The Tell-Tale Heart and The Yellow Wallpaper
the way that setting influences each character
In both "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the setting plays a crucial role in influencing the sanity and behavior of the main characters.
In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the setting takes place inside a small, dimly lit room where the protagonist is narrating the events. The confined and oppressive nature of the room mirrors the state of the narrator's mind. As the story progresses, the dark atmosphere intensifies the narrator's paranoia and obsession with the old man's eye, ultimately driving him to commit murder. The claustrophobic setting emphasizes the character's deteriorating mental state and adds to the sense of suspense and tension.
Similarly, in "The Yellow Wallpaper," the setting is a secluded and isolated room in a summer house where the protagonist, a woman suffering from postpartum depression, is confined. The room, with its barred windows and oppressive yellow wallpaper, acts as a metaphor for societal confinement and control over women's mental health. As the story progresses, the character becomes increasingly fixated on the wallpaper, perceiving it as a prison and projecting her own mental deterioration onto it. The isolation and confinement of the setting contribute to the character's descent into madness as she becomes consumed by the hallucinations and delusions induced by her surroundings.
Both stories highlight how the characters' mental states are influenced and exacerbated by their respective settings. The restricted environments intensify their obsessions, anxieties, and hallucinations, ultimately leading to their unraveling. The use of setting as a powerful tool in both stories emphasizes the profound impact that physical surroundings can have on an individual's state of mind.