The short stories; ‘The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman and ‘On Her Knees’ by Tim Winton both have Female Protagonists who both suffer. Jane, the main Protagonist in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ Suffers from not only inner struggles but also external forces. In ‘On Her Knees’ Carol Lang, also comes across challenges and struggles in her life. The similarities in their struggles are plenty. They both have men controlling what they do, whether or not is intentional, they are both suffering from houses and materials around them and they are trapped by their gender and their class and role in society as women.
In ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, Jane Suffers from herself and her surroundings. Jane is Suffering from postnatal depression. This disease, the urgency ignored by her Husband and Doctor, requires Jane to stay active, whether it is mentally or physically. Although when consulted by the doctor, he prescribes ‘the rest cure’. This demands that Jane stay resting until she is better’, even though she is told she is ‘not sick’ daily. Jane spends her days lying in bed, overthinking everything.
She stares at the wallpaper until she can see ‘bulbous eyes’ or a ‘broken neck’. One example of how Winton expresses Jane’s suffering is how she sees the outside of her room, or her mind. She talks of the inside of her room being ‘dark’ and maybe even a mental asylum at some point because of the ‘bed nailed down’ and the ‘bars on the windows’. Then when Winton writes about outside her room, the house, her mind, she speaks of lovely things and he uses describing words that make it feel warm like ? ovely compared to when he writes about the inside of her room and the wallpaper ‘disgusting’ and ‘repulsive’, this symbolizes how far and fast downhill her condition has gone.
These are only a few examples of how Jane Suffers throughout the short story. Carol Lang, the main Protagonist from ‘On Her Knees’, Suffers not only due to the Mistress of the house she is cleaning and her Ex Husband, but also because of her Son and want for his succession in life. Carol is a ‘working class’ single mother, she works hard to ‘keep us (Carol and her son, Victor) afloat’ after her ex husband ‘shot through’ a few years ago.
He left debts that Carol had to pay off, leaving her working everyday ‘in someone else’s grotty shower’ not only to support herself and Victor but also to pay off the debts and send Victor to school. The mistress of the house is condescending. This is ironic because she has book written by ‘the likes of Germaine Greer’ and other feminists. It would be assumed that she is a feminist from looking at her bookshelf, however the way she treats Carol with ‘patronizing notes on floral paper it becomes unthinkable.
The mistress accuses Carol of stealing ‘five-hundred-dollar earrings’ which Victor and Carol know is not true, because she ‘would only open a draw to put a clean knife or fork away’. Carol is suffering in this household because she must uphold her reputation and not kick up a fuss, so she shows that she is better than the mistress by leaving her final paycheck and the key to the house on a the bench. Carol is trapped by Victor, because she has such high hopes for him and his career in Law that she works everyday’on her knees’ to earn money so he can learn what she didn’t have the chance to.
It is known that Carol is uneducated compared to Victor because in the story he is constantly correcting her ” “To who? ” “whom. “‘. The people around Carol cause her Suffering throughout the short story. Carol and Jane’s stories have similarities in the fact that they suffer, however they are not all caused by the same thing. If Carol’s Ex husband had not ‘shot through’ a few years ago then she would not be Suffering the way she is, since she would have more money to spend on Victor’s education and she would be ahead of herself.
However this did happen so she is Suffering due to her Ex Husband’s debts, and the way he left them. If Carol was not as ‘hardworking’ as she is, then she would not choose to suffer for her son’s education, she might make him work for it or not have such a good education. She does have some control over her Suffering. On the other hand Jane has no control over her Suffering because her husband infantilizes her everyday of her life, reading her stories and carrying her up to bed and tucking her in etc.
He treats her like his child, which in that time may have been acceptable however it was not allowing Jane to be her own person, and it was making her Suffer more than she had to as he would make her sit in bed all day, contemplating things she may have never even thought of if he had ‘allowed her to write and draw as she liked. Carol is forced to spend her days as a cleaning lady because she can not get a higher paying job or position due to her gender, and ‘working class’ role, Jane can not get a job at all because she ‘needs to rest or be home taking care of the child like all wealthy? pper class women’ should.
Carol and Jane’s Suffering, although both caused and continued by men, are very different In both of these texts, the protagonists are Suffering from gender roles, class structure and sexism around them. Both stories coincide and are similar with the themes of Suffering, however they are comparatively different because of the difference in the positions these women are in, Working Class’ and ‘Upper Class’.
