Compare and contrast the theme of loneliness & alienation in both "Miss Brill" and "The Yellow Wallpaper."

These are two great stories to compare and contrast given
that they both focus on the way that two women experience loneliness and isolation in
their society. However, although there are obvious parallels, at the same time we can
also identify differences in the treatment of these themes between the
stories.

One of the key differences seems to be the way
that the protagonists experience isolation and loneliness. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" for
example, the narrator is isolated and lonely because of her depression. However, her
seclusion is imposed upon her by her husband, who feels that he knows best, and this
only serves to make her feel more isolated and lonely. However, in "Miss Brill," the
central character is cruelly ignored by an indifferent society, resulting in her
loneliness and isolation. A key section to the story is the ending, when having already
observed sadly how others must live in rooms like cupboards, we are told where Miss
Brill returns to having overheard the nasty comments made about her by the young
couple:

But
today she passed the baker's by, climbed the stairs, went into the little dark room--her
room like a cupboard--and sat down on the red
eiderdown.

Miss Brill is
forced to realise the way that she is shunned and isolated from an uncaring society.
Note the difference though when we compare this to "The Yellow Wallpaper," where the
narrator is isolated but with good, if profoundly misguided,
intentions.

You also might like to talk about the fantasies
that the two characters have as a result of their loneliness. Miss Brill imagines that
the whole scene in the park is one important play, with herself as an important
character. This of course is a complete fabrication that is designed to give her some
sense of self-importance and some value. However, the fantasy of the narrator of "The
Yellow Wallpaper" is at least based in fact, as her impressions of a woman trying to
escape from the wallpaper are a projection of her own frustrations at being isolated and
so lonely:

And
she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that
pattern--it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many
heads.

Note the way that the
pattern "strangles," which is a sign of how it traps and restricts, in exactly the same
way that the narrator is trapped and restricted.