Topic > The role of doubles in The Yellow Wall-Paper and Revelation

The short stories The Yellow Wall-Paper and Revelation were both very interesting reads because the authors used doubles when writing their stories and you can't really see how they use them until the end. Once you realize they're there, the ending becomes much more dramatic. The lookalikes help both women in the stories understand something about themselves that they needed to realize. But their ways of doing it were slightly different. There are some similarities between the doubles in both tales, but there is also a significant difference. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The narrator's double in The Yellow Wall-Paper was the woman trapped behind the wall. The narrator first met her double when her husband John moved the family into an old abandoned house. He had brought the narrator here and left her in a room because she was dealing with mental illness. She didn't want people to see her in that state and she also wanted to isolate her because then she would heal. While in this room she began to become obsessed with wallpaper design. Something was driving her crazy. You can see the narrator slowly descend into madness because she cannot understand what intrigues her so much about the background and becomes even more involved when she first encounters the background arrangement. One day she finally discovers that she is the woman in the background. She realized she felt trapped at home, in her marriage, and in the stereotypes that were imposed on women. The woman in the wall was just her way of telling herself she was trapped. To solve this problem she allows herself to go completely crazy, so that she can be free. Similarly, in the story of Revelation, Ruby Turpin's double, Mary Grace, led her to self-realization. Mary Grace was the opposite of Ruby in many ways. For example, Mary Grace hides a lot of anger inside herself, but she lets the world know it. Ruby keeps a lot inside her but never lets her feelings out because that wouldn't be considered right. For example, she maintains her criticism of others and herself. All Ruby wants to be considered high class, so she acts like she thinks she should. In a way, Mary Grace also has the attributes that Ruby wishes she had. Mary Grace is high class due to her wealth and can also dress well due to wealth. Those are a couple of things Ruby wants, especially the title. When Mary Grace attacked her in the waiting room and said, "Go back to hell where you come from, you old pig" (O'Connor 1965, pp 207), it changed everything for Ruby. He went home and really thought about who he was, but he had no idea. So, Ruby's double really had a big impact on her self-image. His ending was quite different from the narrator's. One notable difference between the two stories would be the doubles themselves. The narrator's double was a projection of herself. The woman in the wall was not a real person, it was just the narrator's self-awareness trying to communicate with her. So in reality, the narrator helped herself out of her situation because the double wasn't real, it just guided her. Ruby's stunt double was a real person, but I don't think she was herself at the time. At the end of the Apocalypse, when Ruby had her revelation about herself, a light shone in her eyes that allowed her to come to terms with herself and realize that she needed to restart her way of thinking (O'Connor 1965 ). Likewise, Mary Grace had a twinkle in her eye before she got madly angry at Ruby. The two lights, for me, have a connection. Mary Grace is a religious name, so it may have been.