Mother Knows Best

Mother Knows Best

The world is made up of a variety of people with different looks, personalities, and way of dealing with life. Literature is one way people use to mirror lives of those around them and capture it in a way people will remember for years to come. No matter what story a person reads, it is always possible to find at least one characteristic that they identify within themselves. In different stories, the reader is able to find characteristics that not only identify within themselves, but also identify within other characters in separate stories. They may also find a character that seems similar, but is also different in many ways. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper" and Sherwood Anderson's "Mother," the characters of the Narrator and Elizabeth Willard live absolutely separate lives but compare in certain areas. Although the Narrator and Elizabeth Willard are similar in that they are both mothers, they differ in their marital happiness, ability to handle problems, and source of isolation.

The first way in which the Narrator differs from Elizabeth Willard is in her marital happiness. She loves her husband very much and has had a satisfying and happy marriage. He shows his love by taking care of her when she is sick. This is shown as the Narrator tells us "And dear John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till it tired my head. He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep well" (Gilman 838). John cares so much for his wife that all he wants is for her to get better so they can be as happy as they once were. Even though the Narrator loves her husband so much and knows he loves her in return, she still finds it hard to talk to him about matters concerning her health. She states this in saying, "It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so"...