Compare And Contrast Yellow Wallpaper And Modernism

The Victorianism era for literature was characterized by the struggle of employed individuals and the success of right instead of wrong. The Modernism era for literature broke the traditional styles of literature and experimented with expression and form. However, many authors of both eras had an occurring theme in their literature which is isolation and what it does to one mentally. Modernism rejected predictable truths and figures of authority, and also moved away from writing about religion. In modernism literature, man is assured that his own sense of morality outplays. But individualism results in feelings of isolation and loss. (Farley, 2001) Many Victorianism authors lamented their old way of life, causing them to distance themselves …show more content…
This contrast is the dominant theme of the literature, as the narrator’s efforts to survive being in isolation end up being the main focus that keeps the plot in the story going. The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is suffering from postpartum depression and her husband has her confined to a single room, a nursery, in a large house that she described as feeling like a prison. Her husband often spends his nights in town as part of his duties as an important doctor and does spends little to no time with his ill wife. Because of the social isolation the narrator experienced, this lead to her state of insanity. The continuous isolation the narrator is suffering from, with the only thing to look at is the wallpaper, causes her to become more insane. “On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of law that is a constant irritant to a normal mind” (Gilman, Yellow Wallpaper, 6.1) This quotation illustrates that she is conscious that this pattern is an annoyance to one who has a normal conscience. Although, for the narrator, she has nothing else to focus on being isolated; therefore she relies on her imagination to pass the time. Eventually she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper leaving her in an insane state. Another example of what the theme isolation does to the mind is when the narrator is forced to be in isolation without social contact for a long period of time. Her brain begins to imagine a woman who lives within the yellow wallpaper and it causes her to become delirious. “I didn 't realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind…but now I am quite sure it is a woman.” (Gilman, Yellow Wallpaper, 7.1) The narrator has created her own person due to the lack of no social contact. The narrator did not realize the “woman” in the wall in the beginning because she had not been in isolation for too long. Nonetheless,