The Tower, By Marghanita Laski (1995)

 The Tower, By Marghanita Laski (1995)

8/10


I was surprised about how much this story was similar to ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. They both share feministic messages depicted by an oppressing male husband figure and a female main character trying to break free from him. Also, the slow progressive call of madness was an important factor in both stories.

On the other hand, the two stories differ in the most important way. In The Yellow Wallpaper’, the main character did go mad, but still managed to break free from her husband and triumph over him. However, in ‘The Tower’, the main character is swallowed not only by the madness, but also with fear. Thus, instead of teaching her husband a lesson, she descends, trembling and stuttering into the abyss.

I found the detail that the ‘tower’, which is supposed to take someone higher, ended up taking the main character down then where she started from to be very ironic.

Overall, I think this story would have been a bit better with probably more context about the relationship between the couple. A single flashback isn’t enough to really send the message. I rated it eight out of ten. (189 words)

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