Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” explores how a loss of freedom affects one’s sanity. Through John’s treatment of the narrator and the narrator’s resulting thoughts and actions, the short story suggests that denying others their freedom is disastrous to their mental health. Ultimately, John contributes to this theme by assuming absolute control of the narrator’s life, which eventually drives her insane. The physical restrictions John places on his wife represent a prison. In order for her to have “perfect rest” over the summer (598 Gilman), he rents an estate that is “quite alone” (598) with “hedges and walls and gates that lock” (598). Despite her wanting a room downstairs, he places her in a top-floor room containing barred windows, “rings and things in the walls” (599), and a bed that is likely nailed down. These surroundings create an impression of a highly secure, isolated prison; and, just like in prison, the narrator cannot leave. John refuses when she asks him to let her move downstairs and to visit her cousins, and again when she begs him to let her leave the estate entirely. Moreover, he controls her daily schedule, which includes hour-long rests after every meal and absolutely no work. Consequently, the narrator is doomed to a sedentary life spent largely within the confines of her room. Her response to John’s physical restrictions suggests that they precipitate her descent into madness. She describes the torn, “smouldering unclean yellow” (599) wallpaper in her room as being “dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study” (599). She also says that she “never saw a worse paper in [her] life” (599) and that she “should hate it [hers... ... middle of paper ... ... she calls her husband “that man” (608), implying that she no longer recognizes him, and says that she “had to creep over him every time”, clearly not comprehending the absurdity of crawling repeatedly around the room and over her husband’s unconscious body. In the end, “The Yellow Wallpaper” examines the relationship between a loss of freedom and insanity. Specifically, the story uses John’s treatment of the narrator and the narrator’s subsequent reactions to demonstrate the evil that can occur when people deny others their freedom. John adds to this theme by exercising complete authority over the narrator’s life, thereby causing her descent into madness. Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." 1892. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. 7th ed. Eds. Richard Bausch and R. V. Cassill. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. 598-608.
The narrator’s resolution is liberating and saddening as she finds true freedom in insanity. “The Yellow Wallpaper” paints the picture of what suffering with a mental illness is truly like.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” speaks of a woman who struggled of more than mere insanity, but also the pressures of life. Her life continuously seemed to weigh her down and she felt trapped by what was expected of her along with her mental disease. Her environment, marital relationship, and desire to escape her illness thrust Jane deeper into insanity. In the end Jane finds a way to truly escape her disease.
When the narrator first sees the paper she is repulsed by the shade and the pattern. It is something she hates and yet she cannot ignore it. The "repellent" and "repulsive" paper soon becomes the topic of her journal entries. The first personification of the wallpaper is when she notices where the pattern "lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down"..."I never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before". This indicates that, just as John and Jennie watch her, the paper appears to be watching her too. She speaks of the paper as another presence in the room. The reader can see that the paper is starting to become more fascinating to her than the outside world when her attention to the view of the countryside abruptly switches back to the wallpaper. As she becomes more isolated in the room her thoughts are filled with the design of the paper almost as if she is studying it. "I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I ev...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a detailed account of the author’s battle with depression and mental illness. Gilman’s state of mental illness and delusion is portrayed in this narrative essay. Through her account of this debilitating illness, the reader is able to relate her behavior and thoughts to that of an insane patient in an asylum. She exhibits the same type of thought processes and behaviors that are characteristic of this kind of person. In addition, she is constantly treated by those surrounding her as if she were actually in some form of mental hospital.
Intriguing things such as madness, hallucinations, paranoia, and depression are all traits that make a story memorable and interesting. However, there is more than just madness contained in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Through the use of an unnamed narrator, Gilman depicts how women of her time were trapped by social barriers.
Trapped in the upstairs of an old mansion with barred windows and disturbing yellow colored wallpaper, the main character is ordered by her husband, a physician, to stay in bed and isolate her mind from any outside wandering thoughts. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, describes the digression of the narrator’s mental state as she suffers from a form of depression. As the story progresses, the hatred she gains for the wallpaper amplifies and her thoughts begin to alter her perception of the room around her. The wallpaper serves as a symbol that mimics the narrator’s trapped and suffering mental state while she slips away from sanity reinforcing the argument that something as simple as wallpaper can completely deteriorate an entire identity.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a first person account/narrative of a mentally ill woman who suffers from depression which then later progresses to hallucination disorder. Gilman wants her audience to see, through the narrator's first hand experiences, that in the 19th century mental illness was not taken seriously by physicians and family members, causing the patient’s condition to deteriorate.
The narrator of the story, though unnamed, represents a stereotypical woman with mental illnesses in that day and age. “Many details, like the lack of a name, argue against her individuality,” (Ford 1). The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is told through a woman’s journal and shows first-hand what the path to insanity feels like. It is written in first person to better expose the narrator’s thoughts and feelings. ““The Yellow Wallpaper” is an example of a first person narrative because it is told exclusively from the viewpoint of th...
At first the woman seems to be living in a fantasy as she characterizes her husband and caretaker as kind and concerned with her well being, when in reality they are suppressive and limiting. To begin with, the woman of the story explains how, “[her husband was] very careful and loving, and hardly lets [her] stir without special direction” (Gilman 239). This quote shows the woman’s inconsistency with reality as she does not recognize that her husband had brought her to an asylum in order to “cure” her illness. Her husband explicitly explains to the woman that the place he is taking her only has “one window and not room for two beds” further displaying how he will isolate her from society and the family. Her unwillingness to realize her husbands intentions, displays her blindness to her own repression in her marriage. In addition, the woman explains how much she enjoys writing in order to explain her own thoughts and feelings because she is not allowed to say them out loud. She goes on to say that her husband,” hates to have [her] write a word” and hurriedly tries to hide away her notebook (Gilman ___). This
The wallpaper, the center of the story, the perceived reason for her madness, was simply just wallpaper that she disliked. Every time she would describe it, her delusions would continually get worse. "I never saw a worse paper in my life." (Gilman) is her first observation of the paper. She strongly believed that there was a woman, "A strange, provoking, formless sort of figure." (Gilman) behind that paper who was creeping outside and around her room. She strongly believed that she needed to help this woman be free of the wretched wallpaper. She strongly believed that the wallpaper had a "yellow smell" (Gilman). No one could possibly make her disbelieve for one second that the woman didn't move about and yearn to be free of the strangling pattern. She believes that she is the only person who understands and can get the woman out of her
...ow Wallpaper" and Henry Isben’s play A Doll's House both prove that independence is key in a woman’s life in order to feel free; yet social norms of the Victorian Age cause freedom to come at a high cost. Nora, the heroine in A Doll’s House, escapes from her husband’s confinement by leaving her family. While this seems revolutionary, Nora’s freedom will only cause confusion in her life. Had she not had her personal awakening on individualism, she would have remained happy with her family. In the “Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator achieves freedom through madness. The narrator thinks she is free when she goes mad, yet this is only a brief feeling, as she will most likely realize the publicity of her mental state will only increase the restrictions upon her. In both texts, the heroines break for freedom will only result in more confusion and confinement in their lives.
Shumaker, Conrad. "'Too Terribly Good to Be Printed': Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper'" American Literature. 57 (1985): 194-198.
Finally, the yellow wallpaper presents perspectives of how men control females. As stated previously, In the story, John uses his power as a doctor to control his wife. He encaged his wife in a summer home, placing her in a room filled with barricades and many faults. As a human she is deprived of her rights and her ability to form house duties is taken away so she can rest as he calls it. Without a doubt, she fell into insanity because of the situation she was placed in. When she ripped the paper off the wall, it was a sign of freedom from her husband, and the bars that held her captive for weeks. Certainly she has a vivid imagination and being placed in bondage and unable to write which in turn lead her to mental health problems.
John physically traps her in this room by his actions of making her feel like a small insignificant child: “It is as airy and comfortable a room as anyone need wish, and, of course, I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim” (514). He tricks her into believing that this is the best room for her to get well in. The yellow wallpaper traps her in as well. The paper blocks her into the room where she feels like she cannot and will not get better unless she can get out and get back to the real world. However, she can’t get out because her eyes cannot leave the pattern in the wallpaper therefore she can’t get any rest. Her eyes follow the pattern day to day and she can never find the end result and her mind wont let her leave the paper until she has scrutinized the entire thing. Her mind begins to picture the woman that is trapped and she cannot let that woman be trapped as she is. As her mental state fades, and the woman appears behind the bars she narrator feels as if they are trapped together. This is a symbol of her being trapped in a cage; the room...
The Yellow Wallpaper is a very astonishing story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that daringly reaches out to explore the mental state of a woman whose mind eventually begins to be broken down to a state of insanity by the appearance of a creeping woman who is trapped behind a revolting yellow wallpaper. This short story takes a look at the causes of the narrator’s insanity by how she was confined in a house alone, trapped with only her mind and a dull wallpaper; while dealing with depression and consuming strong