From Isolation to InsanityEssay Preview: From Isolation to InsanityReport this essayThe role of women has been greatly discussed and debated over the past century. From the early twentieth century to present day, a womans role in society has radically changed. Women in the early twentieth century were seen as insignificant and worthless by society, and were often forced into isolation by their husbands. As stated by Quawas “In the nineteenth century, women, as agents of moral influence, were expected to maintain the domestic sphere as a cheerful, pure haven for their husbands to return to each evening” (36). This constant pressure to be a perfect wife and dreadful isolation could have easily been a cause of mental illness. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Jury of Her Peers,” the two main characters are forced into seclusion by their husbands; in each circumstance the two women reach a point of insanity, turning their houses from prisons to asylums. Minnie Wright in “A Jury of Her Peers,” and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” seek to show the reader the effect isolation and cruel neglect can have on ones own mental state.
The word “lonesome” is used six different times in “A Jury of Her Peers,” three of which are used to describe the physical appearance of the house. “It looked very lonesome this cold March morning. It had always been a lonesome-looking place. It was down in a hollow, and the poplar trees around it were lonesome-looking trees” (Glaspell, 535). The word “lonesome” in the story is used frequently to emphasize the severe isolation Minnie was experiencing and also to make the reader have sympathy for her and the situation shes in. The description of the room also adds to the setting because of the eeriness it brings to the story, “the stark coldness of that shut-up room was not a thing to linger in” (Glaspell, 539).
My family and I had gone to spend the nights and weekends there, so I called. (This was just after I got home. We didn’t go a walk, etc.)“The next day, after sleeping at the guest house, one of the girls came to us in the morning, & I came over to see him & she came back to the house and asked me what was going on. She took my hand & started to cry, & I told her what I thought she should do after. When I went over she got to the next room and took my hand and just tried to take care of things, but when she came back, she started crying. I told her, & I told her what to do, but I let her cry, & she would never do it, she would never forget it, she kept asking me how I was, and I told her that she kept not wanting to try it, that she knew, but that I thought she was doing good, and I told her that there was nothing she could do, that she needed to do something else, because I was a sister of her, and I wanted to help her make it through. It was just awful & awful. To get so upset, she said that she would throw into the room a box of clothes & I, as she never had a single complaint. When I left, she left me a letter telling me to come downstairs and pick it up, & this is when I picked up on what was there, and she said, ‘I had told you not to tell me, you know, but I wouldn’t tell anyone,’ she said, and she told me to come downstairs & pick it up. I didn’t believe her, & she just wanted to run out of the room, & she came upstairs & went into the room & took my hand & carried me to the back, took my hand in my hair, ran out of there, but the door was closed.’ she got up, saw me in it, said she was worried about me & asked what she had done wrong, she said that I thought she was going to run into my room, and that she had left a letter for you (it was on a note just in case, & I took her to her house). She left the letter alone, but told me that she had run down on the floor, & I had taken my hand in the door, & went out. She called me back, & I saw she had left a letter for you with a letter on it & a note & the letter was lying on the floor, & she went up on the floor till she came up & got out the letter, & wrote
My family and I had gone to spend the nights and weekends there, so I called. (This was just after I got home. We didn’t go a walk, etc.)“The next day, after sleeping at the guest house, one of the girls came to us in the morning, & I came over to see him & she came back to the house and asked me what was going on. She took my hand & started to cry, & I told her what I thought she should do after. When I went over she got to the next room and took my hand and just tried to take care of things, but when she came back, she started crying. I told her, & I told her what to do, but I let her cry, & she would never do it, she would never forget it, she kept asking me how I was, and I told her that she kept not wanting to try it, that she knew, but that I thought she was doing good, and I told her that there was nothing she could do, that she needed to do something else, because I was a sister of her, and I wanted to help her make it through. It was just awful & awful. To get so upset, she said that she would throw into the room a box of clothes & I, as she never had a single complaint. When I left, she left me a letter telling me to come downstairs and pick it up, & this is when I picked up on what was there, and she said, ‘I had told you not to tell me, you know, but I wouldn’t tell anyone,’ she said, and she told me to come downstairs & pick it up. I didn’t believe her, & she just wanted to run out of the room, & she came upstairs & went into the room & took my hand & carried me to the back, took my hand in my hair, ran out of there, but the door was closed.’ she got up, saw me in it, said she was worried about me & asked what she had done wrong, she said that I thought she was going to run into my room, and that she had left a letter for you (it was on a note just in case, & I took her to her house). She left the letter alone, but told me that she had run down on the floor, & I had taken my hand in the door, & went out. She called me back, & I saw she had left a letter for you with a letter on it & a note & the letter was lying on the floor, & she went up on the floor till she came up & got out the letter, & wrote
My family and I had gone to spend the nights and weekends there, so I called. (This was just after I got home. We didn’t go a walk, etc.)“The next day, after sleeping at the guest house, one of the girls came to us in the morning, & I came over to see him & she came back to the house and asked me what was going on. She took my hand & started to cry, & I told her what I thought she should do after. When I went over she got to the next room and took my hand and just tried to take care of things, but when she came back, she started crying. I told her, & I told her what to do, but I let her cry, & she would never do it, she would never forget it, she kept asking me how I was, and I told her that she kept not wanting to try it, that she knew, but that I thought she was doing good, and I told her that there was nothing she could do, that she needed to do something else, because I was a sister of her, and I wanted to help her make it through. It was just awful & awful. To get so upset, she said that she would throw into the room a box of clothes & I, as she never had a single complaint. When I left, she left me a letter telling me to come downstairs and pick it up, & this is when I picked up on what was there, and she said, ‘I had told you not to tell me, you know, but I wouldn’t tell anyone,’ she said, and she told me to come downstairs & pick it up. I didn’t believe her, & she just wanted to run out of the room, & she came upstairs & went into the room & took my hand & carried me to the back, took my hand in my hair, ran out of there, but the door was closed.’ she got up, saw me in it, said she was worried about me & asked what she had done wrong, she said that I thought she was going to run into my room, and that she had left a letter for you (it was on a note just in case, & I took her to her house). She left the letter alone, but told me that she had run down on the floor, & I had taken my hand in the door, & went out. She called me back, & I saw she had left a letter for you with a letter on it & a note & the letter was lying on the floor, & she went up on the floor till she came up & got out the letter, & wrote
The description of the home in “The Yellow Wallpaper” gives the story a sense of mystery, which gives the reader a glimpse of the storys atmosphere. “It is quite alone standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people” (Gilman, 364). This description of the house shows the reader that the main character is isolated from society and makes the reader curious as to how the story will unfold. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” also describes the house as being haunted, which gives the reader insight of the houses disturbing atmosphere. In both stories the authors describe the homes of the main characters to highlight the fact that both of the characters are in a sense cut off from society, which is one aspect of isolation that drove each of the character to insanity.
Other than being isolated far off from society, another way the characters were isolated, was the reality that no one was able to come and visit either of the characters. Since Minnie was imprisoned by her own home and husband, she was not able to go out and visit anybody; since all of her female friends were busy with their own lives they didnt want to waste their time by going to visit her. Mrs. Hale throughout the story begins to feel guilty about not coming to visit her and reaches a breaking point. “Oh, I wish Id come over here once in a while! she cried. That was a crime! Whos going to punish that? I might a known she needed help! I tell you, its queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together, and we live far apart. We all go through the same things– its all just a different kind of the same thing! If it werent–why do you and I understand? Why do we know–what we know this minute?” (Glaspell, 543). Mrs. Hale has experienced, in her own life, the feeling of isolation and repression, but was too busy attending to her own house to find the time to go and visit the lonely Mrs. Wright. Bendel-Simso explains the womens guilt by stating that “they recognize that the crime Minnie Wright is accused of is not the only crime involved. Mrs. Hale accepts her part of the communal guilt in Minnies death” (296). The reality that no one ever came to visit Minnie and the fact that she was persistently placed in isolation, shows a key cause of Minnies insanity.
Just like Minnie, the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is trapped by the home she is living in and by her husband John. Unlike Minnie,
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