To Room Nineteen vs the Yellow Wallpaper

745 Words3 Pages
In Doris Lessing’s “To Room Nineteen,” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” both the protagonist in each of their respected stories experiences different types of emotional turmoil and as a result causes their isolation from the world and the people around them. The emotional and physical battles both these characters undergo reveal many striking similarities, despite the origin of their provoking thoughts and actions. Susan in “To Room Nineteen” goes through a journey in search for stillness and peace in her life by removing herself from her children, husband, and house keeper. It takes her to several different locations in order to uncover what she is looking for, but instead she is faced with a masked figure conjured up in her own mind. The main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is diagnosed with post partum depression and begins to manifest a morbid fixation on the yellow wallpaper in her room. She focuses her entire energy on the wallpaper day and night, which leads her to believe that a person is trying to escape through the wallpaper. The two characters response to their emotional turmoil demonstrates the coping techniques of the human mind. Together these stories are examples of human tendencies to cope by using emotion-focused coping. The metal issues both these females face are perceived from their loved ones as an internal issue that can be easily. In the case of the main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” it evidently caused her to fall further into her own train of thought. She feels undermined and underappreciated by her husband, whom diagnosed her with her depression. It is quite clearly stated in the first couple pages of the story, “John is a physician...perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster.” “You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?” He believes he knows what’s best for her as a loving
Open Document