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

â€Å"A Rose for Emily† by William Faulkner and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two well written short stories that entail both similarities and differences. Both short stories were written in the late 1800’s early 1900’s and depict the era when women were viewed less important than men. The protagonist in each story is a woman, who is confined in solitary due to the men in their lives. The narrator in â€Å"A Rose for Emily† is the mutual voice of the townspeople of Jefferson, while Emily Grierson is the main character in the story that undergoes a sequence of bad events. The unnamed, female narrator in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† is also the main character whose journal we read. This difference in tense gives each story a†¦show more content†¦Treichler’s â€Å"Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’† informs readers â€Å"The narrator is forbidden 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 â€Å"sick†, depressed woman. In â€Å"A Rose for Emily† the townspeople were extremely nosey and very judgmental about how people should live there life. Watkins argues â€Å"The contrast between Emily and the townspeople and between her home and her surroundings is carried out by the invasion of her home by the adherents of the new order in the town† (509). Also it is displayed sometime after Emily’s father died when she went to the druggist and ordered arsenic to kill rats (Faulkner 78-79). â€Å"†¦The next day we [the townspeople] all said, ‘She will kill herself’; and we [the townspeople] said it would be the best thing (Faulkner 79). In â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† the unnamed narrator is judged by her family and friends. In the introduction of the story the unnamed narrator reve als that her husband, also a physician, belittles her illness and her general thoughts of life (Gilman 408). â€Å"If a physician of high standing, and one’s ownShow MoreRelatedThe, The Yellow Wallpaper, And Mississippi Native William Faulkner s `` A Rose For Emily ``869 Words   |  4 PagesGilman’s (1860-1935) â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and Mississippi native William Faulkner’s (1897-1962) â€Å"A Rose for Emily† both contain extreme delusional characters (â€Å"Charlotte Perkins Gilman†, â€Å"William Faulkner†). 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