By looking at the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and the television series, Stranger Things, in terms of their content, we can see that their story lines are very different, yet they include many similarities that are apparent throughout comparing them to each other. The two pieces both include a similar problem, involving a woman who sees things moving in a wall and no one believes their observations. However, there are many differences that stem from the television show and short story. They both take place in completely different times and have a separate story line than each other. The similarities that show throughout both pieces, though, are evident as you are comparing the two.

The similarities and differences throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Stranger Things leave the reader or viewer with a larger imagination. To shortly summarize, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, which was written in the late 1800’s, was a semi-autobiographical tale that was written by a mentally ill woman who was being treated by the “resting cure”. The “resting cure” consisted of the ill patient lying in a bed, without moving, writing, or eating by themselves for months at a time. The resting cure clearly caused this woman to go insane and start seeing another woman creeping and moving in the walls of her room. She stared at the walls all day and tried to allow the woman to escape. On the other hand, Stranger Things is a television series that came out in 2016, which entails a young mother whose son goes missing and the journey that her and her son’s friends go through to find him. The mother thinks that she can communicate with her son through the wall in her house, when she puts up lights that symbolize the alphabet. However, she also sees the creature that took her son come through the wall during certain instances and try to attack her. No one believes that a creature is coming through the wall of her house or that she can communicate with her son. 

The similarities throughout the both of these pieces are extremely analogous. The main point that is most comparable in both pieces is the mental health aspect. In both “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Stranger Things, the women are both seen as mental. The women are both seeing things in their walls of the room they are in, with their own eyes, and no one else believes them when they talk about seeing unnatural things. People look at them like they are crazy, even though it is evident that they are seeing something. Women tend to be targeted for mental illnesses in writing or media because women are more likely to have mental illnesses compared to men. The statistics for mental illnesses include women to have higher rates of being diagnosed with a disorder related to mental illnesses. The similarities of women being the ones who are seeing things is not a coincidence and is created to make the story lines more realistic. Another similarity throughout the short story and television series is that the two women have intense, obsessive plans to get the creatures that they are seeing out of the wall. During “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the woman tries to peel off the wallpaper during the night to let the woman she sees creeping escape, by biting and tearing. Throughout Stranger Things, the mother sets up traps to for when the creature comes out of the wall. She has an obsessive plan to kill the creature so that she can get her son back. She resorts to creating a ginormous hole in her own wall with a sledge hammer because she’s convinced she’s getting to the creature. These two similarities show the devotion that the women both have to allowing someone to escape. In this case, the two escaping would be the mother’s son and the woman that is creeping in the wallpaper.

In contrast, there are also many differences throughout the two pieces that allow one’s mind to wander even more. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the woman’s husband is the one who locked her in a room and does not allow her to do anything, until her mental illness is cured. This point is due partly to the time period it was written in. During the late 1800s, doctors and physicians did not quite know how to properly treat mentally ill patients. Another problem during this time was that marriage was meant to be seen as something that was perfect. This is why the husband could have been hiding his wife until she was cured, because he did not want anyone to think that there was a problem in their marriage. This medium is a semi-autobiographical tale, which creates the story line to be more realistic. On the total opposite hand, in Stranger Things, the mother and father who are looking for their son are divorced and the husband vocally expresses that the mother is insane. The mother tries to communicate to her son, who is in an “upside down” world, swallowed by the creature that she is seeing in her wall. She does this by putting up Christmas lights, which symbolize the alphabet, and asking him questions to answer. Most times towards the end of her getting answers through the lights, the creature comes out from the wall and screeches, close to attacking her. This supernatural, science fiction television series, is clearly not as realistic as “The Yellow Wallpaper” and has many supernatural characters and forces throughout the show. The differences stem from the genres and the time periods that the two pieces are created in. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was created during a corrupt time for mental illness and woman’s rights, while Stranger Things was created during a time of advanced technology and science fiction. 

In conclusion, the two pieces, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and Stranger Things, include many similarities, even throughout major time period differences. The differences in their genres and time periods led them to have different story lines, however, the similarities in the two pieces are recognizable and both involve mental illnesses and women. The similarities and differences allow the observer to have a different outlook while looking at the two. Even though they have completely difference story lines, the comparability of the two pieces is impeccable and easily applied. It is important to see the parallels from two different time periods, because it shows that mental illness and women still have a stigma, even modernly. 
