Preview

English 1100

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1647 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
English 1100
“I’ve Got Out at Last”: The Comparison of the Individual vs. Society Theme in Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case”

Kaitlin English 1110-03 Feburary 16, 2012

There comes a time in certain individuals’ lives where they feel it is necessary to fight for what they believe in. Many a time, this decision puts them at a crossroads with the preconceived expectations of society and their own ideals. Failure to conform and fit in with the majority results in a moral battle of individual vs. society. Motives for what drives the individual vary but the result usually consists of tragedy. “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Paul’s Case” (1905) by Willa Sibert Cather both highlight social issues, of the late-19th and early-20th centuries respectively, by playing with the theme of individual vs. society. Their main characters both share the same struggle and are related with similar tactics taken towards the development of theme. Nevertheless, there is evidence of different approaches taken towards illustrating theme when comparing both authors in detail. The specific elements used by each author to demonstrate theme, either alike or differential, can be found in the emphasis of an underlying problem with their main characters, prevalent gender stereotyping, and the inevitable result from the constant struggle with society.
Both authors begin to develop the theme of individual vs. society with a specific importance on the problems observed in their main characters. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane is diagnosed with a temporary nervous depression that has resulted from the stresses of writing and childbirth. Jane is skeptical of the condition that her husband determined. An example to support this is when Jane says she has “a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 297). Jane is down-playing the seriousness of her “condition”

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, it is understood that the narrator is a woman who has a mental illness but cannot overcome it due to her husband’s controlling ways. Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the ideological victimization of many women of the early 19th century through a gothic tale of humor where women suffering from post-partum depression is isolated.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The “The Yellow Wallpaper” story started off with a small family that moved into a new summer home to spend some time away. The narrator’s husband is her own physician, and he tells her that she needs rest away from people to recover from her mental illness. The main character’s favorite hobby is to write thoughts and ideas down on paper. She is also a mother, but she doesn’t mention her child that often due to the fact that she wasn’t able to take care of her baby. The narrator is a young woman, sometimes referred to as “Jane” who is suffering from severe mental illness; not being able to have freedom caused the narrator's health to fall into a worse pattern.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The "Yellow Wallpaper," is a personal account of the author's, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, struggle with depression. It vividly documents one woman's experience with depression and the toil she endured through the treatment of the "Rest Cure." The story helps readers to get a mental picture of how society and solitary confinement can both drive a person into sheer madness.…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman portrays the ill effects of marital gender roles through the characterization of the narrator and her husband, John. The narrator suffers from mental illness and is trying to recuperate with the guidance of her physician husband. John’s roles as her husband and her physician create an unbalanced distribution of power in their relationship, allowing him to assert a tremendous amount of dominance over her as two strong authority figures. This is apparent when the narrator complains about…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Repression of Female’s Individuality in Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    English 1101

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages

    *”Touch me-touch the palm of your hand to my Body as I pass;” = reminds of Eve…

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, Jane Suffers from herself and her surroundings. Jane is Suffering from postnatal depression. This disease, the…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    English 2130

    • 1950 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Within “Jane Eyre” and “The Yellow wallpaper”, both female writers themes focus on similar ideas in how women of the 19th century were manipulated and treated inadequately. Both authors’ stories have several similar characteristics brought to life through three female characters within each story including the fight for power through isolation and manipulation and the very different outcome of each woman. While both “Jane Eyre” and “The Yellow Wallpaper, explore the themes of isolation, male dominance,…

    • 1950 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the surface, the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper simply shows an insane woman who began suffering from depression after the birth of her child. The narrator was placed into a house, which was in the middle of nowhere, where she received dangerous treatment and often gets belittled by her husband, who is also her doctor. Her treatment required her not to do anything active, especially writing. Although some would conclude that the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is just about an insane woman struggling with post-partum depression and isolation, it shows the protagonists struggle with trying to break out of the mental constraints she has been placed under and her need for self-expression through her journal.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charlotte Perkins Stetson uses irony to expand the theme of mental illness in The Yellow Wallpaper by including the woman’s thoughts and her lack of a support system in her writing. Stetson uses verbal irony to exhibit how the woman doesn’t fully acknowledge the seriousness of her illness and usually when a person has an issue like that they are in denial about it. For example the woman says, “I am glad my case is not serious!”(Stetson.649). This quote is an illustration of how the woman is in denial about the seriousness of her illness. The author also uses situational irony to show how the woman is not supported or truly cared for by her husband and how that is detrimental to her illness. For instance the woman expressed, “ If a physician…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It could be seen as ironic that the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is well aware of the cure for her depression while her physician husband is who ultimately drives her into her psychosis. The narrator secretly journals and finds ways to creatively express herself to help ease some of her illness' burden. [Insert quote "secret journal"]. The narrator is well aware through the entirety of the story that her husband's treatment is in fact not a treatment at all.…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator must deal with several different conflicts. She is diagnosed with “temporary nervous depression and a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 221). Most of her conflicts, such as, differentiating from creativity and reality, her sense of entrapment by her husband, and not fitting in with the stereotypical role of women in her time, are centered around her mental illness and she has to deal with them.…

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The main character in Charlotte P.Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, narrates her own life and describes her struggle with depression which by the end of the story evolved into insanity. Narrator’s husband, John, treats her like a small child, forbids her to express herself, and keeps her bound to restricted room. Due to her husbands actions she becomes physically, emotionally and socially isolated, which ultimately made her insane.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life as it is, can be full of ups and downs. Through time, individuals have lived healthy lives and life has treated them well, but also there are sicknesses in life that can be detrimental to ones-self. Individuals have different coping mechanisms that help with tough situations through life. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” portrays how one is able to go about dealing with an illness that ends up being detrimental to the narrator. Gilman, in the “Yellow Wallpaper,” through the use of the setting, symbolism, and point of view, conveys the message that the narrator suffers from an awful illness.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell reflected the time period where men dominated women. Over the years the roles that men and women play in society have been changed tremendously. It used to be that women were solely confined to house work, cooking, and taking care of their children. The men in most families were considered to be the winners in the household. In “A Jury of Her Peers” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the author’s symbolism and imagery to inform in conveying the place of women in society, and their struggle with gender inequality…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays