Compare and Contrast Two Short Stories

Compare/Contrast 2 Short Stories, with Research

A thought that is ‘seeded' into an author's mind is composed in his or her work. That ‘seeding' of thought could be initiated or influenced by the ‘system', in which the author lives or lived. Since the author is observing the environment, and events the story has taken place, he or she gives an ‘interpretation' in a written form. These short stories are one of the written forms through which the above influences will be constructed. That is, the author, based on the events he or she faced, will script the short stories with a certain plot and structure in a particular writing style integrating different point of view, setting, etc. The short stories "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe were also written in that same mould. To illustrate, "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written by Gilman as a kind of personalized story, based on her own struggles with mental illness or post-partum depression. Whereas, Poe could have written "The Tell-Tale Heart" based on an actual murder that took place in Massachusetts in 1830. So, this paper will deal with these stories by comparing and contrasting their plot and structure, characterization and style, point of view, setting, imagery, language and tone, theme and also the ironic elements.

Plot and structure

The Yellow Wallpaper deals with the mental breakdown of an unnamed female character, fighting a troubling mental condition, and her domineering Physician husband. ‘Diagnosed' as "temporary nervous depression — a slight hysterical tendency" by her husband, she becomes an isolated inmate of a yellow wallpaper pasted on the room in a large house despite having illusions of a woman. In the case of Poe's short story, "The-Tell Tale Heart", the central character was a genderless person who was taking care of an old man with an abnormal eye. Dubbing it as "clouded, vulture-like eye", the character becomes very distressed and fearful at the appearance of the eye and to overcome that he murders that old man. So, when the plot and structure of both of these novels were compared and contrasted, it gives similar perspectives. That is, both the central characters are obsessed with something, which do not pose any threat to them and more importantly are their own creations. The female character in the "The Yellow Wallpaper" obsesses on an imaginary women lurking behind the wallpapers, which she thinks is her and tries to ‘release' her imagination. On the other hand, the character of "The Tell-Tale Heart" obsesses on a abnormal eye of a powerless old man and goes to the extent of killing this old man. But the difference in plot is, both stories free their obsession in different ways, the female character frees by tearing the wallpapers down, while the central character in Poe frees in a more violent way by killing the old man and cutting him into pieces.

Characterization and style

The central characters in both the works have been characterized as individuals who are on a path of self-destruction. Likewise, both the character have some kind of mental problems because of which they tend to hallucinate or imagine something which is not what actually is. Both the characters try to free themselves of this obsession in the initial stages, but as the story gets deeper, the characters also get deeper into their illusions causing dangerous results. Otherwise the character refers to the style of psychological horror which goes through different phases before reaching the logical conclusion. That is, the female character in "The Yellow Wallpaper", wants to get out of that secluded nursery room into the open, but was prevented from doing so by her domineering husband. Thus, this leads her to lose control of her mind further and becomes fully affected of her own behavior. In comparison, the central character in "The Tell-Tale Heart" also gets the chance to get rid of the obsession. Fortunately, for eight nights, when he is about to murder the old man in his bed, the old man's eyes will be shut, hiding the abnormal eye, and thereby diminishing the urge to kill him. Therefore, both the characterization and style follows with the mindset of the characters.

Point of view

Both the stories are told from the point of view of an insane narrator. In the same way as both the stories are told from the first person perspective, the narrator of the respective stories can be assumed as the persons, who are facing the mental instability. At the same time, the point of view of both the narrators borders on insaneness. Also, the first person standpoint