The narrator describes the wallpaper as such, “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing” (351). The yellow wallpaper itself signifies women being suppressed by the men in their lives and the inability to break their dominance. She also eventually sees a figure behind the wallpaper in the form of a creeping woman. The woman actually portrays the narrator herself. After staring at the wallpaper long enough, she finds that the pattern moves because of the woman behind it trying to get out.
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.
Towards the ending the town finds out about her malicious side and destroys her roses, her number one prized possession, for revenge. The larger idea portrayed in the short story is how the way we see things are different from how things really are, in reality. In the story, Miss Strangeworth appears to be a polite and caring person. As the story progresses, it is revealed that in reality, Miss Strangeworth is an evil old lady who bullies her town and spreads rumors with anonymous letters. Appearance is the way something or someone is shown.
Leola caused Dunstan to experience jealousy and pity. Diana is also controlling and manipulative, like Dunstan’s mother, which is why he leaves her. Through Diana, the reader sees how much Dunstan’s mother has affected his life with women. Liesl made Dunstan realize that he felt no emotion, and she caused him to feel it again. She brought him out of the isolation his mother put him in.
In their day and age these characters would be judged by many factors including social and cultural backgrounds, crimes committed and personal traits. Both of these writers seem to conjure their audience into a state where it compels them to relate to certain characters. Lady Macbeth certainly loses or suppresses her feelings of cowardice. Throughout her appalling invocation to the spirits of evil to “unsex her”, proving her ambition to attain her goal. In Jacobean times women were seen as inferior and even in the Victoria era, thus she required external forces to crush her conscience to allow her to fulfil her ambition.
Character Analysis of John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” In the story “The Chrysanthemums”, John Steinbeck creates a character through which he shows us, how back in the 1930s, because of society’s isolation, alienation and mistreatment of women, womanhood felt synonymous with being trapped. In order to understand the character better, we must first know the “real” Elisa Allen. At first, she is a woman whose hopes for a better life are raised by a stranger she meets. After the stranger uses her and crushes her hopes, we see her for who she really is – a bitter woman who lives a forever unfulfilled life of routine, boredom and hopelessness. Steinbeck uses Elisa’s character to depict the fighting for equal rights.
Sophocles, Antigone, is a play that demonstrates tragedy to its fullest. Antigone’s image as a tragic character sets up many elements for the play. Her love for her brother drives her to go against laws and stand up for the morals she believes in. She is so strong headed and perhaps this is why she releases her tragedy on other characters and the story itself. The first thing we experience as an audience is the burial controversy.
One important theme of the play “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller, is revenge, as is shown in the jealousy and hatred that turn people in the Puritanical township of Salem against each other, resulting in the deaths of many innocent lives. For such an idea to be made effective to the audience, the playwright chiefly relies on the characterizations of Abigail Williams, the Putnams as well as Reverend Paris, who manipulate the prevalent superstition as well as people’s ignorance to successfully carry out her malicious revenge. Abigail Williams, a strong-minded young woman, is committed to her personal vendetta as she has a strong physical desire for John Procter. She is a vindictive and ruthless character, and will not hesitate to put anyone to death if they stand in her way of revenge. This vindictive hatred from Abigail soon prompts a witch hunt involving many innocent people: “Twelve have already hanged for the same crime.” While many panics, John Procter knows this from the start ; “this is a whore’s vengeance”.
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.
The final line “Who could not say, ‘Tis pity she’s a whore?” can be seen as directed towards her and so she is blamed for everything that has occurred. Throughout the play she is seen as quite powerful and headstrong by refusing many marriage proposals and being quite stubborn in doing so. However, she is reduced to a weak being however upon dying which is a culmination of her passions. It is perceived that women are a danger to men and to society as a whole and so Giovanni’s actions are to be blamed not on himself, but on Annabella because of the beauty she possesses. Giovanni states that Annabella’s “lips would tempt a saint” thus showing the corruption her presence inflicts upon even the supposed innocent of men.