The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman and Paul’s Case by Willa Cather

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the limits imposed upon them by others. Paul loses access to fine arts and the blissful environment in Carnegie Hall, “when they had taken away his bone” (Cather 240) just as the unnamed narrator loses her ability to write and live where she chooses. When the opportunity arises Paul runs away with stolen money and lives the luxurious life he always dreamt in a Hotel in New York for eight days. When it dawns that he must return to Cordelia Street, he feels “It was to be worse than jail”(Cather 243). The realization makes him unstable and eventually suicidal. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” experiences guilt as she is not capable to care for her own baby and she is a burden to her husband. She feels the pressure of trying to live the life her husband wants her as he says “for my sake and for our child’s sake” (Gilman 586). Though banned to write, her journal reveals her true feelings towards her husband and shows how she descends into madness each day.

Lack of purpose and inability make choices freely can have traumatic effects on lives. The familial and societal misunderstanding, control and limitations imposed upon Paul and the unnamed narrator makes them unstable. In their battle to find freedom, to think, to grow and act out their true selves, Paul loses his life in a tragic death and the narrator loses her mind being a prisoner among her loved ones.

Reference

Cather, Willa. “Paul’s Case.” The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Ed. Richard Bausch​​and R. V. Cassill. New York: W. W. Norton &Company, Inc., 2015. 231-45. Print.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Ed. ​Richard Bausch and R. V. Cassill. New York: W. W. Norton &Company, Inc., 2015.​580-91. Print.

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