Free Sample Essays > North American
The Awakening
“Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer; than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life”, or is it? (Chopin). Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Rollo May express their agreement with this suggestion, in a peculiar way. Through their short stories, The Yellow Wallpaper and The Man Who Was Put in a Cage, respectively, they show the other side of the argument. Chopin’s quote refers to the ill results that come from constricting oneself to the confines of any institution, be it society or something else, that it is better to awaken to the illusions, than to simply adhere to avoid suffering. These stories take the opposite approach; they suggest that if one begins with the freedoms and knowledge given in an unrestrained setting, forcing constraints on one will cause insanity or even death. This supports the quote, but suggests that the reverse is also true. If one begins awakened to the reality of life, and then forced to retract into a life of confinement, the change will lead to their demise. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Rollo May use the settings of their stories and symbolism to draw a parallel to the institutions associated with forced confinement that were impressed upon their characters, and to portray the ambiguity of illusions in society.
The Yellow Wallpaper and The Man Who Was Put in a Cage, both reflect on the early suggestions of Plato, with his theory about the enlightened caveman. His theory addresses the conditions that when one lives in when in darkness, unenlightened, one is content with only that, but once one has seen the enlightened world, he gains new knowledge, and then desires never to reenter the world of darkness (Plato Handout). However, to be torn away from your freedom and placed back into a cage of darkness is like forcing one to live a life of duped illusions as Chopin has suggested. To awaken those from their lives of illusions may cause agony, but this life is better still than the contented life of one still trapped inside the darkness. The Yellow Wallpaper and The Man Who Was Put in a Cage show the reverse effect of Plato’s hypothesis, and Chopin’s suggestion. They show the undesirability of the enlightened man, represented by the caged man and the woman forced into confinement, to return to darkness when he has never gone there before. The King places this ordinary man who is living a normal life within the restrictions of a cage. May is drawing a conclusion that to force one to conform to societal acceptances is like restraining the free-thinking mind. As his character is portrayed losing all sense of humanity and becoming like an animal. Gilman attempts the same feat in the life of her character. Although their necessities of survival are all provided for them, their ability to live free of illusions is taken away, which causes the free thinking mind to self-destruct.
The authors chose a wallpapered closed room and a barred cage [next page]