Although The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, andThe Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, are two distinctive short stories, there are two underlining themes that both stories capture.
Isolation In The Yellow Wallpaper, the main character is isolated and condemned to bed rest due to her "nervous condition", which would now, in modern terms, be called postpartum depression. She is forced to stay in a room, with horrid, yellow wallpaper to become better. Because of her isolation our unnamed narrator begins to alienate from others and even herself. Her loneliness makes her perceive things that aren't really there and leads to her seeing her past self in the wallpaper. If the narrator would have been able to interact with other and had the freedom to express herself in her writings, some could argue she could have gotten better and would have not lost her mental stability at the end of the tragic story. "I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relive the press of ideas and rest me" (475) In The Metamorphosis, GregorSamsa is not only isolated when he forgoes his transformation but before, when he was living his mundane life. His "life" was dedicated to work and bettering his family. Some could argue that Gregor's metamorphosis was because of his isolation and loneliness. When Gregor transforms, his family isolates him because of his grotesque rodent-type appearance. He is alienated from not only his family but the from himself as a human. He is no longer GregorSamsa but rather a bug. This loneliness leads to Gregor eventually deciding to to accept defeat and waste away. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” (319)
Patriarchy In The Yellow Wallpaper, readers view that the reason for the narrator being isolated and having her mind deteriorate is because of her husband and doctor, John. He wants her to try bed rest for her nervous condition but in reality, he's shutting her in. It is the patriarchal role in this book that makes her become how she is at the end of the story - alienated and confused. It is also the patriarchy oppressing the narrator when her husband doesn't allow her to write(which gives her a sense of escape) and takes away her expression of freedom, which can be one of the main reasons for her losing herself. At the end of the story, when John faints, after seeing the torn wallpaper, the narrator crawls over him multiple times but never leaves the room. This can been seen as commentary on her oppression. No matter how hard the narrator tries to overcome patriarchy.. she fails. "John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him" (474)
In The Metamorphosis,GregorSamsa should earn the patriarchal title of family because he is the only one working and paying off debts, but actually it is his father that holds that role because he is the character in the story that is the most stern and aggressive person and his father is also the person who dictates the family. It can been seen that patriarchy is one of the many of reasons for Gregor's transformation, because Gregor was unable to completely take on the patriarchal role, and become he man of the house. This inadequacy can be seen as one of the reasons for his downfall and ultimate transformation. "No plea of Gregor's helped, no plea was even understood; however humbly he might turn his head, his father merely stamped his feet more forcefully […] he drove Gregor on, as if there were no obstacle […] his father gave him a hard shove, which was truly his salvation, and bleeding profusely, he flew far into his room." (327) Citations
Franz, Kafka. Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2005. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2005. Print.