A Comparison of The Yellow Wallpaper and Daisy Miller
analytical Essay
954 words
Society continually places specific and often restrictive standards on the female gender. While modern women have overcome many unfair prejudices, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women were forced to deal with a less than understanding culture. Different people had various ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities, including expressing themselves through literature. By writing a fictional story, authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James were given the opportunity to let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the main character is a symbol for all repressed women of her time. Throughout the entire story, her name is never mentioned, alluding to the fact that the women of her era simply lacked their own personal identity. Her husband treated her as a frail and incapable being. He laughed at her fears, and disregarded her concerns as frivolous worries. She recognized this as nothing beyond the normality, and accepts it because that is what her society deems standard. When commenting that there must be something queer about a house so large and beautiful, yet rented to them at such a reasonable price, she continued “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in a marriage” (1). John continually tells her that her illness is psychological, and encourages her to try and get more fresh air, for her own efforts will be the best for a quicker recovery. However, on the one occasion she asks him for permission to visit her Cousin Henry and Julia, he denies her so, leaving her in tears and telling her she could not handle such a trip.
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... the liberation of women everywhere. One can easily recognize, however, that times were not always so generous as now, and different women found their own ways of dealing with their individual situations. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s character created a twisted image of the world in her mind, and eventually became mentally insane. While most cases were not so extreme, this character was imperative in creating a realization of such a serious situation.
James’ character did what most rebellious young American women would do. She broke free from cultural restrictions and lived her life as she pleased. A woman of passion, she chose to ignore the repressive attitudes of those around her. Women of today are still fighting for equality, but have authors of the past and women like the characters in their stories to thank for the improvements they made.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that society places specific and often restrictive standards on the female gender. late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women were forced to deal with a less than understanding culture.
- Analyzes how the main character in charlotte perkins gilman's short story, the yellow wallpaper, is a symbol for all repressed women of her era. she recognizes this as nothing beyond the normality, and accepts it as what her society deems standard.
- Analyzes how the woman turns her attention to the hideous yellow wallpaper that lingers on the walls of the room she stays confined within.
- Analyzes how women dealt with the inequality in other ways, such as denying the standards and simply building your own rules. daisy miller was a flirtatious american girl who was spending time overseas in europe.
- Narrates how daisy announced to her italian acquaintance, mrs. walker, that she was leaving alone to meet a romantic interest of hers, and when they discovered that the man was mr. giovanelli, warned her against doing so.
- Narrates how daisy's reckless behavior and flirtatious nature became the talk of the town, but she refused to let it change her course of actions.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's character created a twisted image of the world in her mind, and eventually became mentally insane.
- Analyzes how james' character did what most rebellious young american women would do: she broke free from cultural restrictions and lived her life as she pleased. women of today are still fighting for equality, but have authors of the past to thank for the improvements they made.
Related
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- Comparison of Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaperanalytical essaySociety continually places restrictive standards on the female gender not only fifty years ago, but in today’s society as well. While many women have overcome many unfair prejudices and oppressions in the last fifty or so years, late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were forced to deal with a less understanding culture. In its various formulations, patriarchy posits men's traits and/or intentions as the cause of women's oppression. This way of thinking diverts attention from theorizing the social relations that place women in a disadvantageous position in every sphere of life and channels it towards men as the cause of women's oppression (Gimenez). Different people had many ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities amound women, including expressing their voices and opinions through their literature. By writing stories such as Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic that took a major toll in American History. In this essay, I am going to compare Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to James’ “Daisy Miller” as portraits of American women in peril and also the men that had a great influence.
In this essay, the author
- Compares gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" and james' "daisy miller" as portraits of american women in peril and the men that had a great influence.
- Analyzes how the main character in charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" is used as a symbol to express the feeling of all the oppressed women in her time.
- Analyzes how daisy, the main character in the story, is intrigued by a handsome american named winterbourne because of her frivolity and independence.
- Opines that women are still fighting for total equality but we have come a long way in improvements since then.
- Analyzes how the woman behind the wallpaper is the main character in henry james' short story, daisy miller.
- Analyzes how daisy's reckless behavior and flirty nature caused her to become an outcast but she refused to change her ways.
- Explains that perkins, geroge, and barbara perkins. the american tradition in literature.
1214 wordsRead More - What Is Feminism In The Yellow Wallpaperanalytical essayAs Virginia Wolfe once stated, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman” ( ). The word female has had countless meanings throughout its lifespan. Females can be seen as lowly and cheap, regal and sophisticated, or weak and underutilized. It has only been in the last 70 years that women have gained a foothold in society, to gain the rights they deserve. In the late 1800’s a new writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman questioned society’s views on the idea of being female and tried to make them understand that females are a force to be reckoned with and not a doormat for men to step on. She would not stand to be labeled anonymous.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the word female has had countless meanings throughout its lifespan. it has only been in the last 70 years that women have gained a foothold in society.
- Analyzes how gilman witnessed the harsh effects that men can have on women. she became subordinate to the man's world and became a stilted housewife.
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" was her way of explaining the confinement and isolation she experienced while going through her ‘rest cure’ treatment for her supposed madness. she also managed to inject her own feminist agenda into the piece.
- Analyzes how karen ford's critical essay on "the yellow wallpaper" combines the narrator’s life with the experience that gilman had in herself following the birth of her child.
- Analyzes how the narrator regresses into a primal and insane animal-like state that could not be tamed. the seclusion and confinement to the nursery cause her to hallucinate images to keep her company.
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" received bad reviews when it was first published. the idea of mental illness was supposed to be the focus, but not to make the reader insane.
- Analyzes how the majority of the characters in "the yellow wallpaper" are males, while the minority, female characters play weak and submissive roles.
- Analyzes how gilman's language and word choice allowed for a sense of patriarchal domination to be the center of the piece.
1345 wordsRead More - The Yellow Wallpaper Essayanalytical essayDue to many male-dominated marriages in the early 19th century, some attitudes toward women were viewed as weak second-class citizens who were deprived of self-expression and individualism. In the short story The Yellow Wall-paper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman unbinds the limited roles women had in their marriages. She reveals that these women were subjected to their husbands because they were seen as vulnerable and over emotional during this time. Gilman creates an unnamed female character that is diagnosed with hysteria by her husband and physician, John. He believes the best way to cure her case of hysteria is to stay contained in her room without stimulation of any kind, which could further worsen her condition. In a secret journal she keeps
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman unbinds the limited roles women had in their marriages. she creates an unnamed female character diagnosed with hysteria by her husband and physician, john.
- Analyzes how the narrator's subordination to her husband is emphasized by the degrading diction and details seen throughout the story.
- Analyzes how john doesn't realize how serious his wife's sickness is getting and never connects with her on any of her feelings or needs. his mentality is fading faster the more he fails to help her.
- Analyzes how the restrictive imagery portrayed throughout her sickness depicts that she is literally trapped inside of her room. the vivid image of the yellow wallpaper illustrates an even larger disturbance in her mind.
- Analyzes how gilman's depiction of the woman in the wallpaper resembles her struggle to break free of this inequality in her marriage and to achieve her self-expression.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman created a piece that aimed to illustrate women's needs for self expression and the misunderstandings of women made by men in the 19th century.
1006 wordsRead More - Compare And Contrast The Yellow Wallpaper And A Rose For Emilyanalytical essayCharlotte Perkins Gilman successfully depicts a women’s downfall by the society that she lives in.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how "the yellow wallpaper" and "a rose for emily" both give social critiques of the male dominated society that they are living in.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman depicts a woman's downfall by the society that she lives in. the husband, john, is everything he is supposed to be, and in some ways embodies his society.
- Analyzes how gilman may have made the narrator faulty to show how little women's word meant in that society. the yellow wallpaper represents another part of society that the
- Analyzes how society is to blame for the loneliness that made emily snap and kill homer barron.
- Analyzes how the men of the town didn't confront emily about funny smells coming from her house, and when she asked for arsenic they did not ask her why as seriously as they should have. they interfered because they wanted to have a say in who this woman ends up married to.
- Analyzes the similarities and differences between gilman and faulkner in "the yellow wallpaper". both authors were coming from oppressive environments causing societal beliefs about gender roles and constraints on women in society.
- Opines that understanding 's relationship with the texts gives the audience more depth and insight as to what they are saying.
1555 wordsRead More - A Feminist in Action in The Yellow Wallpaperanalytical essay"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression." In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband.
- Analyzes how the narrator's compliance with her role as a submissive woman is easily seen. the quote epitomizes the inability of women in previous centuries to express their thoughts.
- Analyzes how the inability of the narrator to communicate her wishes and feelings plays a key role in the worsening of her illness.
- Analyzes how gilman portrays the concept of propriety through an inconspicuous observation by the narrator.
- Analyzes how the narrator despises the wallpaper in her room and describes the pattern of the paper. under her husband's authoritarian rule, she spirals downward into the depths of a serious mental illness.
- Analyzes how the wallpaper mystifies the narrator as she spends more time in the confines of the room. as the reader progresses through the passage, she plunges into insanity.
- Analyzes how the narrator's fascination with the wallpaper escalates into an obsession. the "bulbous eyes" develop into a woman trapped inside.
- Analyzes how the narrator observes a distinct odor coming from wallpaper, which translates into the "stench" of male domination and chauvinism.
- Concludes that the wallpaper represents the evils of the male dominated world for gilman and the narrator.
- Analyzes how the narrator's "temporary nervous depression" escalates into paranoia and hysteria. the mental illness that she displays near the end of the story symbolizes something more for her.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's short story, "the yellow wallpaper," addresses the issues facing women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Analyzes how gilman acknowledges that much work is needed to overcome the years of injustice and encourages women to do what they can to stand up for themselves.
- Explains that michael j. mahin's the awakening and the yellow wallpaper: an intertextual comparison of the "conventional" connotations of marriage and propriety.
1794 wordsRead More - The Dawn of Feminismanalytical essayThe Victorian era was a time when the rights that women are so accustom to today did not exist. In fact, this era was especially known for the stern code of morality that was placed on women. Men acted more like property owners when it came to women. Men viewed women as only useful to serve a few specific purposes, and other than that, they were virtually worthless. Women like Louisa May Alcott, were seeking a chance to explore their individual freedoms apart from men. Women weren’t granted the right to vote until 1919; however, Louisa May Alcott expressed early interest in the subject of women’s rights, having lived through this demeaning era herself. It was almost 50 years after writing her inspiring and revolutionary novel, Little Women, that women were finally and truly recognized as equals and in which the passageway to women’s rights was rightly unveiled. Louisa May Alcott’s life in a 19th century restrictive society led her to write feminist novels that ushered in the era of women’s rights.
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- Explains that the victorian era was known for the stern code of morality that was placed on women. louisa may alcott was seeking a chance to explore their individual freedoms apart from men.
- Explains that during the victorian era, countless restrictions were placed on women, and equality was not a social norm. louisa may alcott's work opened the eyes to many women.
- Analyzes how alcott resembles jo in her rebellious ways of speaking out against the unjustified ways in which she lived.
- Explains that louisa may alcott was an advocate for women's rights and was the first woman to register for voting in her hometown of concord, massachusetts.
- Analyzes how louisa may alcott's sensationalist novels helped us understand the historical significance of the victorian era and the struggles that women throughout history have had to face.
- Opines that alcott, louisa may, little women, comp. louis jambor, new york, grosset & dunlap, 1947.
- Analyzes how alcott's novel little women tells the story of a family of four girls growing up in restrictive society and trying to find who they will become.
- Explains that louisa may alcott is my passion, a hunger for home, and little women, was published by the unitarian universalist history & heritage society.
1285 wordsRead More - Symbolism Inherent in "The Yellow Wallpaper"analytical essayThe contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the woman despises the wallpaper, which is confusing, disorienting, and unappealing. the paper becomes her inner antagonist, a dingy yellow menace.
- Analyzes the double entendre of gilman's "the yellow wallpaper." symbolism is the element that plays the starring role in this production, coyly divulging clues necessary to illuminate the reality of her psychosis.
- Analyzes how the symbolism of a scratched and gouged "floor" supports the idea that she is not utterly repulsed at first glance.
- Analyzes how the woman's boredom, paired with her emerging mental illness, denotes a change in her self-perception. the climax is illustrated and clarified through the symbolic tearing.
716 wordsRead More - Women have always struggled to gain attention from men as well as equality with them. Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" has a theme of feminine oppression. It is a work of literature that shows many of us how women were treated because women in the era in which this story was published were treated in much the same way as the narrator was on a daily basis. Male dictatorship over women is rampant within the illness and treatment of Jane the characters in the story, and the many symbols that serve to confine the main character. A stand had to be made in order for women to achieve equality with men. Standing up to a man, however, was not permissible in nineteenth century America. This story epitomizes
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" epitomizes women showing society that they have a voice and an opinion as well.
- Analyzes how the story shows the relationship between the husband and wife. the protagonist has no voice, and her husband is overprotective and oppressive.
- Analyzes how the heroine recognizes that her condition is caused by something other than john's theory, but she is too scared to voice her opinion.
- Analyzes how gilman expresses the symbolic relationship between the real and wallpaper woman in the yellow wallpaper.
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" illustrates the effect of oppression on individuality and how the narrator was so strongly oppressed by society that she believed and did not see any way out of her situation.
1128 wordsRead More - Free Yellow Wallpaper Essays: Oppression of Womenanalytical essayThe Yellow Wallpaper is a story, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Although the work is short, it is one of the most interesting works in existence. Gilman uses literary techniques very well. The symbolism of The Yellow Wallpaper, can be seen and employed after some thought and make sense immediately. The views and ideals of society are often found in literary works. Whether the author is trying to show the ills of society of merely telling a story, culture is woven onto the words. The relationship between the narrator and her husband would be disagreeable to a modern woman's relationship. Today, most women crave equality with their partner. The reader never learns the name of the narrator, perhaps to give the illusion that she could be any woman. On the very fist page of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Gilman illustrates the male dominated society and relationship. It was customary for men to assume that their gender knew what, when, how, and why to do things. John, the narrator's husband, is a prominent doctor and both his and his wife's words and actions reflect the aforementioned stereotype: "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage," (9). This statement illustrates the blatant sexism of society at the time. John does not believe that his wife is sick, while she is really suffering from post-partum depression. He neglects to listen to his wife in regard to her thoughts, feelings, and health through this thought pattern. According to him, there is not anything wrong with his wife except for temporary nerve issues, which should not be serious.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how gilman uses literary techniques to illustrate the sexism of society in the yellow wall-paper.
- Analyzes how the narrator buys into the idea that the man is always right and makes excuses for her feelings and his actions.
- Analyzes how the yellow wall-paper reverses the traditional symbol of security for the domestic activities of a woman. the narrator was sent to the house to recover from post partum depression.
- Analyzes how gilman uses the narrator and the symbolism in the yellow wall-paper to show society's views on women.
1089 wordsRead More - Yellow Wallpaper Symbolismanalytical essay“The Yellow Wallpaper” contain many symbols in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman develops the idea that society at the time of the story presumed certain things “proper” - without knowing that they were indeed harmful. In the author’s time, woman had no power, worth, or opportunities, and that could have been enough to drive woman of the time, including the narrator, into madness. Women were not apart of the workforce, could not vote, or have a say in anything. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wanted to change the way in which women were viewed in the 19th century. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, she uses numerous symbols to show the many restrictions upon women, lack of public interaction, and the struggle for equality.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman develops the idea that society presumed certain things "proper" without knowing that they were harmful. she wanted to change the way in which women were viewed in the 19th century.
- Analyzes how the woman behind the yellow wallpaper is trapped behind unworldly patterns, a reflection of the narrator's life.
- Compares the narrator of "the yellow wallpaper" to bianca in shakespeare's "taming of the shrew".
- Analyzes how the pattern of day meaning immobility and night meaning movement is a reflection of the narrator's day to day life.
- Analyzes how the narrator is a mirror of the house, isolated from the rest of mainstream society. the story is written in the 19th century where women were viewed as lacking all abilities
- Concludes that wallpaper, bed, moonlight, and house are connected to the theme statement that society at the time presumed certain things "proper" - without knowing that they were indeed harmful.
- Analyzes how the bed is a symbol of female sexuality in the victorian era.
1397 wordsRead More