Comparing ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ with ‘Hop Frog’ Essay

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and ‘Hop Frog’ were both written at a time of social turbulence and revolution. Poe wrote Hop Frog twelve years prior to the American civil war, so it is fitting that many of the ideas in the story carry a strong anti-slavery message. Similarly, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ was written in 1892 just before the climax of equal-rights for women. Gillman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is one of the early feminist texts in which her writing criticises the position that women were oppressed into and the ignorance of society as a whole. Both Gillman and Poe attack fiercely these ideas that were both upheld and willingly accepted by the majority of society. These two settings immediately portray the two central characters, a woman and a slave, as two of an unheard minority, who were subjected to an unjust, patriarchal world. One of the main similarities between ‘Hop Frog’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is the atmosphere of each of the stories. Both are horror stories are very dark, and have a horror genre, however ‘Hop Frog’ is also similar to a fairy tale in that it is quite unbelievable, and where Hop Frog’s surroundings are fantasy, the narrator’s surroundings are quite real. Despite their differences, both of the story’s surroundings and atmosphere are symbolic of the way the central character is feeling or being treated. For example, gluttony and corruption of the king and his ministers surround Hop Frog and Poe’s darkly vivid descriptions of these reflect the mood of Hop-Frog. The ‘oily’ ministers and a ‘corpulent’ king sound simply grotesque and fill the reader with a sort of stomach churning unease and tension at the treatment of Hop Frog. The corruptness and gluttony is hugely significant as it shows us the danger and easiness of becoming influenced and eventually corrupted by greed and alcohol. The narrator of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ has instead a room. It is describes as having ‘barred’ widows and a ‘nailed down’ bed, which give the impression of a prison rather than a place to become well again in. In fact the room actually does become a prison for the narrator, becoming more and more horrible as the story progresses. By the repetitive use of the word, ‘joke’ in the first paragraph Poe emphasises the discomfort of Hop Frog as well as achieving a hugely tense atmosphere. This makes the reader, who realises that this seemingly jovial and harmless behaviour of the king and his courtiers is in fact, a lot more damaging and sinister, feel the tension and discomfort that Hop Frog endures. Like Hop Frog, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ also has a tense atmosphere achieved by the speeded up pace of the story and the very short sentences, which flit from one idea to another. These short sentences show the alertness of the narrator’s mind as well as her increasing madness as she is left with no stimulation other than her own thoughts. As the story progresses the narrator’s madness grows and consequently her surroundings become more and more an extension of her own nightmarish imagination, eventually becoming as fantastical as Hop Frog’s. Throughout the story, the wallpaper in the room is a metaphor for the narrator’s illness and as her insanity grows, the wallpaper becomes more and more hideous. At the beginning of the story, it is described as ‘horrible wallpaper’. Her initial rejection of the wallpaper, shown when the narrator says; ‘I don’t like our room’ and asks John ‘Let us go downstairs’, is indicative of her want to get better and her rejection of insanity. The wallpaper is described as having a ‘sickly sulphur tint’, representing her illness, and appears to grow, ‘fungus’ and ‘toadstools’ suggests that her illness is growing, whilst ‘Budding’ and ‘sprouting’ suggest the continuity of this growth. Despite the fact that the images of the wallpaper worsen as time goes on, the narrator quickly becomes obsessed by it, spending hours studying it. The narrator describes how ‘It dwells on my mind so’. Eventually, the narrator becomes so mad, that it is as if she is schizophrenic. She begins to see herself in the wallpaper as a ‘woman’, ‘stooping down’ and ‘creeping behind the pattern’. As time progresses, the ‘ faint woman’ becomes clearer and stronger as the narrator becomes weaker. This shows her sane self, losing the battle to her insane self. Despite the awful surroundings, outside of her ‘barred’ windows lies the garden. In contrast to the wallpaper, the garden represents the narrator’s hope of freedom. The garden is described as ‘delicious’ and where everything in the wallpaper is bad and infectious, everything in the garden is good and healing. However the narrator is locked away with her illness and is unable to reach the garden, which holds the key to her freedom, ‘How I wish he [John] would let me go’ she tel ls us. This creates dramatic irony, as everyone knows what the narrator needs, including the narrator herself, except the narrator’s own husband John. Just as the wallpaper and the narrator’s madness increase as the story progresses, the behavior of the king towards Hop Frog worsens. This is shown by Poe’s descriptions of the king, starting as ‘our king’, turning into a ‘tyrant’ and becoming finally a ‘monster’. By describing the king in this way, the reader is not only made to feel sympathy for Hop Frog by portraying him as a powerless victim of this cruel abuse, but also make us forgive his final act of revenge, which is in fact utterly terrible. The King and his ministers are abusive and exploitative towards Hop Frog and Trippetta. Poe illustrates this particularly by the reference to alcohol, The king takes advantage of Hop Frog’s intolerance to wine ‘it excited the poor cripple almost to madness’ and sadistically ‘ he took pleasure in forcing the cripple to drink’. Poe describes how Hop Frog was forced ‘to be merry’ as it was the ‘poor dwarfs birthday’ and he is made to obey the ‘command to drink to absent friends’, which ‘forced tears to his eyes’. This is incredibly ironic, as Hop Frog is not with his friend because he is a slave in the court of the king. In ‘the yellow wallpaper’, the narrator’s ‘monster’ is her own husband, John, ‘a physician’. He ignorantly suffocates his wife, leaving her with no option but to escape into her own madness. He threatens her with ‘Weir Mitchell’ who was renowned for treating women with this ‘temporary nervousness’. The narrator describes how he is ‘like john and my brother, only more so’, showing her wish not to be sent to him. John also keeps the narrator away from human contact, starving her of any stimulation or interaction. Despite his obvious love for her he treats her like a possession, this is shown when he fails to regard her as a human being by addressing her as ‘she’ as if she isn’t even there. This also symbolises the fact that he has slowly removed her identity. John regards his wife with little more intelligence than a child, shown by his constantly patronising tone. He calls her ‘little goose’ and ‘little girl’ as well as remarking ‘bless her’ as if she is little older than five. John also shows himself to be really rather selfish when he implores her ‘get well for me’. Despite everything, we have to believe that John really does love his wife and wants to help her. But it is through John that Gillman makes a very poignant observation of the way in which society treats women, pointing out the real danger of ignorance. The Narrator in ‘The Yellow wallpaper’ is portrayed as an extremely bright creative woman, despite the way John regards her. She expresses her thoughts and releases some of the energy that she is so full of through writing. However John forbids that she should write, the narrator tells us ‘I am absolutely forbidden to ‘work†. The narrator herself tells us herself that ‘excitement and change would do me good’. Instead of excitement and change the narrator is confined to her bed and made to sleep most of the day ‘I lie down ever so much now’, ‘John thinks it’s good for me’. However, it is not good for her and the narrator describes how ‘I don’t sleep much at night’, showing the disturbance of her mind. This results in the narrator having an enormous amount of pent up energy which, when combined with her inability to express herself creates enormous tension in the story. As the narrator searches frantically for an outlet for her imagination she inevitably becomes mad seeking the much-needed stimulation within the wallpaper. The narrator’s inability to express herself can be compared with Hop Frog’s loss of control to the king when he is ‘forced’ to drink. Hop Frog is described as being driven to ‘madness’ by the wine, and ‘madness’ Poe reminds us ‘is no comfortable feeling’. In both stories the position of women is severely criticized. In ‘Hop Frog’, Trippetta’s position as both a slave and a woman is exploited. Her ‘grace’ and ‘exquisite beauty’ is described as being ‘universally admired’. Poe describes how she was ‘admired’ and ‘petted’ suggesting the shocking abuse she is subject to. Poe describes how the king ‘threw the entire contents of the goblet in her face’, suggesting the complete humiliation that she suffered. In ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, we are introduced to Jennie who is the sister of John. She is described as a ‘perfect’ and ‘enthusiastic housekeeper’. Typically of a nineteenth century Lady, Jennie is subservient accepting her position willingly and gratefully. Gillman describes how she ‘hopes for no better profession’. Jennie represents the women of society who have grown to accept and are either to weak or to scared to rebel against a life that is no better than that of a slave’s. The narrator’s position as a woman is very similar to Hop Frogs. She is treated as a possession by her husband John and is seen to have no real opinions or views. She describes how the ‘heads’ that she sees are ‘strangle[d]’ by the wallpaper, ‘turns them up side down’ and ‘turns their eyes white’. This is very much inactive of the way both she and the other women of society feel suffocated and oppressed by their position. Both stories are written in first person narrative, which makes them a lot more personal. ‘Hop Frog’ is told by an anonymous Narrator, an onlooker, whilst ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is written like a diary with the narrator, a woman suffering from post-natal depression being the central character. Semi-Autobiographical, the story is loosely based on Perkins own experiences. The narrator in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ remains nameless meaning that the narrator could be any woman in society. It is also a metaphor for the identity that has been lost through her illness and the ignorance of her husband, John. Both the characters are the victims of ignorance. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ shows the ignorance of society about post-natal depression and the fact that no one is prepared to accept what the narrator is suffering from. Her ‘case is not serious’ we are told. The result of this ignorance is that the narrator’s condition is not cured but instead made worse. She is taken for a rest cure and deprived of interaction with people and stimulation. Her creativity is crushed when she is forbidden to write. This inability to express herself, had dire consequences; instead of recovering she instead she begins to descend further and further into her own madness. The wallpaper in her room, which gradually becomes more and more disturbing as her madness increases, shows this. This can be compared to Hop Frog who because of his difference in appearance is treated appallingly. The central characters of each story are portrayed as prisoners the narrator in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is portrayed as a prisoner, trapped by her social position; as a woman, by her mental illness and by her own husband. Through her story, Gillman attacks an extremely patriarchal society. She criticises the lack of respect for women and shows her anger towards the inability of women to escape from the position they are oppressed to. The room in which the narrator is put in, in order to rest and recover from her illness is very much symbolic of her imprisonment. It is described as having ‘barred’ windows and the bedstead as ‘iron’, ‘heavy’ and ‘nailed to the ground’ representing her being tied down. The fact that the room was ‘a nursery first’, is very ironic; Firstly because she has no contact with her own baby and secondly because she has literally been reduced to the position of a child. Similarly, Hop Frog and his fiend Trippetta are salves, whom Poe tells us, were ‘forcibly carried off’ from their ‘barbarous region’ and ‘sent’, ‘as presents to the king’. This is reminiscent of the situation of many black slaves who were taken from Africa to the west at this time, in order to further the endeavours of rich, greedy men at as low a cost a possible. The reality of what faced them ahead was a harsh, cruel life of constant work with no freedom or rights as a human being. However, it is surely wrong that one person should have freedom whilst another is an enslaved possession because they are different. This injustice is shown in the story by the King’s inability to accept Hop Frog as a person, in appearance he is different and so is treated as an object, a possession. Poe describes him as a ‘monkey’ and a ‘squirrel’ and suggest that Hop Frog is begging for food ‘crumbs from the roya l table’. The result this is that Hop Frog is shown to be like a begging animal which serves to ease the King’s conscience at mocking Hop Frog, if he is not a person then he does not have feelings. Both Hop Frog and Trippetta are dwarfed and Hop Frog is a ‘cripple’ and Walks with an ‘ interjectional gait’, which comes across as quite funny when it is further described as ‘somewhere between a leap and a wriggle’. Despite this Hop Frog’s ‘value was trebled in the eyes of the king’ and the king, ‘who live only for joking’ exploits Hop Frog’s physical disabilities. It is therefor ironic that Hop Frog becomes the court ‘fool’ which is a metaphor for the fact that he is laughed at by the King. The idea of Hop Frog being mocked for the way he walks is shocking and through this Poe shows the unease of society at the treatment of the slaves. The King’s immoral behaviour mirrors that of the slave traders in America and Europe. Hop Frog’s physical disability can be compared to the narrator’s madness. The endings of each story are hugely significant and it is perhaps through the ending that we see the characters in their true light. Throughout ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ the narrator has drifted in and out of her sane mind, she tells us once ‘I always lock the door before I creep’. Up until this point the narrator has not accepted that it is herself who is creeping, instead putting it down to the ‘woman’. But by the end, she is telling us how she is creeping round and round and round the room. Both a ‘rope’ and an ‘axe’ are mentioned, and John ‘faints’ when he sees the destruction of the room and of his wife. It is quite possible that either of them are dead, however Gillman leaves the ending ambiguous. As well as amplifying the uncertainty of the woman, this could also be down to the fact that Gillman, despite her feminist views, was still a woman in the nineteenth century. She did she want to demonize her character by making her murder her husband no could she afford to openly state that the husband was literally overpowered by his wife. Gillman would not want to upset her feminist audience either, who would be outraged if the narrator killed herself due to the fact that she is such a powerful symbol of a woman wanting to rebel against her oppression. For her to commit suicide would dishearten a lot of these women as it would look as if suicide was the only way out. It seems as if this ending was right for the character who despite becoming insane, is finally happy and tells us with utter satisfaction ‘I got out’. Whatever the reason for this ending, there is no doubt that despite the fact that this ending is truly horrific it also comes with a degree of relief. For with the narrator’s madness comes freedom, and more importantly, the woman finds her identity. Ironically this is not her former self, who is finally named as Jane, but another person; her insanity. Whilst ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ remains ambiguous, the ending of ‘Hop frog’ is completely literal. Because eof the fact that Poe is a man, he can afford to take more liberties that perhaps Gillman was unable to take. He can openly humiliate and torture the king and the court, who represent the corrupt monarchy; an important part of society, and appear to get away with this. Hop Frog is portrayed as demonic and evil. He achieves his freedom by brutally killing the King and his ministers. Under the guise of the stupid ‘fool’ he tricks the king and his ministers into thinking that they are dressing up and covers them in tar and flax. The fact that Poe uses tar and Flax is of great significance as it is symbolic of humiliation and punishment throughout history. Hop Frog then chained them together to become the ‘eight chained orangutans’. Hop frog shows himself to be very intelligent when, ‘at the dwarfs suggestion, the keys had been deposited with him’, in contrast with the stupidity of the King. Poe describes how the they are humiliated when the chains cause them to ‘fall’ and ‘stumble’, The King and his Ministers have gone form mocking Hop Frog to being mocked themselves Hop Frog then suspends them from the ceiling at the ball and burns them alive. The fact that throughout the story Hop Frog never had the presence that the evil King had means that we would not immediately suspect Hop frog. When the ‘grating’ noise was first introduced, the reader did not think that it could be Hop Frog. However at the end when Hop Frog is perched on the rope with the burning king and ministers below him the ‘grating noise’ came form the ‘fang like teeth of the dwarf’, ‘who ground and gnashed them as he foamed at the mouth’. This is an insane a picture as that of the narrator. Hop frog rising up against the king is a complete reversal of roles, the oppressed has become the oppressor. However how is it possible that Poe can get away with this ending without his central character looking like the vengeful murder that he has become? It is perhaps because all-thorough the story, the treatment of Hop Frog as well as his situation has been described as Horrendous, horrific and brutal, evoking incredi ble sympathy in the reader. As if this isn’t reason enough, Poe threw in the added ploy of alcohol, which appears to demonize Hop Frog. Therefor when Hop Frog commits this terrible act, he is immediately forgiven whilst we all revel in the torture that the king and his ministers now incur. In the eyes of the reader justice has been done. Perhaps through his ending, Poe is forecasting what is to come, when the black slaves will rise up against their own white oppressors. It is therefor interesting that n order to truly punish and humiliate them, Hop Frog turns them first black. Like Gillman, Poe does not want to demonize the female character, leaving the question of Trippetta’s involvement up to the reader to answer.