Comparing Vertigo And The Yellow Wallpaper
Vertigo and The Yellow Wallpaper The 1958 film Vertigo is surrounded by themes of control, dominance, and illusion surrounding a male and female power struggle. One of Vertigos main themes is to create the perfect woman. This is also seen in the story The Yellow Wallpaper. The parallels with Vertigo’s protagonist’s quest for the ideal woman are evident with John and the treatment of his wife. John takes the authority over his wife like how Scottie took authority over Judy when he tries to recreate Madeline’s image. Although John and Scottie are similar in character, their motives are different. John wants to keep his wife quite as she slips slowly into madness. She is left helpless and bedridden but he just ignores her pleas for help. After
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While John’s treatment of his wife’s depression is wrong, he does not necessarily do anything to make it worse. Just by ignoring her he is mistreating her. The problem with John in the story is that he holds all of the authority. He is her doctor as well as her caretaker. He is also stubborn and so sure he knows what is best for his wife that he disregards her opinion as just a symptom of her illness. His overly rational disposition and ignorance towards her proves him to be dangerous. John treats his wife more as a medical case than a person. He wants her to get better but ends up just making her situation a lot worse. It is this counterproductively that makes John’s character ironic. Creating illusions is a common theme in both stories. Scottie creates the illusion of Madeline upon Judy to the point where he believes it to actually be her. Scottie loses his sanity accordingly because of his loss with reality. He becomes consumed in his fantasy and whatever else happens to be going on does not matter. This loss of touch with reality causes him to be unaware he is actualy doing anything wrong. Argumentatively he is not responsible for his actions at the point where he leads Judy to her death. He is overcome with his mental illness and the relapse of his Vertigo, that he is not himself
While John’s treatment of his wife’s depression is wrong, he does not necessarily do anything to make it worse. Just by ignoring her he is mistreating her. The problem with John in the story is that he holds all of the authority. He is her doctor as well as her caretaker. He is also stubborn and so sure he knows what is best for his wife that he disregards her opinion as just a symptom of her illness. His overly rational disposition and ignorance towards her proves him to be dangerous. John treats his wife more as a medical case than a person. He wants her to get better but ends up just making her situation a lot worse. It is this counterproductively that makes John’s character ironic. Creating illusions is a common theme in both stories. Scottie creates the illusion of Madeline upon Judy to the point where he believes it to actually be her. Scottie loses his sanity accordingly because of his loss with reality. He becomes consumed in his fantasy and whatever else happens to be going on does not matter. This loss of touch with reality causes him to be unaware he is actualy doing anything wrong. Argumentatively he is not responsible for his actions at the point where he leads Judy to her death. He is overcome with his mental illness and the relapse of his Vertigo, that he is not himself