Comparative Essay On The Themes Assesment Report

Running Head: COMPARATIVE ESSAY ON THE THEMES OF ‘THE YELLOW
WALLPAPER’ AND ‘THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE’
Comparative Essay on the Themes of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and ‘The Haunting of Hill House’
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

COMPARATIVE ESSAY ON THE THEMES OF ‘THE YELLOW WALLPAPER’ AND
‘THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE’
1
Introduction
The writings and discourses in literature are taken as the reflection of the society during
which it is written, and it shows the plight and the prevailing societal norms. The writings of
Charlotte Perkins Gillman has been based on her perception of the isolation, which was noted in
the domestic sphere of the early nineteenth century. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is one of her
notable works, which shows the desperate condition of the woman declared unfit, for she did not
fit in the construct of women finding fulfillment in domestic life. While the work of Shirley
Jackson, one of the most notable psychoanalytical work depicting the confinement of a woman
and her entrapment in her psyche. Both works are based on a similar theme, which shows the
isolation from the outer world and its impact on the lives of the women. Both the works can be
read from the feministic point of view as both the writers showed a keen observance of the
feminine suppression. The essay will compare and contrast the themes which have been covered
in the works.
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper portrayed the condition or rather the conditioning of women,
which was one of the most prevalent traits of the modern and civilized nineteenth-century
society. It depicts the suppression of women, which was veiled under the emotions of care and
love by the patriarchal atmosphere of the learned men of the era (Baker 2017). The same way the
woman in the story starts her narrative by showing her inquisitive nature about the house they
have rented for the summer for it was an elegant house. Her inquisition came at the cost of the
fact that it was an elegant house, and yet it has been lying vacant for a long time, and she
displays the sense of weirdness from the first day itself. The cause for renting the house is
informed to us by the narrating women that it was for her; her loving husband has rented this

COMPARATIVE ESSAY ON THE THEMES OF ‘THE YELLOW WALLPAPER’ AND
‘THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE’
2
place. Although the place had beautiful rooms, she was given an ugly room situated on the first
floor, which she analyzes extensively and concluding that it has always been used for the people
who needed confinement. The depiction of the women and their condition is depicted by the use
of the furniture present in the room. There was only one window, and yet it was barred (Băniceru
2018).
Yet, the entirety of the story has been dealt with the woman’s obsession with the yellow
wallpaper in the room, which she forced to live in spite of her pleading and requesting to her
husband. The woman is shown to be disgusted by the wallpaper in the beginning, but the
restrains on her work as the device which pushes her towards the inevitable in analyzing the
wallpaper itself (Gilman 2020). Towards the end, she has nothing but the same tormenting
wallpaper on her mind; the woman measures even the smell, shape, and length until the time she
assesses that woman is residing in the insides of that paper and is creeping on her at times
(Brooks 2017). The psychology of the husband, John, is shown to be assessing his wife giving
into her fancies and that there was nothing to worry about. In the end, we see her locking herself
inside the room, for she starts associating herself with it and is determined to liberate the woman
inside by taking the wallpaper completely. The husband on entering the room at last faints at the
sight of his wife, which he perceives to be her descending into the oblivion of madness
(Cuadrado García 2019).
The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ was published almost three centuries
before the ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ yet the novel constitutes the same line of thought and the
experience of women confinement in the society. The narrative starts with the description of Dr.
John Montague, who was a parapsychologist, and in his attempt to establish his findings on the