A Rose For Emily

             William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" hold several similarities and differences. Both stories focus on a woman's troubles near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as second class citizens. William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" show the influences of society on the woman who is the main character in each story, very different settings, and similar symbolism and themes.
             In the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Gilman, the setting is a colonial mansion. The narrator likes the house and thinks it is a good place to recover from her nervous condition. Her husband confines her to a bedroom so that her health will improve. She does not like this room. The bedroom she is confined to use to be a nursery, playroom, and gymnasium. The narrator's nervous condition becomes worse to the point of insanity due to her isolation in the bedroom, which is covered with ugly, yellow wallpaper. The narrator spends most of her time in this room, which makes her becomes fixated with the wallpaper's patterns. She begins to imagine a woman behind bars in the paper. Finally, she loses her sanity and believes that she is the woman in the wallpaper, trying to escape. .
             In contrast, the setting in "A Rose for Emily" starts in the Civil War Era. The setting is not in chronological order. The small town of Jefferson is an important part of the setting. Emily's family lived in this town for many generations. The town did not like Emily's family, because her family is snobbish. Emily could not escape her family reputation. The town of Jefferson only saw her as a Grierson. When Emily's father died the town helped Emily by not making her pay tax, so she would be financially secure. The setting that Emily was in would not allow Emily to change, so she was forced to act just like her family and be snobbish to the townspeople.