Mental Ill-Health in the Works of Browning and Gilman

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the dramatic monologue "My Last Duchess" and the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" which both deal with issues of mental ill-health. The paper explains that while the Duke in the poem "My Last Duchess" is prone to bouts of megalomania, the woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is beset with depression, post-pregnancy. The paper then looks at how both these texts are self-narrative, thus allowing the reader to explore individual and universal predicaments through the sufferer's psyche. The writer points out that the purposes of the two pieces also vary. Browning's poem is intended to chill the reader and narrate a loosely historical story that ends with the gory implication that the Duke is unchecked and might continue to murder other people. Gilman, on the other hand, wrote her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" to instruct what should not be done in cases of depression, to create awareness of the complexity and seriousness of mental ill health and to disturb the reader out of his/her sphere of comfort and provoke productive thought.

From the Paper:

"The story is narrated by a woman who's come for a holiday, with her husband and her infant. She writes how her husband, who is a doctor, refuses to believe what she tells him, regarding her mental ill health. He instead, attributes it to a mild form of 'feminine' hysteria and highly sensitive nerves and brings her on a holiday, hoping that the change of scene will do her good. She is advised not to read or write (two things that she enjoys doing), or take walks in the fresh air for it might tire her. She is forced in a loving way to 'recuperate', cooped up in a room that is given to her. The woman becomes obsessed with the peeling wallpaper in the room, her subtle pleas of someone believing her unhappiness and depression going unheard; she consequently becomes mad at the end of the story."

More papers on Mental Ill-Health in the Works of Browning and Gilman:

• Comparison Essay # 140158 : "Women in the Works of Laurence and Ross"
• Analytical Essay # 60975 : "Women in the Works of Hawthorne and Poe"
• Analytical Essay # 67162 : "Connection with God in the Works of Tennyson and Hopkins"

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