The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman - Essay Example

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is representing the mental screen where men tried to put women during the 1800s. The color is associated with something fragile and sick and the mysterious illness is representative of oppression that men inflict upon women. In the story, ‘The Things They Carried’ Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the protagonist of the story and the platoon leader is a symbol and a character, brilliantly portrayed. He is a symbol of the unconscious psyche of human beings, the obsessed and the animosity was hidden behind the veil of sophistry.

His obsession for the young woman Martha back at home, for which he kills Ted Lavender and Kiowa, is his belief or reality, will always remain to be a matter of thin differentiation and this makes the image and the character more lively and attractive. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and ‘The Things They Carried’, both the stories, evolve out from a deep personal encounter and experience of life and vision. ‘The Things They Carried’ differentiates that thin line between which O’Brien’s firsthand experience of the events he encountered and reality.

The blending of autobiographical elements and fiction is done meticulously in this story. Thus, it is hard to make out the blur difference between fiction and non-fiction in this case. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ also upholds the story or rather the agony of a woman who is gradually eclipsed by the depression. Here also, the story cannot be termed as a complete fiction as it portrays some tinge of autobiographical elements.