The yellow wallpaper
The Yellow Wall-Paper,” by Charlotte Gilman Perkins, can be read as a
simple story of a young woman suffering from postpartum depression.
Her husband is unsympathetic to her needs, her doctor refuses to
acknowledge her serious illness, and her emotional state declines as a
result of being forced to stay inside her room in the middle of her
vacation with no company except the yellow wallpaper. But, on a deeper
level, it is this room and the wallpaper that is pasted all over it
that is symbolic and allows the narrator to materialize her depression
and slowly decline into insanity.
In the beginning of the story, the narrator describes herself as
having “temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency.”
(169) The narrator is well aware of her condition, and it is apparent
that she is also aware of what her condition may lead to. But, if it
weren’t for certain imprisoning aspects of her environment, her
condition might have never progressed to complete insanity. For
example, the windows of the narrator’s room become a materialization
of the world that squeezes her into the tiny jail of her own mind, and
the wallpaper represents this state of that mind. The room was once
used as a nursery, and thus its environment makes the narrator feel
like a child, like a being who is taken less seriously than she should
be. She is in a room where “the windows are barred for little
children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” (170) The
protective bars on the windows are symbolic of the protectiveness of
her husband, John, and his well-meaning but ultimately unhelpful
suggestions. The narrator is a prisoner in her place of rest, and her
husband is but the jailer, watching over ...
... middle of paper ...
...per as I did?” (180) She believes
that by locking herself in her symbolic physical prison and tearing
off the wall-paper that is symbolic of her mental state, she is
releasing herself from all of the expectations of her husband and all
the depression she felt throughout the story.
The narrator’s physical environment and the symbolism it contained
allowed her to materialize her depression and descend into insanity.
It is clear that it is possible to view the wallpaper as a reflection
of the narrators state of mind and the fact that she took on the
character of the woman in the wallpaper to allow herself to break free
of the ties that bound her. The confinement of the barred room and the
disturbingly vivid wallpaper proved not only to be complimentary to
the story, but also to foreshadow the narrator’s escape from
depression into a new sphere of insanity.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story about a woman’s gradual descent into insanity, after the birth of her child. The story was written in 1892 after the author herself suffered from a nervous breakdown, soon after the birth of her daughter in 1885. Gilman did spend a month in a sanitarium with the urging of her physician husband. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story about herself, during the timeframe of when Gilman was in the asylum.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s bodies of work, Gilman highlights scenarios exploring traditional interrelations between man and woman while subtexting the necessity for a reevaluation of the paradigms governing these relations. In both of Gilman’s short stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Turned”, women are victimized, subjected and mistreated. Men controlled and enslaved their wives because they saw them as their property. A marriage was male-dominated and women’s lives were dedicated to welfare of home and family in perseverance of social stability. Women are expected to always be cheerful and good-humored. Respectively, the narrator and Mrs. Marroner are subjugated by their husbands in a society in which a relationship dominated by the male is expected.
In a female oppressive story about a woman driven from postpartum depression to insanity, Charlotte Gilman uses great elements of literature in her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Her use of feminism and realism demonstrates how woman's thoughts and opinions were considered in the early 1900?s.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature 's Ancestral House: Another Look At 'The Yellow Wallpaper '." Women 's Studies 12.2 (1986): 113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
MacPike, Loralee. "Environment as Psychopathological Symbolism in 'The Yellow Wallpaper.’” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg, vol. 201, Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com.gmclibrary.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=mill30389&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1420082948&asid=562f132388d74c4bd92439b5842a2fe7. Accessed 25 Oct. 2017.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1890 and eventually published in 1892 in the New England Magazine and in William Dean Howells' collection, Great Modern American Stories (Shumaker 94). The story was original not only because of its subject matter, but also because it is written in the form of a loosely connected journal. It follows the narrator's private thoughts which become increasingly more confusing. The structure consists of disjointed sentences as the narrator gradually descends more and more into her madness as her only escape from an oppressive husband and society.
Setting is a critical part of any story, developing both the time and place in which the story takes place, as well as mood and tone of the text. This certainly takes no exception in Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Not only does the setting in “The Yellow Wallpaper” achieve the above, but also it goes one level deeper by giving the reader insight into the narrator’s mindset. By utilizing the setting as described by the narrator, along with the knowledge of the narrator’s battle with hysteria, the reader can fully interpret the setting, its impact on the narrator, as well as determine Gilman’s implications throughout the story.
she is in between the real world and in the land of the dead. In between the worlds she is able to
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is an observation on the male oppression of women in a patriarchal society. The story itself presents an interesting look at one woman's struggle to deal with both mental and physical confinement. Through Gilman's writing the reader becomes aware of the mental and physical confinement, which the narrator endures, and the overall effect and reaction to this confinement.
The psychologically thrilling story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman explores the dark and twisted aspect of the American society in the nineteenth century. Through the use of theme, Gilman creatively captures the cultural subordination and struggles women faced on a regular basis.
...f the bad that is going on in her real life, so she would have a happy place to live. With the collapse of her happy place her defense was gone and she had no protection from her insanity anymore. This caused all of her blocked out thoughts to swarm her mind and turn her completely insane. When the doctor found her, he tried to go in and help her. When the doctor finally got in he fainted because he had made so many positive changes with her and was utterly distressed when he found out that it was all for naught. This woman had made a safety net within her mind so that she would not have to deal with the reality of being in an insane asylum, but in the end everything failed and it seems that what she had been protecting herself from finally conquered her. She was then forced to succumb to her breakdown and realize that she was in the insane asylum for the long run.
When looking at two nineteenth century works of change for two females in an American society, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Stephen Crane come to mind. A feminist socialist and a realist novelist capture moments that make their readers rethink life and the world surrounding. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was first published in 1892, about a white middle-class woman who was confined to an upstairs room by her husband and doctor, the room’s wallpaper imprisons her and as well as liberates herself when she tears the wallpaper off at the end of the story. On the other hand, Crane’s 1893 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is the realist account of a New York girl and her trials of growing up with an alcoholic mother and slum life world. The imagery in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets uses color in unconventional ways by embedding color in their narratives to symbolize the opposite of their common meanings, allowing these colors to represent unique associations; to support their thematic concerns of emotional, mental and societal challenges throughout their stories; offering their reader's the opportunity to question the conventionality of both gender and social systems.
“Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman was analyzed by many perspective readers and writers. In my research paper I analyzed work by Ann Oakley and Karen Ford. These two authors had similar but yet different arguments. During my review process on both articles, I found that there can be many interpretations of any literary work. When you typically see topics written about women, you tend to see biased explanations. Reading these from a female standpoint you would go on to assume the writer will only defend what is morally right.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.
The Yellow Wall Paper was full of intimacy and immediacy. This story was written in first-person narrator. In the beginning of the story, the narrator appears to be same and believable. This story is about an unknown female and husband “John” who was a physician trying to cure his wife. It seems that intellectual stimulation was no good for his spouse physically and psychologically.