The depiction of a setting as the main hindrance or destructive force behind the fall of a protagonist is evident in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, and D. H. Lawrence’s The Rocking-Horse Winner. As the authors develop the settings around the main characters’ homes, the mentioned texts go on to give the otherwise lifeless structures roles of their own as they affect the inhabitants in one way or another. To that end, Emily’s house symbolizes her gradual deterioration while the unknown narrator regards her house as one would a prison, and Paul’s house drives him to madness and eventual death with its insistent whispers.
Foremost, the connection between Emily and her house revolves around the fact that it appears to symbolize the woman’s position in the society. After all, before her father’s death, both building and daughter were subject to the man’s whims. Consequently, once the building becomes Emily’s, it is as though it defines her personal ideologies and attitudes. For instance, Faulkner describes the house as “stubborn and coquettish” in the face of modernity (595). Apparently, while the rest of the town changes, the designs of Emily’s home remain painfully traditional since she even refuses to have a mailbox built. Now, Emily is no different from her house as it is out of absolute stubbornness that she refuses to start paying taxes, choosing instead to claim protection under her dead father’s influence (597). Notably, the house gives the first hint to Emily’s crime when she murders her sweetheart as the bad smell that neighbors report might very well mark the complete decay of Emily’s heart and chastity because it is evidence of the killing of another human. Consequently, the house in Faulkner’s writing goes beyond being merely a source of shelter for his character and embeds itself into her very existence. What happens to Emily happens to her home, and if the neighbors were keen enough, they would have learned more about the woman without any interactions.
Next, the analysis of the setting in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Rocking-Horse Winner reveals a different purpose for each house; nonetheless, they both lead to the same outcome. In the former text, the house secludes the unknown character from the rest of the family in the name of “perfect rest and all the air [she] could get”; hence, it acts as a physical barrier (Perkins 669). As a result, the entire house defies the customary symbol of security and instead, paves the way through which her husband and the rest of the community can control her person. Meanwhile, the latter text has a house that always whispers for “more money” and yet, only the young male protagonist seems to hear the demands; thus, it depicts a psychological barrier to the boy’s mind (Lawrence 437). Given, the family does have financial problems because the adults seek to maintain a high social-status instead of budgeting with what little they own. However, it is as though the mantra that the house keeps repeating only echoes in the mind of the child and heightens his sensitivity to monetary issues within the home. Subsequently, in both texts, the main characters eventually go mad while in that of Lawrence, the madness kills the boy. Thus, unlike in the case of A Rose for Emily, the houses in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Rocking-Horse Winner work against the protagonists instead of protecting their wellbeing. In that sense, they personify the antagonistic forces in the plotlines.
With the given facts in mind, the settings in the explored books assume more prominent roles than merely depicting the scenes of action. From aiding the lead character to fulfill a purpose in the story, to pushing others into action, one could claim that the houses come alive in the narrations. In fact, one outrightly speaks to its residents demanding more money.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays Alison Booth. 9th. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. 594-600. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays Alison Booth. 9th. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. 667-677. Print.
Lawrence, D. H. "The Rocking-Horse Winner." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays Alison Booth. 9th. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. 436-445. Print.
