THE YELLOW WALLPAPER AND A ROSE FOR EMILY 2
The Yellow Wallpaper and a Rose for Emily
The Yellow Wallpaper and a Rose for Emily are short stories that happen in the 1800s
and early 1900s. The Yellow Wallpaper was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman while a Rose
for Emily by William Faulkner. A Rose for Emily is narrated by one of the men in the town in
third person and The Yellow Wallpaper is written by an unnamed narrator, a female, in the first
persona. These two stories happen at a time when there was male dominance compared to that of
women. The female’s place was considered to be in the kitchen and taking care of the children.
These stories have their share of similarities as well as differences.
The two stories illustrate what women go through in a male dominated society. In A Rose
for Emily, Emily’s father represents the male perspective. Emily’s relationship with her father is
depicted as dominating in nature: “miss Emily, a slender figure in white in the background, his
back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door
(Faulkner, 1931). The Yellow Wallpaper depicts the mistreatment of women. John, her husband,
keeps telling her that he knows much more and is knowledgeable than her for he is a physician.
He calls her “…little girl” (Gilman, 1982). This shows how they were treated in this kind of
society.
The stories show how insane the two female characters were due to the oppression they
faced from their male companions. The unnamed narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper is repressed
by the husband and her brother. “John laughs at me, of course, but one would expect that in a
man…You see, he does not believe I am sick!...My brother is also a physician and also of high
standard, and he says the same thing” (Gilman, 1982). She feels guilty that she is ungrateful to
John “I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I
feel basely ungrateful not to value it more” (Gilman, 1982). In a Rose for Emily, after her
