Mother Knows Best

Mother Knows Best

The world is made up of a variety of people with different looks, personalities, and way of dealing with life. Literature is one way people use to mirror lives of those around them and capture it in a way people will remember for years to come. No matter what story a person reads, it is always possible to find at least one characteristic that they identify within themselves. In different stories, the reader is able to find characteristics that not only identify within themselves, but also identify within other characters in separate stories. They may also find a character that seems similar, but is also different in many ways. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper" and Sherwood Anderson's "Mother," the characters of the Narrator and Elizabeth Willard live absolutely separate lives but compare in certain areas. Although the Narrator and Elizabeth Willard are similar in that they are both mothers, they differ in their marital happiness, ability to handle problems, and source of isolation.

The first way in which the Narrator differs from Elizabeth Willard is in her marital happiness. She loves her husband very much and has had a satisfying and happy marriage. He shows his love by taking care of her when she is sick. This is shown as the Narrator tells us "And dear John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till it tired my head. He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep well" (Gilman 838). John cares so much for his wife that all he wants is for her to get better so they can be as happy as they once were. Even though the Narrator loves her husband so much and knows he loves her in return, she still finds it hard to talk to him about matters concerning her health. She states this in saying, "It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so" (Gilman 838). Again, his love is shown as the Narrator states, "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction" (Gilman 834). Through the entire story his love and devotion toward his wife is shown and it is easy to see that even through all the health problems and emotional distress, they will be there for each other until the very end of time. That is true love!

On the other hand, Elizabeth Willard's marriage is not as happy and charming is that of the Narrator from "The Yellow Wall-paper." Elizabeth and her husband, Tom, have a very unsatisfying, unloving relationship filled with bitterness and anger. Her feelings toward her husband are shown as George Willard, the narrator of the story, states "Although for years she had hated her husband, her hatred had always before been a quite impersonal thing. He had been merely a part of something else she hated" (Anderson 1217). Elizabeth's hate for her husband is not built directly on him. Due to other events and circumstances in her life, she has built up such anger that she directs that onto her husband. He becomes a scapegoat for her hatred.

The second difference between the Narrator and Elizabeth Willard has to do with their ability to handle problems. One way the Narrator deals with her situation is in the journal she keeps. She knows that the others do not approve of her writing down her thoughts, so she hides them. She believes she knows what will help herself to get better, but everyone else keeps telling her she is wrong. She states her feelings in saying,

Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do? I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal- having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition (Gilman 833).

In dealing with her sickness, she not only writes in her journal, but she shares her pain through tears. She doesn't want others to see her deep pain so she tries to hide it when others are around. "I cry at nothing, and cry most of them time. Of course I don't when John is here, or anybody else, but when I am alone. And I am alone a good deal just now" (Gilman 837). She realizes she is unhappy with her sickness and wants to express her pain through tears, but she does not want to face the opposing view on the situation which comes from her husband and others. Not only does she handle her problems through writing and crying, she also does it through violent thoughts toward herself. She is tempted to turn those thoughts into actions and take them out on herself. This is shown as she says, "I've got a rope up here that even Jennie did not find. If that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her! But I forgot I could not reach far without anything to stand on." She continues in saying, "I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong to even try" (Gilman 843). She starts out by using the woman in the wall-paper as an excuse for the rope in her room but it is soon shown that the rope would be used to harm herself and not someone else.

The Narrator may be able to handle her problems in keeping to herself or thinking of using violence against herself, but Elizabeth Willard's choice in handling her problems is in acts of violence toward other people, mostly being her husband. She has the desire to take out her anger on him by causing him physical pain. This is shown in the statement,

Going to a cloth bag that hung on a nail by the wall she took out a long pair of sewing scissors and held them in her hand like a dagger. "I will stab him," she said aloud. "He has chosen to be the voice of evil and I will kill him. When I have killed him something will snap within myself and I will die also. It will be a release for all of us" (Anderson 1217).

The anger she has harbored inside, for her husband, is ready to explode from within her. She can no longer hold it inside, but must express her anger by physically harming her husband, not only hurting him, but killing him. The hatred has reached its peak and cannot back down. She must do something to suppress the anger toward him and the only solution she can think of is to kill him and stop the emotional pain he has caused her.

The third difference between the Narrator and Elizabeth Willard