The room she stays in has yellow wallpaper that will later contribute to her psychological downfall along with the oppression felt from her environment. In both pieces of literature, the authors use a technique of gradually progressing the characters deterioration of their mental capacity. Through dramatic irony and other literary devices, the reader is permitted to see the depth of the characters illness. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, stays in a bedroom that was an old nursery which has an unattractive yellow wallpaper on the walls. To the narrator, the wallpaper is a nuisance and the pattern makes no sense to her.
Stephanie Bahniuk Feb. 16/2011 Tearing Away The Metaphors: An Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story of depression and madness intricately weaves subtle symbols and hidden details throughout a women’s personal story of frustration within herself and from external forces. Through the main character’s fascination with peculiar yellow wallpaper, her husband’s childish affection and forceful care, and the effects of the house and environment around her, an overwhelming sense of oppression and insanity is portrayed. The presentation of each of these elements allows the reader to interpret the text personally and connect to the struggle. The Yellow Wallpaper makes a prominent statement towards a women’s rights and personal freedoms as well as showing the progression of delirium through various harsh influences. The narrator’s obsession with the wallpaper that surrounds her bedroom begins merely as intrigue and climaxes to a point where reality and what she imagines within the wallpaper becomes blurred.
She untangles its chaotic pattern and locates the figure of a woman struggling to break free from the bars in the pattern. Over time, as her insanity deepens, she identifies completely with this woman and believes that she, too, is trapped within the wallpaper. When she tears down the wallpaper over her last couple of nights, she believes that she has finally broken out of the wallpaper within which John has imprisoned her. The wallpaper's yellow color has many possible associations - with jaundiced sickness, with discriminated-against minorities of the time (especially the Chinese), and with the rigid oppression of masculine sunlight. By tearing it down, the narrator emerges from the wallpaper and asserts her own identity, albeit a somewhat confused, insane one.
Katie Stephens English 1102 Dr. Strickland 9:30 TR Symbolism, Irony, and Theme in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a husband's attempt to do away with his wife's insanity by keeping her isolated and restrained from expressing herself through writing. Gilman includes an abundance of irony and symbolism to describe the thoughts and actions of the narrator. The author uses these elements to help the reader come to the conclusion that the narrator feels oppressed and controlled along with other women who were felt to be “confined to womanly roles” in society in the 1800s. The theme of the story suggests that women during this time were imprisoned by the male dominated society. There are many uses of irony in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”.
Morrison utilizes Beloved, the two-year old daughter Sethe sacrificed for the “greater good” of freedom, as an embodiment of trauma, but also the collective memory of the Middle Passage. This character appears in the narrative as a vengeful ghost who haunts Sethe’s residence, 124 Bluestone Road, and as bizarre young woman, who according to Paul D, “Sleeps, eats and raises hell” (Beloved 255). Beloved is a metaphorical representation of the Middle Passage, slavery and its traumatic and haunting nature; however, Beloved is also a literal spectral being that haunts Sethe, and interacts with Denver and Paul D. Morrison steps outside the realms of realism into the magical, blurring the lines of fact and fiction, in order to tell a truth that lies beneath the facts of the slave experience and subjectifies the slave, through the discussion of trauma and the subsequent repression of memory. Toni Morrison utilizes all of the characters to convey, on some level, the
Short Story Analysis Have we ever read a story that just didn’t make sense at all when first read? That the descriptions in the paper just create vivid pictures in our mind that are kind of disturbing. That is exactly how this short story was constructed. In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author uses symbolism, imagery, irony, and theme to show the subordination and trapped role of women in domestic life. Gilman uses symbols to explain the how women are trapped in domestic life.
Throughout the concerning chapters, Brontë allows the reader to explore their own interpretation of Rochester’s former bride, Bertha, through both the eyes of Jane and the description of the environment in which she inhabits. By creating an environment which has such a tense atmosphere, the reader is encouraged to develop their own opinions on whether Bertha Mason is an object of terror, or in fact, and object of pity. The initial and most obvious interpretation that we obtain of bertha is that we must perceive her as a frightening character in which we should fear throughout the novel. The first act of torment in which Bertha was to commit, was when she attempted to kill Rochester by setting fire to his bed in the early hours of the morning. The horror of the chapter begins when Jane hears a “demonic laugh” which she thinks is aimed “at the very keyhole” of her chamber door.
Deepa Mehta uses her gifts of writing and directing to bring to light issues in society, much like the writers before her time. One writer in particular, William Blake, a 19th century romantic poet used his talents, similar to Deepa Mehta, to inform society of the corruption in the systems of London at the time. The poem “London” similar to Water, bashes society and the corruption of its systems, even more specifically the system of marriage. “Blasts the newborn infant's tear, and blights with plagues the marriage hearse.” These last two lines of Blake’s poem “London” send a strong message about those who suffer through the fraud of marriage, the children. In these lines, Blake speaks about the unfaithfulness of men, who at the time often contracted syphilis from prostitutes and spread the disease to their wives.
Vincent Wu Hurston 19 October 2017 AP Literature Critical Lens Essay Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow --A Psychoanalytical Critic of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a campaigning feminist writer in the early 20th century, was primarily concerned with showcasing the societal bonds that imprisoned most women in their marital contracts. Since its publication in 1891, The Yellow Wallpaper has created a huge stir over this often neglected issue. Generally, there are two major psychological critical lenses to examine this work: one that blames the illness of the narrator on the patriarchal structure of the society; and one that looks at medical causes for the depression the narrator suffers from. However, these
Medusa is told in the first person as a dramatic monologue by a woman who is insecure and worried that her husband is cheating on her. The poem begins: ‘A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy’ and it is this jealousy which has turned the woman into a gorgon and now everything she looks at turns to stone. This feeling of doubt resonates throughout the poem, exemplified in the line, ‘but I know you’ll go, betray me, stray from home’. Unlike our feelings towards the traditional monstrous character, this poem evokes empathy for the character as she is clearly distressed and suffering. Especially when she reminisces in the final stanza about the time she was young and beautiful, illustrating her complete lack of confidence.