Often time's literature provides valuable information that can be compared to different works, due to similar or contrasting themes.  Through the understanding of Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a reader can notice a contrast between a marital relationship with the influence of society, time period and culture.  This is conveyed through the use of metaphors, imagery and symbolism to compare the stories of two women living in similar situations and time periods, as well as the circumstances in which they are placed by society. 

There is an appreciable use of metaphors throughout both texts.  In "The Necklace" a story set in the 19th century France tells the story of a couple of the middle class.  It begins when Mr. Loisel brings an invitation home to his wife, to which she refuses to go without a new dress. He says "everyone wants to go; it is very select, and they are not giving many invitations to clerks.  The whole official world will be there" (de Maupassant 34).  To Mathilde Loisel, it is a ticket to a party where all "the official world" would be.  The world to which she wished to belong.  Their social status is defined when Mr. Loisel says "they are not giving many invitations to clerks."   Metaphorically, later on in the story, this invitation becomes a ticket into ten humiliating years of intense work.   Mathilde is described as a woman who "suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. . . All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry" (de Maupassant 33).  De Maupassant shows the ungratefulness found within the character who "suffered" because she did not have what she thought she deserved despite the fact she knew she belonged to her societal status and was right in her "rank."  Unfortunately, by borrowing a necklace, (which she eventually loses) in the despair to appear as if she was part of the wealthy society Mme. Loisel leads herself and her husband into being stuck behind a life she desired the least.  Meanwhile, her husband becomes nothing more than another piece in the game she tries to play. 

On the other hand, "The Yellow Wallpaper" which takes place in late nineteenth century America, shows a woman who is perturbed by the yellow wallpaper in the temporal room she occupies along with her husband.  She recounts her isolation in that room to treat her for a "temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency" (Gilman 209).  Or at least that is what her husband, who happens to be a physician, believes.  Yet, the entire story appears to point it out more specifically as a post-partum depression.  Her husband defining it as a "slight" problem begins to develop a theme of male dominance and the importance men gave to women, as well as the methods used to treat women at the time which consisted of isolating them to their homes.  As time progresses the narrator's confinement leads her to become delirious and sees a woman hiding behind the wallpaper.  She says "And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern" (214).  In reality, there is no woman behind the "stooping" behind the wallpaper, but it is how Gilman alludes to the women that were trapped in the oppressive society at the time and the narrator's mental state after being confined to her husband's will.  She says "sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one" (Gilman, 218).  The narrator knows she is among many women receiving this kind of treatment, but at times, she feels so alone she thinks she is the "only one". It could also reflect her marital relationship with her husband, perhaps, she feels as if she is not the only person in his life.  At the time it was common for men to have several mistresses, and this could be aggravating her depression.

The reader may become aware that each story has a symbol of great importance reflected in their titles.  In his story De Maupassant gives Mathilde the opportunity to be the woman she wants to be, for one evening.  It seems glamorous, but it turns out to be made of paste.  Similarly, it is symbolic of Mathilde deceiving everyone at the ball to think she was wealthy. Yet, in reality, she remained the wife of a clerk in a new dress and a necklace someone had lent her.  Another symbol could be the money her husband gives her for the dress.  "He had grown a little pale, because he was laying aside just that amount to buy a gun and treat himself  to a little shooting next summer" (De Maupassant 35).  It shows his generosity and his desire to please his wife, but also the dominance his wife has over him.  Mr. Loisel turned "a little pale" at the request of money because he knew he would have to give up his gun to keep his wife satisfied, knowing not doing so would have caused problems in his marriage.  Finally, when Mathilde asks for jewelry he tells her to wear a flower instead. A flower is often seen as a symbol of natural beauty, which is not what the necklace represents.  But, Mme. Loisel's response to it all is "'no; there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich'" (de Maupassant 35).  Mathilde's personality is clear, she is churlish and cares the most about other's opinions, in spite of knowing their economic capabilities.  In "The Yellow Wallpaper" the wallpaper symbolizes the domestic life that held women hostages of their own homes.  The reader may also see the wallpaper itself as an illustration of the male domination kept women from being something other than a housewife.  In a sense, both characters are trapped by these symbols.  Mme. Loisel finds herself under the burden of repaying the lost necklace while the narrator from the other story is trapped mentally and physically in the room, as well as, society's expectations. Towards the end of his story De Maupassant says "How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or saved" (de Maupassant 38). If the husband of the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" had not decided to confine her to the room, her mental state would not have worsened.  And in Mathilde's case; had she not tried to be what she was not, she would not have been left in such dilemma.  Nevertheless, society appears to be of great importance in the outcome of each story, so perhaps if it did not set standards or expectations none of that would have happened.

The imagery of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is vivid when the narrator describes the color and pattern of the wallpaper, which according it moves around being blanks and having strange patterns at times.  Once she illustrates the color as "repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by slow-turning sun light it is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others" (Gilman 210).  Gilman's use of adjectives could be representative of her views on the "repellent" male dominated society. It could also reflect the lives women lived being, "dull" and unpleasantly harsh, but more specifically the narrator's life.  Her life is vivid in some places, yet "sickly" in others. She says "And what can one do?" (Gilman 209).  The majority of women at the time were forced to think this way. If their husband thought something was black when it was white there was nothing they could do, they were submissive to their words.  On the other hand "The Necklace" presents the reader with the following quote: "She had become the woman of impoverished households -- strong and hard and rough.  With frowsy hair, skirts askew, and red hands, she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes of water" (de Maupassant 38).  A representation of the society in which Mme. Loisel lived in, she took care of chores while her husband went out to work.  It is expected that life taught her a lesson, made her "strong" a "woman of impoverished household."  In a similar way, it resembles the life of the narrator of the "Yellow Wallpaper", having to stay confined to a house while her husband took care of money and other affairs.  Both stories appear to relate, with the exception that it was Mathilde who brought herself and her husband to suffering trying to correspond to a social class where she did not belong.  De Maupassant says that Mathilde "sat down near the window, and she thought of the gay evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so beautiful and so feted" (de Maupassant 38).  She reminisced on the ball, remembering her life before the tragedy.   Unfortunately, Mathilde's cost to feel "beautiful" was misery.  He raises the question of whether fitting into a society or a certain moment of happiness in human life is actually worth all the effort and suffering.

Overall, these authors explore society's influence on people.  From giving men the power to oppress their female counterparts, to making a woman throw her life and her husband's away in order to appear wealthy to other people for a night.  It can be said that at times this influence is not beneficent as it can be captured by the readers through the outcome of each story.  Perhaps, in the case of "The Yellow Wallpaper" being oppressed was inevitable, but Mathilde could not have gone through hardships if she had accepted her life.  Nevertheless, societies are part of human civilization and there is not much that can be done to change the flaws unless an individual also decides to change.

