Critical Analysis of Turned and the Yellow Wallpaper
THE STRONGER SEX? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SHORT STORIES - ‘TURNED’ AND ‘THE YELLOW WALLPAPER’.
She stood there in the spotlight, her eyes stalked the men in the crowd and her lips lifted in a smirk as she saw their eyes hungrily trace the emerald drape of her gown. It even hid the bruises and marks that patterned her stomach and legs. The first strains of the music could be heard and she began to sing in a low, sweet voice filled with mystique as she swayed her hips to the soft, gypsy beats. Every woman wished they were her and every man wished that she was theirs. But, they were simply window shoppers looking from the inside without staring deep into her soul. They saw the whispers of invitation in her eyes but, not the madness that lurked within. They did not hear the shrieks at night as she maimed herself. They saw her and saw a vision of a strong beautiful woman but, they did not see her many facets. They did not see the Real Her.
This multitude of facets (present in both genders) particularly women, are explored in the two short stories chosen by me namely, ‘Turned’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The author is renowned for her role as the spokesperson for women and an advocate for the attainment of their rightful place in society. This is at odds with the period during which she wrote, as she was a beacon of societal change even as other authors continued romanticizing the resigned notion of women as the weaker sex. Although dissimilar to ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ in many ways the short story ‘Turned’ has a nearly identical and much intended, effect on the readership of those times; a realization of the immensity of a woman’s scope of thought and emotions as well as shock and awe at Gilman’s disinclination to follow convention and conformation, the backbone of any society. Years of suppression, including a period of near-suicidal depression culminating in divorce, developed the force and couloured the timbre of her voice and
She stood there in the spotlight, her eyes stalked the men in the crowd and her lips lifted in a smirk as she saw their eyes hungrily trace the emerald drape of her gown. It even hid the bruises and marks that patterned her stomach and legs. The first strains of the music could be heard and she began to sing in a low, sweet voice filled with mystique as she swayed her hips to the soft, gypsy beats. Every woman wished they were her and every man wished that she was theirs. But, they were simply window shoppers looking from the inside without staring deep into her soul. They saw the whispers of invitation in her eyes but, not the madness that lurked within. They did not hear the shrieks at night as she maimed herself. They saw her and saw a vision of a strong beautiful woman but, they did not see her many facets. They did not see the Real Her.
This multitude of facets (present in both genders) particularly women, are explored in the two short stories chosen by me namely, ‘Turned’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The author is renowned for her role as the spokesperson for women and an advocate for the attainment of their rightful place in society. This is at odds with the period during which she wrote, as she was a beacon of societal change even as other authors continued romanticizing the resigned notion of women as the weaker sex. Although dissimilar to ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ in many ways the short story ‘Turned’ has a nearly identical and much intended, effect on the readership of those times; a realization of the immensity of a woman’s scope of thought and emotions as well as shock and awe at Gilman’s disinclination to follow convention and conformation, the backbone of any society. Years of suppression, including a period of near-suicidal depression culminating in divorce, developed the force and couloured the timbre of her voice and