“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner are gothic fiction short stories that feature defiant female protagonists living in isolated ‘haunted house’ settings and use the tragic experiences of their protagonists to advance discourses against male dominance over women, the treatment of women with mental illness. “The Yellow Wallpaper” addresses the oppression of women in society more explicitly than “A Rose for Emily” however, both stories are symbolic of women’s resistance during first-wave feminism from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century through speaking and acting against patriarchal oppression.
Jane from “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Emily from “A Rose for Emily” are the female protagonists of their stories. Jane and Emily are symbolic characters and represent women in the nineteenth century who were subject to gender roles under patriarchal oppression, lacked socio-economic independence, and did not have voices of their own. Gendered beliefs about women, as well as women’s silence, influenced how they were treated by the healthcare system. “Female mental health problems were generally viewed as pathological and were believed to be caused by their sexual organs. Hysteria, the ‘daughter's disease,’ was common, and believed to be caused by aberrations in the reproductive system” (Floyd 1).
Mental illness is a common theme in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily.” In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane suffers from postpartum depression and is prescribed a “rest cure.” Jane’s husband and brother refer to her illness as a “slight hysterical tendency.” Jane is aware that her condition is worse than that, but she cannot speak out for herself in opposition to the men. She says, “What is one to do?” (Gilman 571) referring to her silence and involuntary complacency. “So [she has to take] tonics, and journeys, and air and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until [she is] well again” (Gilman 571). Jane is confined to a single room in the house and has a mental illness that leads her to hallucinate, so she uses writing as a coping mechanism. In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner hints that Emily has a mental illness because there is “insanity in [her] family,'' as well as from her refusal to dispose of her father’s body after his death (Faulkner 661). At the end of the story and prior to Emily’s death, it is discovered that she has necrophilia and has been sleeping with her lover’s corpse for years.
Isolation is also a common theme in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily.” Social isolation is a dangerous phenomenon that can lead to loneliness, social anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. The social isolation of women is also a tool used in the patriarchal oppression of women. This can be seen in the lives of Jane and Emily who are isolated by the dominant male figures and are driven to madness as a result. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane’s husband refuses to allow visit her cousins (Gilman 576) while in “A Rose for Emily,” Emily lived with her father who drove Emily’s suitors away, so after his death, “she had nothing left” (Faulkner 661).
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is narrated from the first-person point of view of the main character, Jane, while “A Rose for Emily” is narrated from the collective first-person point of view of Emily’s townspeople. While “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a journal account of Jane’s experiences, Emily’s story is told in a series of nonchronological flashbacks. These narrative differences impact Jane and Emily’s voices in their stories. In addition, the narrative differences influence views of the stories as ‘feminist’. Jane’s narration of her own story gives her a voice that Emily does not have. Jane is vocal about how she disagrees with the treatment prescribed to her, but she has to remain complacent because “[her husband, John] is very careful and loving [...], he takes all care from [her] and [she] feels ungrateful not to value it more” (Gilman 572). However, she defies him and acts out by continuing to write despite being ordered not to. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily’s voice is only present in her dialogues with the tax collectors and the druggist. She says short sentences in a direct tone and does not give room for people to oppose her. Despite not having her own voice in her story, Emily is able to act out through her necrophilia. By killing Homer Barron instead of herself, she defies the expectation that “she will kill herself” (Faulkner 662). Because of this, Gina Herring describes Emily, not as a madwoman, but “as a force to be reckoned with” (215). Herring also says:
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Because the Southern male establishment, represented by the apparently benign narrator of the story, patronizes and pities her, Miss Emily is able to use her prescribed role as a 'lady' to undermine the patriarchal power structure. According to Judith Fetterley, 'Faulkner's story is an analysis of how men's attitudes toward women turn back upon themselves; it is a demonstration of the thesis that it is impossible to oppress without in turn being oppressed, it is impossible to kill without creating the conditions for your own murder' (35). (215).
In this way, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is explicitly feminist, and “A Rose for Emily” is implicitly feminist and can be viewed through a feminist lens.
The author’s genders and attachment to their characters play significant roles in their ability to represent their characters and challenge the patriarchal oppression of women. Gilman is a female author who uses her female protagonist, “Jane” in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to tell her own story and challenge the rest cure prescribed to her when she “suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia” and “came so near to the borderline of utter mental ruin” (Gilman 265). She says [the story] was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked (265). “The Yellow Wallpaper” is an exaggerated expression of Gilman’s own experience, “with its embellishments and additions to carry out the ideal (I never had hallucinations or objections to my mural decorations)” (Gilman 265). Gilman’s connection to Jane enables the effective representation of the character and opposition to the poor medical given to women with mental illness. Faulkner is a male author and “adopts a bisexual narrative voice” (Renee 392). Unlike Gilman, Faulkner has not gone through the same experiences as his character, so he cannot fully represent her experiences. “Emily thus remains present and absent simultaneously - present when Faulkner's words and the narrator's scenarios capture her, absent when the words cannot penetrate beyond the door leading to her actions.” (Curry 392).
The titles of both stories are also symbolic elements. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a symbol of the oppressive patriarchy and the woman in the wallpaper reflects Jane. “Jane is the woman who fought her way out from behind the oppressive bars of the outside pattern” (Suess 95). When the woman escapes from the wallpaper she says, “I’ve got out at last, [...] in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the wallpaper, so you can’t put me back.” “A Rose for Emily” can be viewed as a gesture from Faulkner to his character. The “rose” is a symbol of the love she was deprived of in her lifetime. In her story, Emily is referred to as ‘crazy’ whereas she is a woman suffering from an undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. Like Jane, Emily is one representation of a wider spectrum of women who suffered from mental health issues in silence throughout their lives as a result of male oppression. With this, Faulkner’s gesture to Emily can also be viewed as a gesture to women in general.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily” are stories that actively challenge the treatment of women. Gilman and Faulkner use their characters as reflections of the socio-economic situation of women with mental illness as a result of patriarchal oppression. Both stories emphasize a need for women to have a voice, as well as the ability to act out in resistance to the patriarchy.
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