The Depiction of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper and The...

The Depiction of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Chrysanthemums, by John Steinbeck Identical twins have the same genes that make both of them look, think, and feel the same. Their likes and dislikes are the same; for instance, when one likes yellow, the other will like yellow. However, their fortunes are different; for instance, when one dies, the other will not die. Similarly, in literature, different authors have created a twin character in different eras. It is as if a second twin sister was born forty years after the first one was born. In The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman ( 1892) and The Chrysanthemums, written by John Steinbeck (1938), both stories are similar in†¦show more content†¦Like Salinas Valley, Elisas life is limited by her husband and she does not have a free life. On the other hand, Gilman uses a big, beautiful house as a setting. Her character is trapped inside the haunted house despite the fact that she suffers from a mental illness. She is stuck in a vacation home that is well back from the road, quite three miles from the village (Gilman 182). The house makes her feel so strange that she cries all day, but not at night for her husband is there: [she cries] at nothing, and [cries] most of the time (Gilman186). She does not like her room a bit at first because of the yellow wallpaper. She wants to get out and wishes John would take [her] away from [that room] (187). She is trapped in that room for three months until she gets herself out. The writers in those days had the same opinion of a relationship between husband and wife. Many women were living in a world that was dominated by men in the early days. It was very common for men to control their wives during that era. Most women were not able to rebel against their husbands. The women in both stories are protagonists who have a strange relationship with their husbands. While the main character of Gilman suffers from a nervous breakdown, the character of Steinbeck is a very strong and powerful woman. Gilmans character gets