Isolation in “a Rose for Emily” and “the Yellow Wallpaper”

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner and The discolor paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two well written ill-judged stories that entail twain similarities and differences. Both light stories were written in the late 1800s early 1900s and depict the era when wo manpower were viewed less definitive than men. The protagonist in each score is a woman, who is confined in solitary due to the men in their lives. The narrator in A Rose for Emily is the mutual voice of the townspeople of Jefferson, while Emily Grierson is the principal(prenominal) temperament in the story that undergoes a sequence of bad events.The anonymous, fe anthropoid narrator in The yellow-bellied cover is also the main character whose journal we read. This difference in tense gives each story a different outlook on the situations at hand. In The Yellow cover we get the thoughts and actions of the unnamed narrator as she sees it, while in A Rose for Emily we get Emilys thoughts form confabulation and he r actions from the narration of the townspeople. A comparison amidst the protagonist in A Rose for Emily and The Yellow paper enables readers to interpret the main characters closing off from their community and state of mind.In each air division of A Rose for Emily, the narrator goes back and forth in time telling stories of Miss Emilys life. Emilys father was a controlling man who ran off all prospect men of Emilys (Faulkner 77). This caused Emily to be an unhappy, middle-aged, single woman who was the talk of the town. Miss Emily isolated herself from all people, except having a male Negro housekeeper who ran all her errands and took care of her house. According to Floyd C.Watkins The Structure of A Rose For Emily in Modern linguistic communication Notes, The inviolability of Miss Emilys isolation is maintained in the central division, part three, which no outsider enters her berth (509). In The Yellow Wallpaper it is revealed at the beginning of the story that the unnamed f emale narrator is macabre or depressed, and thitherfore is taken far away from people she k straightways to rest and get better (Gilman 408). From Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature, Paula A.Treichlers Escaping the Sentence Diagnosis and Discourse in The Yellow Wallpaper informs readers The narrator is require to engage in normal social conversation and avoid expressing negative thoughts and expressions about her illness (61). Although both women were isolated, Emily isolated herself while the unnamed narrator was forcefully isolated. In both short stories the main character is judged by the surrounding people Emily as a conceited, ill woman, and the unnamed narrator as a sick, depressed woman. In A Rose for Emily the townspeople were extremely nosey and very judgmental about how people should live there life.Watkins argues The contrast between Emily and the townspeople and between her home and her milieu is carried out by the invasion of her home by the adherents of the new be au monde in the town (509). as well it is displayed sometime after Emilys father died when she went to the druggist and ordered arsenic to kill rats (Faulkner 78-79). The next daytime we the townspeople all said, She will kill herself and we the townspeople said it would be the best thing (Faulkner 79). In The Yellow Wallpaper the unnamed narrator is judged by her family and friends.In the introduction of the story the unnamed narrator reveals that her husband, also a physician, belittles her illness and her general thoughts of life (Gilman 408). If a physician of high standing, and ones own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nonhing the matter with one but temporary nervous depressiona small hysterical tendencywhat is one to do? (Gilman 408). The narrator is left in the colonial mansion for the summer, not seeing anyone except her husband, John, Johns sister, Jennie, who takes care of the narrator and the house, and some family members who came to visi t for a short while.By the end of each story we realize that both Emily and the unnamed narrator are understandably insane. After Emilys death and funeral, the nosey townspeople enter her home and break down a locked away room that had not been entered in forty years (Faulkner 80). In the room they found the decaying torso of Homer Barron, the man that she wished to marry (81). The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him (Faulkner 81).A long strand of iron-gray hair was on the pillow next to him, indicating that Emily is the result of this tragedy (Faulkner 81). Although the townspeople had always thought of Emily as crazy, this finally be them right. Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper it is noted that the unnamed narrator is ill. After being secluded in the upstairs room, the yellow wallpaper comes to occupy the narrators entire reality affirming her loss of sanity and isolation from the world (Treichler 62). There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows about but me. And it is identical a woman stooping down and creeping about that pattern (Gilman 413). The unnamed narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper had torn down all the wallpaper and locked herself in the room in order to get the woman out from behind the wallpaper (Gilman 417). It is interpreted that the woman behind the wallpaper is real the narrators shadow. The parallel enabling comparison and contrast between the main characters in A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper reveals separation, seclusion, and depression as a result of life fortune.While differences of circumstances exist in the compared short stories, resemblances permit readers to observe events leading to associations between the two protagonists. According to recaps, isolation by both characters is exposed as an entry into the short stories. In The Yellow Wallpaper review by Treischler, the confirmation of t he unnamed narrator being isolated is affirmed stating The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper has come with her husband to an isolated country estate (62).The review of A Rose for Emily by Watkins verifies the isolation of Emily when he communicates she withdraws more and more until her own death again exposes her to the townspeople. (509). The short stories A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper possess protagonist as the main character that reveal connections of separation enabling associations between the two characters. Work Cited Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Literature An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Fourth Compact Edition. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. top(prenominal) accuse River Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008, 75-81. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Literature An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Fourth Compact Edition. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. Upper Saddle River Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008, 408-418. Treichler, Paula A. Escaping the Sentence Diagnos is and Discourse in The Yellow Wallpaper. Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature. 3. 5 (1984) 61-77. JSTOR. Web. 11 March 2010. Watkins, Floyd C. The Structure of A Rose for Emily. Modern Language Notes. 69. 7 (1954) 508-510. JSTOR. Web. 16 February 2010.