Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman hold a great significance to the short story genre. The stories have a tale of women going crazy because of isolation. Despite the American time period in The Yellow Wallpaper and the British time period in Jane Eyre there are many similarities in the short stories. Both of the stories have a developing theme of masculine superiority and control. The case of mental health issues and instability are also present due to the space that the women are held in. I believe that women suffrage has a lot to the with the stories being told.
The women in the story seem to have a different up bringing. The Yellow Wallpaper was based on a married couple that I assume had wealth because they live in a Manson. In Jane Eyre the women grew up as an orphan that fell in love with a wealth man. Her child hood was horrible after her parents based she lived with an aunt that was very cruel to her. Throughout Jane Eyre you can see that this women is determined to overcome the norm of being submissive. She fights to keep her independence while being educated. Nevertheless the women seemed to have married someone with a status.
The idea that space is associated with the mental health of these ladies are shown in both of these stories. In The Yellow Wallpaper the main character in the story relates her depression to this room that she is being locked in. Being completely isolated form the outside world drove this women crazy. I believe that this total isolation is inhumane. “Heavy bedstead, the barred windows, and then the gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.” The room that she was kept in was describe to seem as if it was a prison with bars on the wall. The house as a whole could have something to do with her insanity. The mansion that she lived in was dark and scary “A haunted house” and is bad for her condition. In Jane Eyre, the Gateshead Hill was her living nightmare. “I should be glad to leave it” stated when she was explaining how this place that was supposed to be her home was less than that. Jane further explained how she felt as if she was a servant there.
The men in Jane Eyre and The Yellow Wallpaper seem hold a significant power over the women. The women in these stories have no control over their own life. The husbands take advantage of the fact that they are mental ill and belittles them. The men in the stories have no respect for the women. In The Yellow Wallpaper the reason that the women is locked up is because of her husband John. He believes that his wife has a mental issue called hysteria because he is a doctor. John has limited her ability to do anything even normal house duties as a wife. In the story that narrator believes that he doesn’t really want her to get well. Although she wants to change he ignores her because his own opinion is more valuable than hers. “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression…a slight hysterical tendency…what is one to do?” stated by the narrator. In Jane Eyre her new fiancé Rochester also her former employer is a manipulator. Unlike the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper, Jane has a backbone so I think. She finds out that her wonderful fiancé is actually already married and leaves him. During this time the women role was to obey the men so everything Jane did was looked upon. She left Rochester, started her own life just to turn back around later and marry him after his wife died.
Overall Jane Eyre and The Yellow Wallpaper are great stories. The women in these stories crave to have a normal life. I don’t believe that anything was wrong with them but they were driven crazy by the men in their life. The men and isolation are holding them back from the world. What they want the most is freedom and respect. The developed themes in these two stories saids a lot and in my point of view ties back to the women’s suffrage. This was a time when women wanted to become more independent and have equal rights. The women wanted to be heard and treated fairly as they should be.
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