Gregor Samsa is the sole source on income for his family. Paying for the sins of his father, he must work every day and is under appreciated. Is it any wonder that he already feels subhuman and lonely before his metamorphosis? Just like in The Yellow Wallpaper, his isolation leads to his deterioration and vice-versa. His form disgusts and revolts his family. They lock him away in a room where he rots. He is stuck in that room with only his thoughts, the only real human part of him. The deterioration is of his body, not his mind like the protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper, but the psychological effects of being isolated and alone are all to present throughout the novella. By the end of the story, he is withered and broken down. His family wants nothing to do with him, so he dies a pitiful death on the floor of his room. What led to his death? The deterioration of his body and his pitiful existence are good guesses, but that is besides the point. The themes are true to everyday life. When someone feels alone and actually try to isolate themselves, they feel subpar, like Gregor does. His transformation, whether literal or metaphorical, impacts his life in a huge way. His isolation was further perpetuated by the way that his family acted. They were literally revolted by Gregor. They ended up seeing him as a burden, and such he stayed away and wasted in his room. The deterioration of his body was caused by the harassment and isolation put upon him by his family.
In the yellow wallpaper, the theme of deterioration is caused by the theme of isolation and vice versa. The woman in the Yellow Wallpaper is diagnosed with a nervous condition. She sees the "best" doctor around and is sent to bed rest. Now, with the jist of the plot out of the way, let's delve into the explanation of the themes. The woman is fully isolated from everybody and everything in an attic of an old family home. She has windows that face every direction, but they are barred. The only thing in the room is a bed, a desk, and the walls covered in yellow wallpaper. This is where her isolation causes her deterioration. She becomes so lonely, that she starts to see women in the wallpaper. Now, if she really saw women or if it was her shadow from the sun and the moon is up to debate, but she started to go a little bit psycho. She used to write everyday, but eventually that was taken away from her. With no outlet to express her emotions and no way to occupy her mind, the only thing of sensation to her was the yellow wallpaper. As her mind deteriorated more and more, she became even more sick in the head. Her loneliness, so extreme, caused her to start talking to the women in the walls. On the last day, she had finally cracked. She began ripping and tearing at the wallpaper to set the women free. Her isolation and deterioration created figments of her imagination that influenced her to move all the furniture in front of the door and to rip and shred until no wallpaper was left. As her husband finally barged in, the deterioration of her mind was fully evident. Because the narrator describes her as creeping over her husband's fainted body. Bonus opinion: In the yellow wallpaper, it seems that the narrator's name isn't really mentioned. Now I think because of the deterioration of the woman's mind, she thinks that because she released the woman in the wallpaper, she became that woman. The woman in the wallpaper is actually the one talking to John, and refers to the woman that was sick as Jane. |