In the past, there was much debate over gender equality since it had never existed before. Over the last several decades, there have been significant changes in many organizations and the broader society as people struggle for gender equality. Connecting to symbolism, setting, characterization, as well as seclusion from society by the dominant masculine characters, the pair combines many contrasts and parallels in their creative works. Both tales revolve around female characters that are surrounded by male characters, who ultimately lead to them losing their minds. The female characters are faced with unique struggles in each book because of the varied situations they find themselves in.
The key difference between these two stories is that one is told from the first-person point of view, while the other is told from a third-person point of view. As with 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' the first-person perspective is used, while in 'A Rose for Emily,' the third-person perspective is used. In 'A Rose for Emily,' the short tale speaks of many losses, such as gossip, loneliness, and conflict, whereas in 'The Yellow Paper,' the narrative is only a biography illustrating women's struggles for personal power in an oppressive setting.
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Both tales portray female characters as bearing the burden of maintaining their appearance and their position in a high society placed on them by males. Stories about women with mental illness are both similar in that they feature women who are emotionally and psychologically unstable. Gothic, psychotic, and gloomy genres are both included in the tales. Every time we read the part about the decaying body of forty-year-old homer baron and find gray hair believed to have fallen from Emily close to the corpse already, we encounter a kind of terror and gothic (Faulkner, 35-36).
In the short tales, Emily as well as the narrator both confront problems related to their identities. Both occur in different environments, but both women are basically imprisoned in their homes. Both ladies live in quite different locations. She's youthful at first in 'A Rose for Emily,' ending and her being an elderly lady. 'Yellow Wallpaper,' when she is a middle-aged lady, concentrates on the narrator, taking place over just a few months. Both tales offer distinct perspectives on the ladies, as 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is written in the first person and 'A Rose for Emily.' However, it is shown that in some respects, the lives of these women are identical but in other ways distinct.
Another interesting point to notice inside the yellow wallpaper is that it illustrates the gothic genre, which is relevant to the way the heroine is spiraling out of control as she withdraws from society in her quiet chamber. There are a wide variety of designs on the wallpaper, including bulging eyeballs, people, and even strands of mushrooms (Gilman, 311). There are significant patterns in nature that shift as the moonlight shines on them (Gilman, 311).
Like Faulkner, Gillman utilizes the gothic aspects of the home in which he lives in order to reflect his character's character. In the tale 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' Gillman incorporated numerous Gothic themes. From the start of the tale is shown the house the spouse leases for the summertime as well as the nearby environment. It is a remote area 3 miles from the settlement; this is an isolated site. It was a royal house and acquired a gothic look as if the fantasies haunted it. The home has a beautiful garden, sunny pastures, old-fashioned flowers, damaged green buildings, and overgrown roses that imply a dark brown appearance. The garden includes deep-shaded trees, plus gothic aspects. The slow-turning sunshine oddly dimmed the dirty yellow of the wallpaper; it is a repulsive, even disgusting yellow and dull but gloomy orange. The circles on the wall, the shut windows, and the closed bed all contribute to the continued gloomy mood.
We live in a world where, despite feminist movements and women occupying many positions of authority, males dominate. Women no longer put up with men's 19th-century notions of life, regardless of their upbringing. Men's domination led to the demise of the women in these short tales. Once you compare “The Yellow Wallpaper” with the other story, you'll see that it is better.
Work Cited
- Faulkner, William, John Carradine, and Anjelica Huston. A rose for Emily. Paderborn, De: Verlag F. Schöningh, 1958.
- Song, Zijiao. 'Transitivity Analysis of A Rose for Emily.' Theory