Preview

Compare: Yellow Wallpaper & Rocking-Horse Winner

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
347 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare: Yellow Wallpaper & Rocking-Horse Winner
CompareJasmine Lee

Suspense and frantic endings, come to mind when describing the short stories, The Yellow Wallpaper and The Rocking-Horse Winner. Both Gilman and Lawrence included a set of unsettling events involving extreme accounts of psychosis. Although, sharing the concept of psychosis, the origins of which each main characters experiences stem from differs. The conflicts in both stories differ greatly. In The Rock-Horse Winner, the main conflict is with the son, Paul. Paul believes he is 'lucky' because of his winning streak at the Derby. When Paul falls down on his luck, internal issues start to take over, Paul's hallucinations also surface. At the end, Paul's hallucination becomes extremely fierce and although discovering Malabar, the horse he place his bet on, actually won, it is too late. Paul becomes mute and eventually dies. In contrast, The Yellow Wallpaper's main conflict is with the immobile and ill woman, who is also the unnamed narrator. The narrator distinguishes, piece by piece, the significant details of the yellow wallpaper. Her depictions are found out to be hallucinations going in her mind. This springs up the narrator's internal conflict. She soon acts in a possessed manner, as she can no longer cope. Finally, when released from her imprisonment, it is again to late, as the narrator is not freed of her psychosis. Similarly, the two short stories share irony. In The Yellow Wallpaper, irony exists as the narrator is supposedly in a place of rest, but her illness only worsens. In The Rocking-Horse Winner, irony is found notably at the end, when despite winning the bet on Malabar, Paul dies of what can be inferred as, an anxiety attack or psychosis. Additionally, the stories share the same thrill of an ending. Both conclude with the main characters in a frantic state. Ultimately, both short stories display the extremity of psychosis. The main characters twist of irony in both stories, leads to raging endings. The distinguishing is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The author of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and the author of “Tell Tale Heart”, Edgar Allen Poe, illustrated the characters in the perspective views of other people that they are mentally ill. When comparing and contrasting “Tell Tale Heart” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, they both focus on the concept of the descent from sanity to madness but each author has a different vocabulary and style.…

    • 244 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The narrator in, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” suffers from depression, although her husband, who is a doctor, does not consider it an illness. Therefore, he keeps her on a strict rest cure. She is not allowed to do work of any form, not even care for her baby. All she allowed to do is rest in her room and breath in the air as prescribed by her husband. Because she spends most of her time in her room, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the room and it drives her to insanity. The lack of creative stimulation and relationships with others causes the narrator’s obsession with the yellow wallpaper which leads her to believe she is trapped behind bars in this yellow wallpaper.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is written in the perspective of the narrator as her journal where she reveals her deepest most personal thoughts about herself and her life, yet she still remains a very mysterious character. Her name is never revealed, and the reason the author does not reveal her name is so the story of her struggle could represent the struggles of many other going through the same situation. It is clear from the beginning of the story that she is an unreliable narrator because it is mentioned that her husband who is a doctor has diagnosed her with temporary nervous depression with slight hysterical tendencies. She seems to be a very creative and sensitive person who is a writer, but she is forbidden from writing in her journal by her husband who thinks that too much mental stimulation will only make her condition worse.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the surface, the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper simply shows an insane woman who began suffering from depression after the birth of her child. The narrator was placed into a house, which was in the middle of nowhere, where she received dangerous treatment and often gets belittled by her husband, who is also her doctor. Her treatment required her not to do anything active, especially writing. Although some would conclude that the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is just about an insane woman struggling with post-partum depression and isolation, it shows the protagonists struggle with trying to break out of the mental constraints she has been placed under and her need for self-expression through her journal.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thesis Statement – The narrator in “The yellow wallpaper” portrays an emptiness of life away from society which force her to initiate mental imagery and loses control of her mental state. Body A. Symbolism…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    He takes it upon himself to fix his parents financial situation. Their situation is brought about to help their parents, it seems, but the boy decides not to tell his mother about this gift he has to know about the horse that is going to win. The people around him are amazed that this is how he is getting so good. They earn a lot of money, but they give it to him to give to his mother, to improve the situation they are put in. Lawrence takes an almost eerie side to this story when the little boy dies. It seems that the house killed the boy for he was too much into the fact that he could sense things through the house, and took advantage of it. In Rocking Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence, there are many people he or she can blame for Paul’s death, his mom, his uncle…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The most obvious conflict the narrator has to deal with is living in the room with the yellow wallpaper and differentiating creativity from reality. The narrator becomes fond of the wallpaper and feels an excessive need to figure out the pattern. She says, “I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I have ever heard of” (Gilman 224). Her days become preoccupied with the wallpaper and she feels a distinct connection to it. While she tries to decode the wallpaper’s pattern, her creativity allows her to see a face in the wallpaper. She says, “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Gilman 223). As she continues to study the wallpaper, she comes to believe that she sees a woman creeping in the chaotic wallpaper who is trapped behind it: “The front pattern does- and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (Gilman 227). She begins to have a bond with this woman and can relate to her. The woman in the wallpaper is essentially the narrator. They are similar in the sense that they are both trapped and unable to escape. Towards the end of the story, the narrator reaches a state of insanity where she can no longer differentiate herself from the figure she sees in the wallpaper. She tells us, “I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is…

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper, it can be inferred that the woman’s state of mind is slowly worsening. The woman in the story…

    • 1874 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The novella The Yellow Wallpaper is a small masterpiece written by, Charlotte P Gilman. She enlightens her readers to the living conditions of a middle class woman during the late 1800s. This is portrayed through use of the narrator, who documents the different factors that impact upon the different stages of her mental breakdown. The readers can see that through the novel, Gilman portrays the life of a young woman who struggles to maintain her integrity as an individual in the everyday society.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper is a story which is told in the first individual by the Narrator, a young lady. The Narrator and her husband, John, have leased a substantial, empty colonial estate for the midyear. The Narrator portrays the home as haunted, or possibly feeling extremely odd, and relates that her husband John, a refined physician laughs at her notions. The Narrator, on the other hand, furtively wants to stimulate the thought that the house is haunted. The Narrator is experiencing anxious misery and furtively accepts that on the off chance that her husband was not a doctor she may recoup all the more rapidly. Notwithstanding, both John and the Narrator's sibling, additionally an expert physician, have advised her that she is fit as a fiddle…

    • 2713 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout life there may be somethings that may make a person seem as they are going insane. In the story “The Yellow-Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the narrator is staying in a summer house with her husband, John. She is going through a nervous condition which is keeping her from working until she is well enough to do so. John takes diligent care of her as she is going through her illness and makes sure she is well taken care of. The room her and her husband are staying in, in the summer home, has yellow wallpaper. This yellow wallpaper seems to have a big effect on the narrator as she starts seeing a woman behind the wall. She only sees the women in the daylight doing odd things. At the end of the story the women behind the yellow wallpaper has got to her and makes her go crazy. She tears the wallpaper off to let the women out and makes her husband faint. In “The Yellow Wall-paper” the women suffers from anxiety, hallucination, and depression which causes her to go insane.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages

    More often then not we find ourselves holding back our true feelings, like the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The narrator has a vast imagination but struggles with depression. Her husband John’s solution as her doctor is to forbid her from expressing her-self, leading her to insanity. A mind that is kept in a state of forced inactivity is doomed to self-destruction.…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As I read The Rocking Horse Winner I used the before, during, and after reading comprehension strategies to better understand and get involved in the story. Using the before strategy, I found the purpose of the reading was to take part in the courses expectations and understand what I was about to read. I realized I had to read the story slowly and carefully so I could make connections, get involved, and create mental images. I wondered what the story was going to be about. All I had to work with was the title and first couple of lines; these lead me to believe the story to be about a beautiful woman with many advantages. The title made me question, was the rocking horse her lucky charm? During my reading I soon realize the woman was far from perfect. The family lived an expensive lifestyle that they could not afford, which compromised their happiness. The mother was cold and had a heart of stone; this greatly affected the way the entire family viewed love, a true reflection of the mother’s inability to love. I read on and wondered if it were possible for the little boy to prove that with hard work everyone including himself could posses luck, and why was he so fond of his rocking horse? Then everything began to make sense; the rocking horse was the lucky charm! But the little boy was the only one who believed in the horse. The story reminded me of a family I knew; the family lived a similar lifestyle, with similar problems. This made me realize I was using the strategy mental imagery. The father was rarely mentioned throughout the story, it left me to wonder if he truly tried to help with the family’s financial state. He was never around, not even when his child was sick and dying. Was he out night and day trying to put food on the table? Or was he having an affair? The main idea in the story was luck; the kind that people live their whole lives hoping for, but never putting forth enough effort to posses. The stories message was clear, things don’t just come to…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Numerous themes and types of irony are presented in “The Rocking Horse Winner.” One of the main themes is the want for more; more material possessions and of course more money. Another is the search for luck. Paul’s journey for this is what ultimately led to his demise and death at the end of the story.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Out of the three short stories “Tell Tale Heart”, “Yellow Wallpaper”, and “Strawberry Spring”, “Tell Tale Heart” did the best at establishing the characters mental state. This is due to the fact that it is plain as day that the character is insane from the beginning; but he gets more and more insane as the story progresses.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays