Madness in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Tell-Tale Heart -- English Lit

Madness in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Tell-Tale oculusCompare the portrayal and use of madness in The Yellow Wallpaper byCharlotte Perkins Gilman and The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe.Which story did you prefer and why?The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Tell-TaleHeart by Edgar Allen Poe both suck up characters who in the opinionof other people are insane. The characters hysterical behaviour dueto their insanity is depicted as the stories progress. The YellowWallpaper was written for a reason to demonstrate how women weretreated in society in the 19th Century. The Tell-Tale heart waswritten primarily for the purpose of entertainment.The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Tell-TaleHeart by Edgar Allen Poe have both been written in the first person.This is for a number of important reasons. In both stories the maincharacters descent into insanity is effectively portrayed by thecharacters increasingly irrational behaviour and neurotic tho ughts.If the books had not been written in the 1st person then the readerwould not have sex the characters feelings and reactions to events in thebooks. By writing the stories in the first person, the reader is ableto step inside the mind of the character and experience what theythink. Both the stories rely on being written in the first person andwould not work if they had not been written like this.The Yellow Wallpaper is written in a diary form with entries beingadded at different intervals We have been here two weeks, and Ihavent felt like writing before, since that first day. It is anaccount of the characters most personal emotions during the period oftime. She confides in her diary and... ...erred The Tell-Tale Heart forthe following reasons. Firstly I found the womans account in TheYellow Wallpaper, although interesting, a little withal emotional andpersonal to feel comfortable for me to consult to. This may be a genderresponse. On the other hand, I found that I could rel ate more easilyto the dramatic qualities in The Tell-Tale Heart and the progresstowards the final denouement better captured my imagination. Thisstory also felt more timeless which makes it distant easier to relate to.Works CitedPoe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York Longman, 1999. 33-37.Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. The Norton Introduction To Literature. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. 7th Ed. New York, Norton, 1998. 2 630-642.