The Yellow Wallpaper Setting Essay
Setting’s Influence on the Short Story
The Yellow Wallpaper and Hills Like White Elephants
Readers tend to see setting as mere background noise, not noting anything particular about it or what it may represent. But for some stories, the setting can be very significant. It can reflect different aspects of the story, from the plot itself, to the characters, to the message it’s trying to portray. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemmingway are two examples of how the setting can play an important role in a short story. Both stories use the setting to reflect the characters’ inner thoughts and to shed light on the theme.
In the 19th century, the mental health of women and feminist literature …show more content…
The narrator has been taken there by her physician husband who has forbidden her to work or socialize until she is cured of her “slight hysterical tendencies” (297). Instead, he insists that the best thing for her to do is to not “think about [her] condition” (297), and to stay in her room and recover. The narrator describes the house where she is staying for the summer, saying:
[It is] the most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me thing of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people. (297)
This description of the house reflects the way the narrator feels while she is there. The placement of house far back from the road mirrors the isolation she feels being confined to that house all summer. The house’s separation from the road and the town echoes the narrator’s separation from society as she is kept alone in the house. This imagery and setting also reflects the way women, especially those with mental health issues, were treated at this time; they were kept separate from humanity and were told that their isolation would help them recover, when in actuality, it was the opposite of what they needed to get
The Yellow Wallpaper and Hills Like White Elephants
Readers tend to see setting as mere background noise, not noting anything particular about it or what it may represent. But for some stories, the setting can be very significant. It can reflect different aspects of the story, from the plot itself, to the characters, to the message it’s trying to portray. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemmingway are two examples of how the setting can play an important role in a short story. Both stories use the setting to reflect the characters’ inner thoughts and to shed light on the theme.
In the 19th century, the mental health of women and feminist literature …show more content…
The narrator has been taken there by her physician husband who has forbidden her to work or socialize until she is cured of her “slight hysterical tendencies” (297). Instead, he insists that the best thing for her to do is to not “think about [her] condition” (297), and to stay in her room and recover. The narrator describes the house where she is staying for the summer, saying:
[It is] the most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me thing of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people. (297)
This description of the house reflects the way the narrator feels while she is there. The placement of house far back from the road mirrors the isolation she feels being confined to that house all summer. The house’s separation from the road and the town echoes the narrator’s separation from society as she is kept alone in the house. This imagery and setting also reflects the way women, especially those with mental health issues, were treated at this time; they were kept separate from humanity and were told that their isolation would help them recover, when in actuality, it was the opposite of what they needed to get