Obsessed With Paper?

The Yellow Wallpaper is a profound story that may seem simply weird and literal, but actually shows the complete mental breakdown of a mostly healthy woman into an entirely other being. The woman, who begins unnamed, is forced to endure the rest cure for her depression. Her isolation in a room where there is absolutely nothing to focus on aside from the wallpaper, is unhealthy for anyone. She begins to realize she has nothing else to live for besides studying the walls; her baby is cared for, her husband works, and she is more of a hazard than help, “It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous” (Gilman 3). She knows that she is not a good fit for her own child, leading her to have even less to care for. Her obsession with the yellow wallpaper of her bedroom and lack of social interaction leads her to mentally die; the person she once was disappears for it could endure no more suffering in the same bed at all hours. She becomes a new woman, the one she had been studying so closely in that wallpaper, until she knew nothing else but the yellow paper. For this reason, she thinks she was born in the wallpaper and does everything she can to be free of it which involves her ripping it all off to her husband’s shock. At the very end of the story, the woman she once was is finally named, “’I've got out at last,” said I, " in spite of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!’” (Gilman 9). Jane was the woman who had been mentally stable through most of the trauma, trying to reason with herself and remain optimistic. Once Jane reaches her breaking point, she dies only to leave her body in the hands of a creeping woman who came from the walls. The woman was able to get out, not only past the paper but also past her own sane self.

            This intense story is mostly relevant in the nineteenth century, for that was when rest cure was very popular but it is still important today for it shows how harmful isolation really can be. Jane’s lack of interaction and exercise led her to have no purpose in life, so instead of physically killing herself, she mentally did so by obsessing over the wallpaper of her room. Anyone, even today, who is constantly alone and bored, whether forced to or not, needs to be aware of the story and how harmful their lack of interaction really is.

Work Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. N.p., n.d. United States Library of

Medicine. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

Heart of Gothicism

A Gothic novel is one that “is characterized by an atmosphere of mystery and horror”(Dictionary.com). Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad can be classified as a Gothic novel because of its sense of mystery, eerie setting and ghostly attributes. A Gothic novel is one that portrays the feeling and atmosphere of dread and horror, which are prominent throughout the novel. Marlow travels to a barbaric country knowing very little of its inhabitants aside from their inferiority and animalistic characteristics. As he travels through the Congo River, he is constantly surrounded by fog and strange noises adding to the uneasy mood that Conrad portrays. The reader is forced to hold their breath with Marlow as he ventures into the unknown. This tense mood is very gothic for it is pessimistic in the novel as Marlow travels deeper into the darkness; he sees more and more horror.

            Aside from the mood of the novel feeling very negative, the setting itself is dreary and unpleasant, another major theme of a Gothic novel. Aside from the fog surrounding the river implying the lack of sunshine and extreme gloominess, the things Marlow sees are gruesome. At one point he noticed a fence lined with human heads as the stakes, “They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house. Only one, the first I had made out, was facing my way. I was not so shocked as you may think” (Conrad 112). The inferred violence and maltreatment of the people whose heads had been used as a fence forces a repugnant picture into the reader’s head for they have to envision real human heads. The horror and darkness of the setting fall easily into the category of a Gothic novel.

There are no real ghosts during the novel, although supernatural elements are present throughout. As Kurtz lies dying his last words are very Gothic, “stare with that wide and immense stare embracing, condemning, loathing all the universe. I seemed to hear the whispered cry, 'The horror! The horror!'" (Conrad 152). The fact that Marlow is unsure of whether or not he hears Kurtz adds yet another level of mystery to the novel along with the wonder as to exactly what ‘horror’ Kurtz is exclaiming about as his final words. Overall, the mystery in the mood, setting and actions of the novel along with the universal darkness classify Heart of Darkness as a Gothic novel.

Works Cited

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness.NY,NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1988.

Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 08 Mar. 2015.

Rochester's Blindness...Or Newfound Sight

Rochester was a charming, romantic man who had made mistakes that he did not properly face. He was thus blinded by his biggest fault to force him to see the morality in his relationship with Jane over Bertha. Brontë blinded and crippled Rochester so that he would be forced to see and accept what he did wrong with Bertha, instead of keeping her hidden away just for him to not think about. Jane rejecting him was a wakeup call, yet he still felt sorrow for himself instead of making a change. Brontë takes away Rochester’s self-misery ironically, by imposing worse punishment on him. When Bertha herself blinds Rochester, he realizes he lost what mattered most to him, “I did wrong: I would have sullied my innocent flower – breathed guilt on its purity: the Omnipotent snatched it from me… You know I was proud of my strength: but what is it now, when I must give it over to foreign guidance, as a child does its weakness?” (Brontë 340). Rochester discusses with Jane how he finally lost his strength that he was once so proud of in order to take responsibility for his actions. He had a wife and was looking for another, making any woman he sought after only a mistress, which was degrading to both him and the woman. Although he did not intend to be, his actions were sneaky and undermining but he was caught it the act.

Brontë’s decision to impair Rochester was a good decision for it adds depth to both Rochester’s character as well as Jane’s. The fact that Jane does not even hesitate when she finds out Rochester is blind before marrying him, shows that she is nonjudgmental and charismatic. She cares about Rochester for who he is and can see past his issues, “Reader, I married him.  A quiet wedding we had: he and I, the parson and clerk, were alone present,” (Brontë 342). Jane and Rochester do not need a fancy, extravagant wedding as they were once going to have. They have come to appreciate each other and found that is all they need to be happy. Rochester’s blindness was a key to him really seeing what mattered most in his life, which is subtly yet strongly exemplified by Brontë.

Work Cited

Brontë, Charlotte, Fritz Eichenberg, and Bruce Rogers. Jane Eyre. New York: Random

House, 1943. Print.