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Brinkley Edwards

English Composition II

Mr. Johnson

28, April 2016

Two-Faced Insanity

Gilman and Poe are two authors who have mastered the art of creating characters who

possess traits of being mentally insane. When attempting to connect with the characters, readers

notice that both protagonists deny their illness, go to great lengths to justify their madness, and

have endings that leave readers restless. The characters in The Yellow Wallpaper and Tell-

Tale heart both struggle with the inability to escape themselves, but overall Gilmans main

character Jane is much more dynamic and effective when setting an uncomfortable feeling for

the reader.

In the beginning of The Yellow Wallpaper and Tell-Tale Heart both characters

attempt to win the reader over by craving a sense of acceptance in the midst of their mental

illness. Poes character immediately pleas with the reader to deny the idea that the murder was a

result of the characters own madness. Poes beginning conversation with the reader TRUE!

--nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am

mad (301) sparks the reader with a sense of nervous urgency to connect with the character

before the character continues to tell his story. Poes character raises uncomfortable concern

when he becomes calmer while talking about the murder, and fluctuating between nervous

insanity and a calm demeanor. The reader finds themselves at an uneasy state when the character

tells the story so healthily and calmly as he describes the murder (303.) Gilmans approach is
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much more effective because she puts the reader in an uncomfortable position with the complete

opposite technique by giving the reader a sense of calamity to begin with. Janes calm and

ordinary demeanor (1) in the beginning eases the reader into gaining her trust and connecting

with her on a deeper level. The last passage indicates that Jane believes her own mind to be

completely sound (Suess 9) leaving readers to find that Janes calmness is just an eerie attribute

of her sickness used to convince the reader that Jane herself does not believe she is mentally

insane, but rather going through a nervous weakness (2.)

Once the reader begins to connect to Janes condition the way she does, they begin to see

John as the root of her problem as she does. Later in the story as Jane becomes more nervous

about the wallpaper, the reader becomes nervous for her and cannot help but think that John may

be right about her illness. This is a technique Gilman offers to put the reader in another

uncomfortable position by coming to the decision of siding with either John or Jane. The short

story is all told from Janes point of view, so by default the reader is more inclined to understand

why Jane is unable to escape herself, however, Gilman adds minuet pressure to the reader by

giving John the role of someone with a trustworthy occupation, a physician. Connecting with

John and agreeing with the diagnosis means the reader closes off any possibility of

understanding Janes imprisonment.

If the reader becomes connected with Jane, he or she cannot help but come to the obvious

conclusion that Jane is the prisoner stuck in the wallpaper (20) that is unable to escape herself.

Gilman uses words that set an uneasy tone to connect with the readers senses such as crawling,

shaking, and strangling (14.) In Poes story, the use of words is not as effective when explaining

to the reader his charcaters self-imprisonment. Poes technique involves events, fluctuation of

his emotions, and hallucinations to offset the readers security.

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The hallucinations experienced by the both of these characters are enough to keep the

reader anxious throughout the story. The characters have an obsessed fixation on an object the

reader does not have a personal connection with. The tattoo of the heart becomes alive to him,

and consumes his sanity when he cries out his confession to the murder (303.) Gilmans use of

the yellow wallpaper is again using effective techniques to get the reader more curious, attached,

and most importantly uncomfortable. The reader develops with Jane as she notices the movement

behind the wallpaper that soon becomes unbearable. The descriptions of the wallpaper by

Gilman help the reader visualize the woman behind bars more effectively as Jane.

Poe and Gilmans characters both struggle with an antagonist who is attempting to

convince them of their reality of being mentally ill. Poe makes the reader uncomfortable by

making the reader his antagonist. Although Poes character knows he is ill, he denies to the

reader that the illness is the underlying reason he murdered the old man. Gilman puts the reader

at a distance by making John the antagonist. Gilman trumps Poe in using this technique because

Jane openly admits to being mentally ill, causing the reader to trust the character. The

uncomfortable feelings arise later in the story when our trust has been broken because Jane no

longer sees herself as sick, but sees herself as a different form in the wallpaper.

With the characters denial of being mentally insane comes justification of why they are

that way. Over and over the two characters remind the reader of why they cannot escape

themselves. The uncomfortable readers crave a solution to the characters madness to ease

themselves, but instead are faced with excuses and reasons from the characters. Poes character

gives great detail of the murder to justify his wisely proceeded plan (1) to murder the old man.

Unsuccessful. The reader knows of Poes love for the old man, and his mental illness is the only

explanation of why he would want to kill him (Pritchard 1.) Gilmans character is much more
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dynamic because not only does Jane see herself as temporarily ill, but at the end of the story Jane

becomes the very thing that resembles her madness.

The endings of the stories are possibly the most crippling part of the connection between

the reader and the characters. Both Characters lose the battle between themselves and their sanity

and there is obviously nothing readers can do about it. The authors have instilled a loss of control

in the characters as well as the readers because they are all so deeply connected by the end.

When readers compare the two stories, Gilman uses more effective techniques to make

Jane a much more dynamic character than Poes. Although both characters suffer the same issue

of mental illness, the authors have gone opposite directions in connecting the reader with the

character. Readers make that connection then cannot help getting uncomfortable through the

denial, justification, and results of the characters illness.

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Works Cited

Cleman, John. Irresistible Impulses: Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense. American

Literature 63.4 (1991): 623640. Web. 12 April 2016.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader. Ed

& Intro. New York: Pantheon, 1980. Pgs. 120.

Hume, Beverly. Managing Madness in Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper American Literary

Realism 45.1 (2012): 1-18. Print

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Poe. New York: Random House,

1992. 301-303. Print

Pritchard, Hollie. "Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart." Explicator 61.3 (2003): 144. MasterFILE

Complete. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

Suess, Barbara A. "The Writing's On The Wall" Symbolic Orders In 'The Yellow Wallpaper'."

Women's Studies 32.1 (2003): 79. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.