Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Main theme of the yellow wallpaper
Critical interpretation of the yellow wallpaper
Main theme of the yellow wallpaper
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Main theme of the yellow wallpaper
A Woman without a Voice Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” voices the struggle of an unnamed woman who loses her identity and mind. The narrator is oppressed by her husband who suppresses her voice, independence, and actions in an attempt to cure her worsening hysteria. The conflict between the two arises as the narrator attempts to break free of her submissive role and find her voice. Constant oppression by her controlling husband leads to the story’s protagonist eventually succumbing to Identity loss. “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency-what is one to do?” (519). Here Gilman illustrates early on that the woman has no voice of her own even in her own mental state. The last part of the question, “what is one to do”, seems to allude to the fact that has given in to the overassertive voice of her husband. Gilman shows us another example of our heroine’s loss of identity due to her “loving” husband’s smothering attention. “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (520). John’s overbearing demeanor is viewed as careful and loving, and it is quite clear that the narrator is losing her own voice and identity. Justifying his behavior out of love he continues to belittle his wife until she loses all identity. It is the battle to regain her identity and to let her voice be heard that gives us our conflict between John and his wife. The Yellow Wallpaper is about the external conflict between an unnamed woman, trying to break free of her submissive role and find her voice in life, and her domineering husband who ... ... middle of paper ... ...eference to the characters apparent role in society and at home being beneath her husband. By acknowledging this she is once again voicing her opposition to the oppression of her officious husband. At the end of the story John faints in the path of his wife and she proceeds to “creep” over him (530). Symbolically the repressed wife has finally brought her husband down and has triumphed over him. Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes a haunting tale of lost identity and the struggle to break free of oppression and find a voice to be heard. The central idea of identity loss causes the protagonist to slip into hysteria which is the only place that she seems to find a voice. Upon finding this voice she proceeds to break free from her husband and regain her identity. Without this conflict this is just the story of a mad woman who finally loses touch with all reality.
The irony between the two characters shows us how the narrator has a false sense of how a marriage should be. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in a marriage” (Gilman 478). It is ironic because in a healthy, normal marriage, no one expects for a husband to laugh at his wife, but the narrator finds it to be completely normal. The narrator truly believes that her marriage is normal and that everything is fine, when in fact her husband has tricked her into going to an abandoned insane asylum in hopes of curing her. Another ironic moment is when John’s course of treatment backfires. John believes that taking his wife to an old asylum and locking her in a bedroom will be the cure for her for her depression, but it does the complete opposite. The narrator states, “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back” (Gilman 489). Both John and his sister believed that by isolating the narrator she would eventually become sane, but they failed to realize what was really wrong with her. John’s state of ignorance and his stubbornness lead him to misjudge the situation a...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, is a first-person narrative written in the style of a journal. It takes place during the nineteenth century and depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to in hopes of providing a place to rest and recover from her “nervous depression”. Throughout the story, the narrator’s “nervous condition” worsens. She begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper in her room to the point of insanity. She imagines a woman trapped within the patterns of the paper and spends her time watching and trying to free her. Gilman uses various literary elements throughout this piece, such as irony and symbolism, to portray it’s central themes of restrictive social norms
“The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is an account of a repressed woman in the late eighteen hundreds. This story allows the reader to confront the issues that plagued nineteenth century society in which women suffered because of their mental weaknesses. It is this mental weakness which ultimately leads to her downfall.
The thought of the narrator 's life of staying home all day to be taken care of by her husband and his sister, as well as having the husband go out and tarnish her reputation to her family and friends is such a dreadful thought. Apart from her husband John 's treatment is to keep her away from her family for a bit till she is better, but in order to do that he must disclose her well being with them. It is preposterous that her
...ssion and intrusiveness. John’s lack of having an open mind to his wife’s thoughts and opinions and his constant childish like treatment of his wife somehow emphasizes this point, although, this may not have been his intention. The narrator felt strongly that her thoughts and feelings were being disregarded and ignored as stated by the narrator “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 115), and she shows her despise of her husband giving extra care to what he considers more important cases over his wife’s case with a sarcastic notion “I am glad my case is not serious!” (Gilman 115). It is very doubtful that John is the villain of the story, his good intentions towards doing everything practical and possible to help his wife gain her strength and wellbeing is clear throughout the story.
John is the over dominant male figure that represents most marriages situations whereby the woman has no say. John dictates the marriage such that all decisions regarding the marriage including the narrator’s health are made by him. He oppresses the narrator in a similar way that the “yellow wallpaper” oppresses the women behind it. Marriage in the book’s society seems to serve as a bondage form for the women such that it provides bondage and captivity. Through Jennie, one can see how marriages enslave the women. Jennie is an epitome of the submissive and oppressed woman in society since she undertakes John’s commands blindly without any form of questioning. Thus, the annoying wallpaper that the in the narrators own wisdom wants to destroy is a representation of breaking away from oppressive marriage
Vintage short stories are meant to entertain their readers. However, many passive readers miss the true entertainment that lies within the story in the hidden context. Most short stories have, embedded in the writing, a lesson or theme attached to them. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman demonstrates a woman who has suffered from repression and longs for the freedom from her controlling husband. Gender conflicts play a major role throughout this story. The author portrays these kinds of conflicts through the three main characters, John, Jennie and the narrator. The theme of this story is a woman's fall into insanity resulting from isolation from treatment of post-partum depression. Gilman is also telling the story of how women were thought of as prisoners by the demands of the society throughout that time period. She also expresses the punishments these women had when they tried to break free. As a reader, we see how much control John had over her and how it ended up affecting her individuality.
The relationship of the narrator and her husband, John, is one that of the time period. The narrator has no other choice but to be obedient to her husband and the things he asked of her, though that isn’t much at the time, due to the recent birth of a child and the “mental state” of the narrator. Though the house seems to intrigue her to an extent, John has her in a room she doesn’t really like and has her isolated for most everything and everyone. He treats the narrator as though she is a child and dismisses her thoughts and ideas, even of her own health and what may help her get better. He “hardly lets me stir without special direction” (Gilman).
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression." In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
When his wife, Jane, delivers their first child, Jane begins having symptoms of a nervous condition. She seems to be getting worse every day and trying to overcome the symptoms of depression and loneliness. John restricts her behavior from involving any activity and is controlling every decision of her life. In the passage, she says “I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it” (2). In this case, John seems very stubborn when forcing his wife to stay in a room that does not make her happy and comfortable. John feels very confident when he states to his wife, “You know the place is doing you good” (3). But unfortunately, it turning out very badly. The way John treats his wife is like a prisoner. He detains her in the room and leads her to become an introverted
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a self-told story about a woman who approaches insanity. The story examines the change in the protagonist's character over three months of her seclusion in a room with yellow wallpaper and examines how she deals with her "disease." Since the story is written from a feminist perspective, it becomes evident that the story focuses on the effect of the society's structure on women and how society's values destruct women's individuality. In "Yellow Wallpaper," heroine's attempt to free her own individuality leads to mental breakdown.
Though she acknowledges her husband’s affection towards her, and we come to believe John truly is well-intentioned, we can pick up on our narrator’s growing frustration in not having her wishes respected. Being both her husband and her physician, it is clear that John has the final say in things, which seems to make the protagonist’s depression and anxiety only intensify. As she informs us of how well Jennie takes care of her and the house, and how well Mary cares for the baby, it becomes clear she does not hold the same principles as they do. While she admires their dutifulness, our narrator longs for excitement and expression, things it seems Jennie and Mary give very little thought to, if any at all. It seems strange to our narrator to think that they could be content with such a life, but she bears this as a reflection on herself for not confining to the role society has for her, not as a reflection on women such as Jennie and Mary. As she lies in bed unable to sleep at night, she studies the wallpaper. She begins to develop an obsession with it, as she studies it to find some sort of organization, symmetry, or order for it being the way that it is.
In the introduction of the story the unnamed narrator describes her ‘illness’ and the ‘conditions’ she faces, however through the analysis of her writing she begins to reveal the oppression that she is forced to submit to. Much of the protagonist’s oppression comes from her husband, as he does not believe she is sick at all. Because she is timid and is subdued by her spouse she believes, like the rest of society, that a male’s qualifications can automatically make him right. The narrator tends to question her husband’s view, but then covers it up with his credentials in her private journal entries, “You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do? If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?” (Gilman Wallpaper, 1) This is only the beginning of the oppression and the beginning of the narrator’s rebellion against a society controlled by men. The au...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" serves as a semi-autobiographical short story that deals with the struggles of postpartum psychosis and its' repercussions as witnessed through the story's unnamed female narrator. By analyzing, Gilman’s approach to exploring the concept of social conventions and patriarchal oppression. Gilman's story can be analyzed in depth as both being an anti-feminist and feminist piece of literature. These aspects include the narrator's husband treatment towards her individuality, her fascination with the yellow wallpaper and her eventual fulfillment of independence.
The short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman focuses on a young woman’s psychological downfall and her fascination with the wallpaper within the house she and her husband are living in. The woman begins to believe that the wallpaper is coming alive, which leads her to become confused with reality and fantasy. Gilman selects the crazed woman as the narrator of the story. Furthermore, Gilman uses first person point of view to effectively convey the woman’s emotions and feelings during her mental decline.