The Power Of Isolation In A Rose For Emily And The Yellow Wallpaper

The Power of Isolation on the Mind Isolation can damage a person’s mental stability and ultimately alter the way they function physically and emotionally. People never experience the same situation as another, however in the circumstances of confinement, the outcome will be similar in the way the individuals are affected. This is evident in the psychological condition of the protagonists, the woman, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and, Emily, in “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. The effects resulting from confinement on the woman’s and Emily’s mental state are depression, the obsessive tendencies towards their surroundings, and the susceptibility to going insane. Primarily, the main characters from both stories …show more content…
She establishes a fixation on the wallpaper initially as a result of her confinement, but as time and boredom continue, the kernel of depression blossoms into a full obsession and mental illness, as she believes that there is a woman trapped in the wallpaper. The woman trapped in the wallpaper is the narrator herself and she tries to save herself by tearing the wallpaper from the wall. Her confinement has had the opposite effect of what was desired by her husband and by distancing her not only from the room she preferred but also from her writing as well. Similarly, Emily’s confinement drives her into to a more serious mental state and becomes obsessed with her environment. With the inability to accept change in her life, Emily does not want Homer to leave like the previous men in her life did. The isolation from society that followed her father’s passing and her sweetheart’s departure leads to the uncontrollable behavior towards her true love, Homer. Emily shuts herself out from the world and she is seen less frequently as time goes on. When she dies, the town’s people explore her house only to discover Homer’s dead body rotting, which had been “lain in the attitude of an embrace” (Faulkner 157) in the top room’s bed. Emily was entangled in her obsession with Homer and murdered him to ensure that he would never leave her. This obsession grew to the extent where Emily would sleep beside Homer’s dead body. Again, the two protagonists are …show more content…
Both women struggle with dominant figures in their lives and take a timid approach to asserting their own wills. This leads to low self-esteem and allows circumstances to further erode their mental state by depriving them of the outside world. These stories have shown that serious mental illness can result from the dissociation with society and that not everything or everyone will withdraw from you when you attempt to