In the stories “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonists experience mental illness , loneliness, feeling in control of your life, and feeling like you are crazy. Both main characters struggle against male domination and control. The two stories are set between the late 1800s and early 1900s, a time when the place of men in society was superior to that of women. Each story was written from a different perspective and life experiences. “A Rose for Emily” was written by a man and told in third personal narrative, while “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by a woman and told in first person. In "A Rose for Emily" Miss Emily Grierson faces the struggle of living a life in her father's shadow. The first example is mentioned on page 120, where she is a figure in the background with her father "in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a whip". Although this story is set in the era of the horse and buggy, her domineering image and whip are reminiscent of a girl who was constantly threatened with being beaten. Her father also isolated her by chasing away all suitors because they were not good enough for her (Faulkner, 123). Her father had a falling out with the family over her great aunt's property, so she was left isolated from all her relatives (Faulkner, 125). When her father dies, it is his death that seems to be the stress that pushes her over the edge. For three days she denied to those who came to offer their condolences that he was dead before she finally collapsed (Faulkner, 124). Whatever the reason, she falls in love with a foreman named Homer Barron who comes to town to pave sidewalks. They are seen together and she buys it... middle of paper... destroying others to preserve us as Miss Emily did. Furthermore, we must not isolate ourselves by allowing ourselves to be drawn into self-destructive behavior. It does not matter whether it is an effort to find the ultimate truth or become the perfect society. Once we start believing that wrong is right or high is low, we will find that we are isolating ourselves from our own illusions and are on the path to destruction as the protagonist of "The Yellow Wallpaper" did. Works Cited Faulkner, William. Collected Stories by William Faulkner. Random house. New York. 1950, p.119-130.Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Because I wrote the yellow background. The magazine of the precursor Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Charlton Co., New York, volume 1, no. November 1, 1909.Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The yellow background. The New England Magazine Volume 0011 Number 5, January 1892, p. 647-657