Please compare and contrast "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Shell of Sense."

The short stories "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "The Shell of Sense" by Olivia Howard Dumbar share the main theme of lacking control; in the stories, characters are unable to make circumstances work optimally by changing the variables of a situation. Parting from this theme, the topic of the limitations of the social roles of women toward the end of the nineteenth century is also notable. Aside from the themes, the two stories feature a female, first person narrator who is speaking about a personal situation. The settings are similar, as they are both set in the late nineteenth century inside of a home. Their situations unravel there. 

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the main character is a woman suffering from a condition entirely unknown at the time: postpartum depression. Living in a male-dominated society, she would have had to adhere to whatever rule and regulation was bestowed upon her gender. As such, she ends up following the advice of male doctors, including her own husband. They prescribe to her a rest cure, with no intellectual stimulation. This lack of stimulus renders the woman even more desperate, making her cave in and implode in a meltdown.

During this meltdown, she attempts to tear down the yellow wallpaper that covers the walls of her room. The reason is because she feels that there is a woman trapped inside those walls. That woman is herself. She is transferring her psychological anguish onto an inanimate object because she has no other outlet for communication or release. She has no control over her circumstances, and her only solution is to fall apart mentally.

In "Shell of Sense," the main character is Frances, a married woman who has died young, leaving behind her husband and her sister, Theresa. Like the main character of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Frances also lacks control of her life. First, this is because she is dead and only lives in spirit form.  Second, this is because she is witnessing the development of what could become a romantic relationship between her husband and Theresa. Frances does what she can to influence the relationship, even though it is impossible.

I watched her, poor, anguished girl, prepare to leave him. I saw each reluctant movement that she made. I saw her eyes, worn from self-searching; I heard her step grown timid from inexplicable fears; I entered her very heart and heard its pitiful, wild beating. And still I did not interfere.

She is heartbroken and hurt because she sees no other solution but to meddle, however she can, to stop them. She refuses to let go, and she even manages to appear to her sister who is, at first, terrified.

After a while, Frances begins to understand that, if anything, her sister should be allowed to be happy. She is aware that her sister had always abided by the rules of loyalty and decorum expected of the women of her time, and this is part of the reason why she never pursued Frances's husband. Frances knows now, as an omniscient spirit, that Theresa has always loved her (Frances’s) husband and that they perhaps always loved one another.

Still, both of them respected Frances enough to push aside their feelings. Now that Frances is gone, she sees no other solution but to let the living live and be happy. As such, the solution to her issue is to bless the relationship and bring them together by giving them the peace of mind that they need to move on.

In many ways, Frances and the unnamed narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” experience similar feelings:

1. They are lonely


2. They have a conflict: one wants to obey her husband, even if it hurts her mental condition. The other wants to interfere, as a ghost, in the world of the living.


3. Their conflicts have to do with the role of women: both women want to maintain their roles within their families.  Frances wants to remain her husband’s only love even beyond the grave, and the narrator in “Wallpaper” wants to fulfill her wifely and motherly duties, even with a debilitating condition.


4. Both women lack control: they both want to be in control of their circumstances, to no avail. Each has to either obey or comply with whatever situation they are going through.