Tragic consequences: Themes of alienation in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening
Summary :
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Alienation from others
- Cult of true womanhood
- Social expectations
- The narrator's journey
- Alienation from the self
- Levels of possible alienation
- Reasons by increase in the tendency of alienating
- Escape from coercion
- The themes of alienation
- Tragic consequences
- Tragic consequences of alienation
- Direct route to the tragic consequence
- Resolution to alienation
- Conclusion
- Works cited
Abstract
A contemporary Boston physician responded starkly to The yellow wallpaper. "Such a story ought not to be written," he said. "It was enough to drive anyone mad to read it."
What is it about the descent into madness that is so disturbing to read? Accounts of people behaving oddly are common enough - that cannot be the resonant element that so profoundly disturbs the reader as we watch the protagonist drift away from the shores of sanity. It seems rather to be the element of alienation itself that we respond to at a visceral, unthinking level. It is a feeling almost everyone has experienced at some time or another, thus easy to identify with, even if only in a mild form: a sense of not belonging, of being separate and distant from the people and things around us. This theme is all the more powerful, then, when used to underscore a character's emotional journey into a place of utter estrangement. We understand intuitively how one can feel withdrawn or disconnected; it is not a great leap from there to disassociated and isolated from all that gives life meaning.
What is it about the descent into madness that is so disturbing to read? Accounts of people behaving oddly are common enough - that cannot be the resonant element that so profoundly disturbs the reader as we watch the protagonist drift away from the shores of sanity. It seems rather to be the element of alienation itself that we respond to at a visceral, unthinking level. It is a feeling almost everyone has experienced at some time or another, thus easy to identify with, even if only in a mild form: a sense of not belonging, of being separate and distant from the people and things around us. This theme is all the more powerful, then, when used to underscore a character's emotional journey into a place of utter estrangement. We understand intuitively how one can feel withdrawn or disconnected; it is not a great leap from there to disassociated and isolated from all that gives life meaning.
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