Tell Tale Heart and the Yellow Wall Paper
There are similarities between the two stories “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, and “The Yellow Wall Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Even though their writing styles are far apart they deal with a similar issue. Both authors deal with the fragility of the human mind. Both stories are very interesting and hold you to the core perhaps it is because any truly sane person knows that there is a little madness in all of us. Maybe that is why many people still read their stories today. In the story “The Tell Tale Heart” the narrator wants to show the reader that he is not insane. As proof, he offers a story. In the story, the initial situation is the narrator’s decision to kill the old man so that the man’s “evil” eye will stop looking at the narrator. Every night for one entire week the narrator goes to the old man’s room, ready to do the dirty deed. But, the sleeping man does not open his eye. Since the man is not the problem, just the eye, the narrator cannot find it in himself to kill the old man if the offending eye is not open. While spying one night the narrator made a noise, by accident, this noise causing the man to wake up – and open his eye. This is not much of a complication, seeing as though the narrator wanted to kill the old man anyway. The police show up and the narrator remaining calm and collected, even giving them a tour of the house. Eventually the guilt takes over and the narrator starts hearing things, thinking that the noises might stop, he tells the cops to look under the floorboards. The police then find the man’s cut up body. In “The Yellow Wall Paper” the narrator begins her journal by marveling at the magnificence of the house her husband has taken for their summer vacation. The narrator is suffering from “nervous depression”. We also learn from the very beginning that the narrator’s husband makes all of the decisions for her. The narrator wishes to spend her time writing and socializing, she expresses her own opinion to her
Bibliography: Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Tell Tale Heart." Literature. New York: n.p., 2010. 36-40. Print. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wall Paper." Literature. New York: n.p., 2010. N. pag. Print.