been white [and] decorated” (P. 1) and was now “filled

The bad weather such as rain and wind is utilised in the three texts to help mirror the attitude of the story to the weather. This is called pathetic fallacy. For instance, in Don’t Ask Jack, the “wind howl[s] about the house and rain rattle[s] the slates” to emphasise how dreadful not only the weather is, but the situation too. The three texts include decaying landscapes, which also appear to mirror the plot of the texts. Particularly in A Rose for Emily, as the houses of Emily’s street disappear and leave her house to rot, she also begins to grow older, uglier and even more alone. Comparatively, The Yellow Wallpaper’s attic has a dramatically dull surrounding which reflects the state of the main character’s mental illness. The odors in The Yellow Wallpaper and A Rose for Emily also echo a foulness in the moods of the characters alongside the smell. Unlike the other two texts, The Yellow Wallpaper contains an atmosphere of dullness and creepiness as achieved by the darkened portrayal of typically bright and happy colours. For example, the colour yellow is applied to the wallpaper which would typically be a cheery thing. However, the colour is described as “repellant” and “revolting” (P. 3) creating the sense that it is not actually

Controlling men are used in all three texts to present disturbing narratives to the reader by creating unjust authority, typically up against a weaker female character. This is displayed in all three texts by the authors. Gilman depicts John as a restricting, dominant physician whose control over the protagonist helps to imprison her even more. Correspondingly, Faulkner implies Emily’s father was also controlling, as he would reject any of Emily’s possible suitors as “none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily” (P. 2). Both Don’t Ask Jack and A Rose for Emily contain supporting characters with mental illnesses. In particular, one child in Don’t Ask Jack grows up to be clearly insane and is “[taken] to the madhouse” (P. 3) creating the effect that even though the child’s age increases, his mental state declines developing more decay in the narrative. In A Rose for Emily, Emily’s great-aunt is regarded as “the crazy woman” (P. 3) as Emily herself starts to be considered crazy too by the townspeople. Also, the protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper suffers from a mental illness that becomes increasingly more severe throughout the narrative regardless of John’s attempts to ‘cure’ her. Inserting characters with mental problems into the texts helps to generate feelings of uneasiness