The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Essay Example

Examining “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman yields a variety of possible interpretations of the events that take place during the story. Pick one of these and explain how it helps to shape your view of the theme of the story. Consider the elements of fiction and how they weave together for a cohesive whole. How does looking at the characters, setting, and POV help to illuminate the theme? “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story about a woman’s slow descent to madness. Her mental health is gradually destroyed because her creativity is inhibited.

She isn’t even allowed to write. The setting of the story and the POV highlights one of the major themes of the story, self-expression. The story happens mostly in the room with the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper eventually evolves into a character, wherein the main character, the narrator, sees a woman caged within the wallpaper. This becomes a symbol of her feeling of being trapped. Using a first person narration style, Gilman emphasizes the desire of the woman to write. Even the way the story is written, with the chapters as daily journals, stresses that the protagonist longs for a release of her creativity, and that she attempts to release this through her journal.

The characters in the story are also created in such a way that they move within the major themes of the story, self-expression and subordination of a wife. The protagonist, the narrator, forwardly narrates how she feels. The husband’s actions and behavior towards his wife accentuates the traditional perspective of the relationship between a husband and a wife, with the wife being the subordinate character. The woman in the yellow wallpaper becomes the epitome of a caged woman who wanted to break free of the reins of the society, as a traditional, subordinate wife, who just follows what her husband wants her to do and to be.

All of these elements shape the theme of the story well enough that the reader easily understands what the story is trying to point out. 2. Edgar Allen Poe demonstrates his particular theories on fiction writing in nearly every work he has written. Pick one of Poe’s works that we have looked at this semester “the Raven," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Fall of the House of Usher" and explain how it is an example of Poe’s idea of “unity of effect.” How does Poe shape his fiction, focusing all of the elements of fiction into one climactic moment?

(Note: for this question you will need to provide specific details and instances from the story you choose) “The Tell-Tale Heart” is one of Edgar Allen Poe’s works that signifies his theory on unity of effect. Most of Poe’s work can be read in just one sitting. He ensures this so as not to break the unity of effect. The unity of effect means that all the elements of a story, the setting, characters, tone and point of view, directs the reader towards a particular emotion. For example, in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” it is the main character’s nervousness, edginess and fear that is highlighted throughout the story.

It is not about his insanity or sanity, rather it is about the emotions felt by the characters that creates the bridge from the start till the end of the story. The main emotion that Poe translates throughout this story is fear. Because of the “unity of effect,” the reader feels the fear of the main character as he relays his fear, and eventual obsession, of the old man’s pale blue eyes, and eventually the old man’s thumping heart. The tone of the story remains consistent, of fear, nervousness and edginess.

Poe also made sure that the characteristics of the narrator stays true to the unity of effect, thus making sure that he emphasizes the super-enhanced senses of the main character. This characteristic actually brought the entire story to life as the narrator’s enhanced fear comes from his enhanced senses. This is shown from his fear of the pale blue eyes until the time of the killing, wherein he hastily killed the old man because he feared that the neighbors would hear the thumping of the old man’s heart.

Also, the enhanced senses become his downfall when he hears a loud ringing and ticking sound. During this time, his sanity defense becomes more and more a proof of his insanity. Eventually, he breaks down and admits the crime because he felt that the cops know everything and heard what he was hearing, the loud ringing noise and the thumping of the dead man’s heat. 3. Both “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver and the movie “Taxi Driver” contain unlikable, disillusioned protagonists that reader typically have a negative reaction to, and yet both stories end with “happy,” or at least positive, endings.

Examine and compare the two characters: what are their respective “problems,” are they “fixed” at the end, and how do they reflect society as a whole? The narrator from the “Cathedral” and Travis, the protagonist from the “Taxi Driver” seem like two different characters because they are within different scenarios. But in fact, they have similarities, being disillusioned, closed-minded and opinionated. These characteristics have been the primary cause of their problems. The narrator from “Cathedral” has a very limited understanding of his wife while Travis from the “Taxi Driver” has very strong and restricted opinions about what is right and wrong.

Both character’s way of understanding things limits them from fully comprehending what is happening with their environments. While the narrator from “Cathedral” only sees things as they are, such as the physical embodiment of his wife and not her feelings and Robert as his wife’s friend from the past and not as an embodiment of hope, care and friendship as his wife sees Robert, Travis sees only things from the society as how he interprets the right and the wrong. Since Travis has a strong opinion of the boundaries of right and wrong, he sees the scum as wrong and the office workers, such as Betsy, as good, and for the most part, he sees the scum of the society.

These opinions bring the conflict in “Cathedral” and “Taxi Driver.” By the end of each story, both characters have a realization that things are not always what they seem. Through art, the narrator in “Cathedral” realizes that there is more to what he can see, that he can also see things from his mind and his heart, apart from seeing the physical embodiment of things. With Travis, he begins to realize that there is something good within the society, and this would make him less nervous and opinionated about things.

The only difference, though, is that the narrator from “Cathedral” ultimately changes towards seeing things differently, a liberation from his closed-mindedness, while Travis still switches back and forth with the different perspectives he has undergone through the story, as a mentally ill person. 4. “Taxi Driver” contains a number of comments on society. Travis Bickle’s journey through the streets of New York City illustrates and expands on these societal anxieties. Explain how this occurs and think about your reaction to theme.

Looks at these issues from a Historical or a Cultural perspective (choose one). What was happening at the time involving these issues? How does looking at these anxieties inform current events? (Remember this is an academic response so try to avoid “I” in your answers) While Travis traverses the streets of New York, he sees different things that may be construed as a negative perspective about the society. The social issues presented in the movie are social anxieties during those times. Looking at it in a historical perspective, the movie actually describes the different social issues relevant during the 1970s.

The movie puts onscreen the reality of the dichotomy of New York. On one side, New York symbolizes growth and economic success, on the other is the sordid and gloomy side of it. Accurate to historical data, the 1970s have a higher rate of crime on the New York streets compared to the crime rate of the present. The movie attempts to play out the hidden side of New York. Yes, there are a lot of successful people living and working in the city but behind the beautiful scene, there is an ugly scenario, the crime-filled, violent, including a racist, environment that surrounds the surreal city of dreams.

These social issues and anxieties played onscreen allow people to understand better the current events being reported on new shows and newspapers. Although the main character of the movie is a mentally-ill person, the setting does not deviate from the reality. Yes, people may not be mentally-ill, same as Travis who can only define the restricted boundaries of right and wrong without understanding the reasons for its rightness or wrongness, but they are blind, rather they make themselves blind to the facts of reality.

Though people know what is right or wrong, and they have a better understanding of the reasons for its rightness or wrongness, they choose to become indifferent and apathetic to what is happening around them for their own personal reasons. But the truth is, just as Travis cannot escape his mental illness, the society cannot escape the reality.