William Faulkners A Rose for Emily is set in the post-civil war south that is rapidly changing. Tensions over racial equality made integrated living very difficult. Faulkner was born in the south and bases most of his work in a southern environment. Charlotte Perkins’ The Yellow Wallpaper is set in a different time period but the location remains similar to that of the first story. A large southern home in which the undertones of oppression and gender roles are very evident. Charlotte Perkins was a social activist when it came to women’s rights. These two stories come from different places in history but are similar in their location, views on women’s rights, and the large role isolation has on a person’s psychological state.

The upbringing of the two authors differs a great deal but the message both authors send with their texts are related. William Faulkner was born in 1987 and raised in New Albany, Mississippi. His deep southern upbringing caused him to write about southern tensions and ways of life. Most of his early works expressed this through poetry. Charlotte Perkins was a social activist from a young age. She was born in 1860 and was raised in Hartford, Connecticut. Oppression of women was slowly being overcome in the north but reform was a slow moving action in the south. Making the south an easy target for Perkins to target women’s rights and how they were overshadowed by their male counterparts. Both authors take the slow changing south and expose a main problem with equal rights. 

The main protagonists of A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper are “Miss Emily” and a narrator that may or may not be named Jane. Miss Emily is a single, Caucasian woman who lives alone in the later part of her life except for her black butler or caretaker Tobe. In the earlier part of her life, Emily’s father was a very oppressive figure. Believing that every male who showed interest in his daughter was unworthy of her time. “Jane” is a wife and mother being treated for depression. Her spouse and physician, John is treating her for this mental illness by isolating her. When the couple rents a big southern home, John cuts Jane off from almost all outside stimulation, even trying to restrict her writing. These two men are at opposite ends of the relationship spectrum to these women, but both oppress and constrict these women with overbearing control acceptable in this time period. 

Both stories take place in a southern environment with hostilities and notions present from previous history. A Rose for Emily originates in a small southern town in which every occupant knows one another. This setting makes racial stereotypes obvious and easily comprehensible. The house is the last remaining relic of old southern history in the rapidly changing town. The “ancestral hall” in The Yellow Wallpaper is by definition a “person's family in former times, especially when the family is important and has property or land which they have had for a long time.” Meaning at one point, the home in which the story takes place in had a lot of influence and was an icon. The gender roles that were imposed on women during the post-civil war era are very prevalent. The south refused to change during reconstruction, just as the narrator’s husband refuses to change the treatment for his wife’s psychological state even though it is having negative effects. Both houses act as prisons, Miss Emily’s prison keeps everyone on the outside world oblivious to her psychological distress due to her isolation. “Jane’s” dungeon is one that keeps her inside forcing her to take interest in animate objects. Her depression creeps into full blown madness. 

Emily and Jane both develop mental problems that crushes their sanity. The point of view in The Yellow Wallpaper is in first person from the narrator. This allows the reader to witness first-hand her gradual slide into insanity. Whereas in A Rose for Emily, Emily is seen as distant and strange throughout the whole story. Her psychological downfall is exposed when she keeps her father’s body after his death for three days. This is enhanced because earlier in the story her father’s oppression was clearly stated. Jane however starts with an unstable mind in an environment that does not allow her many freedoms. She has obligations as a mother and a wife. Her dive into madness is seen through journal entries she is forbidden to write by her husband. Having no stimulus from the outside world causes her to develop realities based on past memories. Both women similarly spiral out of control but in both stories the outcome reveals what an oppressed mind is capable of and how those pressures were historically acceptable. 

Both stories stress the racial tensions and oppression of women in the post-civil war south. This is done by comparing them to rapidly changing places. Miss Emily being a single Caucasian woman makes integrated living excruciating. During his southern upbringing, Faulkner was made very aware of those tensions and wanted to explore them. On the other end, Perkins had always been a social activist, making a connection with oppression towards women and old southern gender roles. The two homes these stories are based out of act as bubbles trapping in stereotypes and history. Both short stories, despite their differences in relation to time,  have a common message regarding the consequences of oppressing women and isolating individuals based on their gender roles and race.
