The women are casualties of a domestic prison, a prison for the mind, created by society and their husbands, who are victims themselves in their own way, of a Gilded Age mindset. The women have no voice and no authority. Their intellect and creativity is considered a frivolous obstacle and a distraction from their jobs as homemakers. There is irony in the endings of these stories in that the victims, the women, adjust to their lot and turn the tables on their oppressors. In Trifles, the women come to a realization that they must bond together against their clueless husbands to see justice done.
Module A: Comparison of Texts Individuals challenge the values that permeate time, in a manner that is relevant to their society. This rebellion is evident in William Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew and Gil Junger’s film 10 Things I Hate About You whereby Katherina and Kat initially disregard the social expectations for women of their context. The composers portray this comparably, using textual integrity so the women’s misunderstood, shrew-like behavior is suited to their culture and society. This in turn, provokes both characters to experience a transformation of self and their values. In The Taming of The Shrew, Katherina challenges the values and themes of courtship and marriage, dismissing the female etiquette when meeting her suitor.
The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Perkins Gilman is a look into the mental decline, and enlightenment of an anonymous lady. The narrator of this story is an odd character, both losing touch with reality and at the same time gaining greater self-understanding. This paradox is important to understanding the suffering of our narrator. All throughout the story she faces objects, or people, or situations that seam normal at first but that turn out extremely strange. This shows us that the main problem the narrator is faced with is how oppressive her situation is on her personality.
How do you respond to the view that in the stories in The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter presents a sinister distortion of family relationships? The relationships that are presented within the collection of short stories, present the reader with a disturbed version of stereotypical fairytale relationship. Carter distorts these relationships in order, to engage overwhelming emotion within the reader. Angela Carter wishes to push the boundaries of the fairytale genre and provoke the reader to feel anger towards patriarchal societies. It is clear within the short stories that these relationships have been distorted, in order for Carter to present the reader with her opinion of issues within society.
The stories utilize verbal irony to convey the sense of something more than the statement at face value, dramatic irony to feel the true ignorant and untrusting natures of the characters, and lastly situational irony as a medium for the former to glide through and provide the kick to the plot of the story. Sarcasm and other verbal elements would be used in “The Lottery” and many more within the brilliant writing of The Crucible. It can be seen more commonly with the interactions between John Proctor and his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, where it is noted earlier in the book that he has cheated on her with Abigail Williams and now they face an uneasy relationship because of it. The book portrays an excellent scene of irony when John must recite his commandments: Proctor: “... Thou shalt not bear false witness. [He is stuck.
ENG110 As it would appear The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a narrative describing the trials a woman faces when battling PPD (postpartum depression). However, under further investigation it is clear that the meaning Gilman imposes on her audience is the concept of entrapment to amplify the absurdity of male dominance in the 17th C. Opposing characteristics of the female main character and her husband, in conjunction with imagery and the metaphor of “the woman in the wallpaper” collaboratively work to express the standards expected of a woman and the feeling of isolation evoked by powerlessness. The central character of The Yellow Wallpaper is our narrator who serves as both mother and wife. Her role in the story is contrasted by the leading male character her husband, John, a physician. However their union seems less like a marriage and more like the relationship one would see between parent and child.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote a piece named “The Yellow Wallpaper”, where the narrator of the story is vividly entangled in her imagination causing her artistic impulses to consume her emotions. She is a “closet psychotic” as she does not disclose this infatuation of the yellow wallpaper to anyone around her. Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes a complex story where the narrator is trapped in her secret obsession of unraveling what’s inside this “yellow wallpaper”, which then drives her imaginative creativity, into insanity. The narrator begins by informing the reader how she and her family have recently started to stay in a new house for a little while so she may receive complete rest. This respite was prescribed to her by her husband, a physician.
The Yellow Wallpaper illustrates a gradual descent of the female narrator into a state of madness. Thanks to the story’s first person perspective, we are able to see how her mind functions and slowly degrades into insanity. With this point of view, however, we are left to question whether her account is accurate and factual. Should we openly trust what we are told by someone who has clearly gone mad? Her concept of reality is clearly neither sharp nor concrete, thus leaving us to wonder what to believe.
Claudia Cox ‘The main interest of the novel is in its portrayal of intricate characters.’ Explore the methods which the writer uses to create complex characters in the yellow wallpaper. The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 focuses on the main interest of the novel being the portrayal of intricate characters. The text explores the mental deterioration of the nameless protagonist, who is trapped under patriarchal control and the reader shares the journey of the protagonist’s descent into madness. ‘The chilling tale of a woman driven to the brink of insanity’ (Maggie O’Farrell, 2008) aims to educate other women within society, despite being isolated within her marriage; in which she is refused power, dismissed and belittled by her husband. The characters in the novel display complex personalities and the main focus is on the intricate protagonist, the
‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ Argues without Argument ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ is a complex short story told though the point of view of a sarcastic and insane protagonist, who has rapidly changing ideas about her surroundings, other characters and even her own psychological state. Because of this, readers may come to a variety of conclusions about major plot points and themes. Puzzled, readers will identify the piece as a horror story—a vivid portrayal of insanity with unsettling realism. This is indeed the conscious conclusion that Charlotte Perkins Gilman intends for her readers to form. However, the piece is so much more than a simple horror story; it is a deceptively hidden but powerful essay on female equality and marriage, two topics about which Gilman wrote frequently.