Rough Draft (a/a)

Gilman and Dickinson

Comparing Emily Dickinson, the author of many poems and Charlotte Gilman, the author of  The Yellow Wallpaper exposes the reader to a better understanding of feminism and the use of symbolism in writing. Dickinson and Gilman have two completely different styles of writing, however, they are both able to convey a strong message to the readers. They have made their impact and are seen as two influential women writers of the 1800’s.

            In The Yellow Wallpaper the wife’s husband who appeared to have good intentions, but expressed them in a rather oppressive way controls her actions. After a break down, the narrator and husband stay in a mansion for the summer. The husband hopes this will help to heal the wife. Despite requesting to move to a different room and to leave the house her husband is blind to her true needs and keeps her confined to her room. Throughout her time stuck and isolated in her room, the wife becomes mesmerized with the wallpaper and eventually feels a connection to the woman she finds behind it who is trying to free herself. Similar to the woman the wife shares the wish to be freed. Although it is supposed to unintentional, the husbands force and the wife’s submission displayed the social dynamics and expectations of how a couple was supposed to act at that time. Due to the restrictions, the wife has to secretly write in her journal even though it is one of the things keeping her sane. Gilman was inspired to write this tory, because it is almost a mirror of an experience she had personally where she was told after having a nervous breakdown to sit at home and live her life doing nothing. Her feminism is highlighted when she ends the story with the wife tearing down the wallpaper and stepping into freedom. This freedom is free from the terrible room and her overbearing husband. The ending is abrupt and encourages women to speak up for themselves. It also leaves the reader wondering what true freedom looks like.

            Emily Dickinson wrote an extensive amount of poems all of which have an impactful message in them. Her style and choice in poetry is very different in length and style than Gilman yet she is still able to convey a message. Two examples are In this short life that only lasts an hour and Fame is a bee. These are both only two to four lines and they still have a very powerful message in them. The more popular poems by Dickinson have to do with mortality such as Because I could not stop for death, which is not surprising since death chose to reappear a lot in her life. During her actual life she wasn’t known for being a poet and seemed humble in her writing. Dickinson studied at Amherst College where they heavily focused on Botany, which is likely to have contributed to her common use of nature in order to communicate to her readers. She is also known for using her voice subtly or not so subtly to share she did not believe a woman should submit to men and women should not surrender their hopes and dreams for a man. For most of her life she was quite isolated and spent her time alone. She would spend the whole day cooped up in her room working. Her room was a place of freedom where her imagination could flow freely through her poetry. Locking the door was a symbol of leaving the real world behind and being able to be as creative as she could. Many of her poems weren’t published until after she died and when they were they became very popular.

            When two similar yet different authors come together they are able to project quite a message. They were both supporters of feminism and the idea that a woman should have a room to herself to be as free and creative as she wanted. In their own ways they were able to educate people about feminism and communicate their thoughts on it even though it was through their work. It may seem like a small thing, but they had influential voices. In Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper the woman behind the wallpaper symbolized the wife being trapped behind her husband and her old self. She became the wallpaper and was finally able to break free physically and emotionally from it. Without symbolism the message would not be as bold. Dickinson on the other hand always used symbolism in her poems whether it was with nature or people. People are able to see the importance and power of symbolism and how they can be used to relay a message. When brought side-by-side people are able to see two women who lived at different times able to share some of the same beliefs with the world around them.