Architecture is defined as the art and science of designing and erecting buildings (American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Ed, and Copyright 2000). If one were so inclined, he or she could see literary authors as architects of the places in which their characters live, love, and die. Much as an architect uses bricks to create a building with the shape and function that they intend, so too does the author build with words structures that appear and function as they require. In a comparison of the authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we see them constructing edifices to house those characters that they have created. Both authors use the setting of their narratives to augment those works through the symbolism placed within the walls they create. While the changes in scenery assist in setting the tone for their works, the settings also mimic the events that are taking place and reflect the protagonists' state of mind.
             Both authors take great care in constructing these rooms and homes with respect to how they relate to the story. On the first page of The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman describes the house as being a grand mansion dating back to colonial times and introduces the idea that the house is haunted to foreshadow the emergence of the woman trapped in the paper. The heroine's comment that the house is "It is quite alone, standing well back from the road" (Gilman, 2) is symbolic of her isolation from the rest of the world. Later in the same passage she writes of "greenhouses, too, but they are all broken now" (Gilman, 3). As it is difficult to successfully grow plants in a decrepit greenhouse, this image represents her stifled capacity toward growth. The "big airy room...with windows that look all ways" (Gilman, 3) is an image that ironically describes a sense of freedom, a liberation that does not occur until the end of the story. These descriptions are used to project their quali...