For the two stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that we have read, the settings are new houses where the both main characters moved to, but each house gives us quite different mood.
In âThe Yellow Wallpaper,â the narrator describes her new house in the second paragraph. âA colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity â but that would be asking too much of fate! ⊠Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?â Although the narratorâs husband decided to move to this house for his wifeâs health and cure of her depression for the summer, she keeps telling the readers about her bad feelings about the house. She says the house looks like a haunted house, and there will be a reason for the cheap price. In page 58, the narrator mentions about the broken greenhouses. And she says âThere was some legal trouble, I believe, something about the heirs and coheirs; anyhow, the place has been empty for years. That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I donât care â there is something strange about the house â I can feel it.â Since the beginning of the story, the narrator describes her new house negatively including the ârepellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlightâ wallpaper. All these word choices of the author provide readers information that the narrator doesnât like the house and negative atmosphere throughout the story as well.
On the other hand, in âThe Cottagette,â the narrator, Ms. Malda, provides us the description of setting in the third paragraph. âI was delighted with it. More than delighted. Here this tiny shell of fresh unpainted wood peeped out from under the trees, the only house in sight except the distant white specks on far off farms, and the little wandering village in the river-threaded valley. It sat right on the turf,–no road, no path even, and the dark woods shadowed the back windows.â In paragraph 7, the narrator says ânever did I know the real joy and peace of living, before that blessed summer at âHigh Court.ââ When describing the house, the use of all these positive word choices of the narrator in the third paragraph gives the reader the positive impact about the house. Also in the paragraph 7, she feels âthe real joy and peace of livingâ during the summer at the new place.
Even the settings for the two stories are same as a new place where the main character started to live and both are little far from the town, the house in âThe Yellow Wallpaperâ is depicted as an abandoned haunted house, whereas the âCottagetteâ looks more peaceful and bright.
