Death By Landscape Analysis

Charlotte Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and Margaret Atwood story, “Death by Landscape” depicts the mental health of two women. Although the stories represent different points of origin, both the wife and Lois demonstrate common themes of depression. While the wife in “the Yellow Wall-Paper” seems to have no certainty of an illness or cause for such disorder, she is subjected to isolation and false treatment by her husband to cure her anxieties. Lois on the other hand, has experienced a traumatic loss in her childhood, ultimately shaping her characters mental state in the story. The common theme of mental health has caused the main characters to become obsessed with visual representations; essentially, causing them to become
Concerning a tragedy, explanation is a standard piece of human nature, as it is needed to ease one’s consciousness. This correlation stems closely with Lois psychological health as she is trying to piece together her friend’s existence in the wilderness photos; however, she is also affected by the stigma of the wilderness. “She would never go up north, to Rob's family cottage or to any place with wild lakes and wild trees and the calls of loons. She would never go anywhere near. Still, it was as if she was always listening for another voice, the voice of a person who should have been there but was not. An echo.” Lois failure to confront the problem at a young age has caused her past to not only affect her mental state, but also her relations with her family. Lois expresses how she was incapable of recalling certain memories from her marriage because she was distracted by the mystery of Lucy’s disappearance. Lois being isolated from reality, has nothing to distract her obsession and curiosity in the wilderness photos. The author then resides deeper in Lois’s mental state, regarding to an island Lois and Lucy had visited during summer camp, “How could you ever find anything there, once it was lost? Maybe if they cut It all down, drained it all away, they might find Lucy’s bones, some time, wherever they are hidden. A few bones, some buttons, the buckle from her shorts. But a dead person is a body; a body occupies space, it exists somewhere. You can see it; you put it in a box and bury it in the ground, and then it’s in a box in the ground. But Lucy is not in a box, or in the ground. Because she is nowhere definite, she could be anywhere”. Lois believes Lucy existence resides within the pictures in her apartment. Thus, Lois comes to an understanding that the wilderness is part of her; signifying Lucy presence in