Comparative analysis of the stories written by Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Gillman and Hoffman - Essay Example

“The yellow wallpaper” Gillman uses determined statements to take a reader through the narrator’s feelings on individuality and feminism. Interestingly, Gillman does this by engaging the reader into the narrator’s mind. The narrator faces a dilemma in developing her own identity. Gilman pursues instead to induce a message of specific expression and magnificently does so by recording the development of the illness, over the structure of the wallpaper. It is through this skill that Gillman develops all the other details of the story.

She emphasizes the common ills in the society such as women not valuing their identity. In the case of the story, the woman faces the dilemma of not doing the right thing and accepts being shut down by the doctors, friends and family. Her personal insecurities also help in making her feel not up to the task as woman. It is in line with this that Edgar Allan Poe uses the doppelganger characterization to develop the character, William Wilson. William Wilson is a story about a man who is a victim to his own overactive imagination and is trapped in his own conscience.

Just as the woman in Gillman’s the yellow wallpaper, Wilson faces the dilemma within his own mind. This affects his relationship with the real world. Although Wilson tries hard to run from his own conscience, it is impossible for him to break free of his imagination. Wilson is a troubled character that develops an alter ego whom he feels competes for all his struggles. He is so into the imaginary character that he feels the alter ego is the reason for all his troubles. It is in this respect that Poe develops critical questions about life and identity.

He clear maintains that fate is an inescapable chain that binds a human being. He also develops the question whether an individual’s predispositions can be circumvented. Poe manages to deliver without a doubt, the aspects of mind by creating William Wilson, a doppelganger to the protagonist. Although this a challenging transition to the reader, it creates the same feeling of amazement in Gillman’s the yellow wallpaper. Poe does not disappoint in explaining how William Wilson’s ego shades his relationship with everyone around him.

The character William Wilson faces dilemmas in school and at home. He cannot give clear judgments without considering or comparing the self with the alter ego. This character, therefore, remains in the realm of self-doubt and lost identity. From this aspect, there is a horror for the reader since it is hard to determine the character’s next reaction after he notices that there is a similar character with which they share everything physically and mentally. Poe remarkably employs gothic fiction to capture the readers mind and trouble their psychological dimensions through this story.

Hoffman in the story, the sandman, engages the readers mind to develop the dynamism of identity. Just like, Gilman and Poe, Hoffman develops the story through describing the protagonist inner imaginations and feelings (Robert 5). Through this, he develops the character, the sandman, who is dreaded by Nathaniel, the protagonist. Nathaniel is convinced that the sandman in a monster who preys on people who do not close their eyes. Clearly, Hoffman engages the readers mind to develop the story about the sandman.

Nathaniel develops this dread