Niggers Are Black

Emily is destroyed by her father's over-protectiveness. He prevents her from courting anyone as "none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and su...

These women are forced into solitude merely because of the era they are woman

The women in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" are driven insane because they feel confined by the men in their lives. They retreat into their own respective worlds as an escape from reality, and finallyEmily's father rejects all of her prospective mates; the husband of Gilman's narrator isolates her from stimulation of any kind.

In the yellow wallpaper the narrator is driven to insanity by her husband's neglect. He denies that she is ill, and locks her in a room with no stimulus or pleasure. In personifying the wallpaper in her prison, she finally escapes her husband's grasp on her, but in doing so, also escapes reality.

"A Rose for Emily" is a harrowing tale of an old maid, driven to grasp for that which she is robbed. Her controlling father rips away any chance of her forming a life outside of him, and when he dies, she is left with no one. Alone and betrayed, she finally meets a man, but discovers he is not interested in becoming committed to her. Faced with the awful lonely fate of a solitary life, she decides she shall not let him leave her, and takes action.In "The Yellow Wallpaper" the narrator is driven to insanity by her husband's neglect. He denies that she is ill, and locks her in a room with no stimulus or pleasure. In personifying the wallpaper in her prison, she finally escapes her husband's grasp on her, but in doing so, also escapes reality. Readers are shown Miss Emily's struggle from an outside point of view. Miss Emily is portrayed as a harsh recluse who commits a sickening crime. Readers can only speculate Miss EmilyÐ''s thought processes, and never delve inside her insanity. She is described as "a tradition, a duty, and a care, a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town (Faulkner 548)." We view her as a cold, hardened woman who turns away all human contact. Some readers are disgusted by her actions and may feel no sorrow or compassion for her, because of her harsh portrayal.Although Faulkner obviously was aware of society's critical view of women at this time, he could not fully relate to the hardships of females. William Faulkner lived in a time where women were treated as the weaker sex, and were fully submissive to their male companions. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is viewed from the female characters point of view. Readers are aware of her thoughts, hopes and dreams, and