Similarities Between
Similarities Between
Charlotte Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Jean Rhys 's Wide Sargasso Sea.
Charlotte Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Jean Rhys 's Wide Sargasso Sea are stories about women 's tragic lives in the late nineteenth and mid twentieth centuries. These two stories contain many similarities. In the novel Wide Sargasso Sea, the main character Rochester drives his wife to insanity. Similarly, in the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", John drives his wife insane. In addition, both women are isolated, oppressed, and ignored.
Wide Sargasso Sea
In Wide Sargasso Sea, much of Antoinette Cosway 's life is concerned with her isolation and oppression. She is isolated and oppressed from her society, her mother, and, later, her husband. These relationships are crucial to the life of Antoinette. To begin with, young Antoinette experienced isolation early in her life. As a white Creole child, she lived in the farm within a black society that hates her and her family. Very often Antoinette and her family are called white cockroaches: I never looked at any strange negro. They hated us. They called us white cockroaches. One day a little girl followed me singing, Go away white cockroach, go away. ' I walked fast, but she walked faster. White cockroach, go away, go away. Nobody wants you. Go away. ' (Rhys 13)
The entire black society wants the family to suffer, knowing that Antoinette 's father died and the farm went to ruin. After her father 's death, they understand that the family lost male strength and thus, they turned against Antoinette, her mother, and her little brother. Her mother, Annette, still young and beautiful, tries to survive and remarries a wealthy man, Mr. Mason. This act does not diminish the community 's hatred. Eventually, they force the family out of town by setting fire to the house. With sadness and horror, Antoinette says, "Nothing would be left, the golden ferns and the silver ferns, the orchids and the
Charlotte Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Jean Rhys 's Wide Sargasso Sea.
Charlotte Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Jean Rhys 's Wide Sargasso Sea are stories about women 's tragic lives in the late nineteenth and mid twentieth centuries. These two stories contain many similarities. In the novel Wide Sargasso Sea, the main character Rochester drives his wife to insanity. Similarly, in the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", John drives his wife insane. In addition, both women are isolated, oppressed, and ignored.
Wide Sargasso Sea
In Wide Sargasso Sea, much of Antoinette Cosway 's life is concerned with her isolation and oppression. She is isolated and oppressed from her society, her mother, and, later, her husband. These relationships are crucial to the life of Antoinette. To begin with, young Antoinette experienced isolation early in her life. As a white Creole child, she lived in the farm within a black society that hates her and her family. Very often Antoinette and her family are called white cockroaches: I never looked at any strange negro. They hated us. They called us white cockroaches. One day a little girl followed me singing, Go away white cockroach, go away. ' I walked fast, but she walked faster. White cockroach, go away, go away. Nobody wants you. Go away. ' (Rhys 13)
The entire black society wants the family to suffer, knowing that Antoinette 's father died and the farm went to ruin. After her father 's death, they understand that the family lost male strength and thus, they turned against Antoinette, her mother, and her little brother. Her mother, Annette, still young and beautiful, tries to survive and remarries a wealthy man, Mr. Mason. This act does not diminish the community 's hatred. Eventually, they force the family out of town by setting fire to the house. With sadness and horror, Antoinette says, "Nothing would be left, the golden ferns and the silver ferns, the orchids and the
Cited: Berkin, Ruth Carol. "Self-Images: Childhood and Adolescence." Critical Essays on Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Ed. Joanne Karpinski. New York: G.K. Hall,1992. Ciolkowski, Laura. "Navigating the Wide Sargasso Sea: colonial history, English fiction, and British Empire." Twentieth Century Literature 43 (1997): 339-359. WilsonSelectPlus. USF Library, Sarasota. 14 Nov. 2002.