In the end, both characters experienced freedom in exchange for hefty sacrifices. The woman goes insane. She has delusions of freeing a woman from the ugly wallpaper, but in the end, it was she that wanted freedom. In the ending scene, she exclaims to her husband, "I've got out at last" (Lynch para. 263). He faints in response, ironically taking on a feminine quality that he had previously undermined. Finally, Gilman depicts the woman “creeping” over her husband to illustrate a victory over a long-time oppressor, which emphasizes the power within women to stand against the dictatorial actions of men (Lynch 263-264; “Analysis: What’s up with the ending” para. 3).
The dog from “A Dark Brown Dog” was freed in a very different way. Its escape
Nevertheless, her attempts are futile as he dismisses her once more, putting his supposed medical opinion above his wife’s feelings. The story takes a shocking turn as she finally discerns what that figure is: a woman. As the story progresses, she believes the sole reason for her recovery is the wallpaper. She tells no one of this because she foresees they may be incredulous, so she again feels the need to repress her thoughts and feelings. On the last night of their stay, she is determined to free the woman trapped behind bars.
Malcolm Gladwell’s Usage of the Straw Man Method of Persuasion in What the Dog Saw
woman she once knew. Both women only see the figure they imagine to be as the setting shows us this, in the end making them believe there is freedom through perseverance but ends in only despair.
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.
On their final day in the house she completes her plan by stripping all that she could of the rest of the wallpaper from the walls. Her intention was to bring a sense of shock to her husband. This seems to be her way of punishing him for the part he played in trapping her in the room with this hideous wallpaper. I think it goes further than just the room to make a statement of how she feels trapped in her entire life with her husband. She is “freeing” the woman who is trapped...
But she has zero capability left to even interact normally with the outer physical world, and so it is, although she isn’t even there. Throughout the story, the reader is called to trust the narrator although it is clear she is going crazy, for she is the only telling the story. Gilman is able to develop the theme through this character’s point of view by showing that the narrator has no choice in the world in which she lives—she must obey the men in her life above all else. If Gilman chose any other perspective, the story would not have been able to portray the woman’s oppression as well, because the reader would not have been able to see into her mind as it slipped away well into insanity.
The two choices are: fit into society expectations or be shut out. Gilman illustrates a character who is battling an internal fight from depression while struggling with the way society characterizes her. Over the progression of her mental illness she becomes aware of how the men in her life treat her. We start to realize that despite how she is viewed, she is a strong woman; she puts her emotions to the side and puts on a happy face for her husband: “I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time. Of course I don't when John is here, or anybody else, but when I am alone” (277). It is easy to relate to Gilman's narrator because we able to empathize with her thoughts and feelings. Even though we as a reader have to build an image of the character without the use of even a name the woman's writing gives us insight on her feelings. The protagonist’s will is constantly being attacked by outside forces, such as her husband, her brother, and the caretakers, as well as fighting with her internal thoughts. The peeling of the wallpaper and the action of her ripping it off the wall is her mind's way of being released from its restrains; the action is comparable to
It progresses from being ugly and bothersome to being disturbing and with heads and eyes. The narrator cannot separate herself from the chaos she sees in the paper, so she wants to get away from it and ponders jumping out of the window. However there are bars on the window so she cannot. There are also barriers in her mind which, at the end keep her in the room. Then she committed to staying in the room even if her sister-in-law, Jane suggests leaving. She has had enough of the wallpaper and on the last day there she is determined to get rid of the wallpaper and with it all that ails her. She tears off the wallpaper as if it now has a consciousness because she believes that it is making her life more difficult. In her mind she has become part of it because when she looks at it she sees a woman in there and then believes that she has escaped the
In the final moments of this story, the woman’s husband returns to see her. She writes, “He stopped short by the door. ‘What is the matter?’ he cried. ‘For God’s sake, what are you doing!’ I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. ‘I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’ Now why should that man have fainted, but he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!’” This final passage shows that, when this woman rebels, and “escapes the wallpaper”, it is not highly looked upon. The woman made a power statement, by telling her husband that she had, in essence, found a new role in life, and he can not push her back. When he can not handle her actions, she continues her new ways right over him.
Word count includes Annotated Bibliography. Throughout the world, there are many different countries that contain diverse cultures, religions, and lifestyles. There are however certain aspects within these countries and cultures that act as a common ground between one another. One dominant aspect is the existence of dogs within these cultures.
Gilman creates a horrific tone that helps explore the idea of freedom and confinement within a certain place. The story is created to follow the situation of the narrator and how slowly she begins to deteriorate psychologically due to the wallpaper. The narrator is never assigned a name, therefore it can be assumed that the story is suppose to serve as a voice for the women who have been in a similar situation and have lost their freedom and say on their own lives. However, the narrator appears to come from a wealthy family with privilege so there cannot be this idea that all women who have been through this form of depression and inequalities have experienced it in the same form. Through the use of imagery, the reader was able to understand and clearly visualize the situation in which the narrator is in and see how she has begun to slowly deteriorate, even though she is finally freed in the end of the story, or at least that is what is assumed. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is indeed a very profound image of what it was like to be a female during the 19th century while emphasizing the themes of freedom and confinement. Even though it illustrates the impact that confinement can have on a person, it restricts the situation to fit only women who had similar social backgrounds as the narrator, which is
...the story concludes with the woman "crouched," still naked, "in the underbrush" below her house and marveling how strange it is to be seeing her husband at last after "having wanted so desperately to get home," and yet now feeling "no emotion" at what she saw. (138)
The narrator was forced by her husband, John, to stay in a room all day and rest, he thought that he was doing her good by restricting her activities. In reality he was only doing more harm to his wife and making her go more insane. The narrator told John about the wallpaper and even though John knew that the wallpaper was bothering her he didn’t do anything about it. At the end of the story the narrator locks herself in the nursery and starts stripping the wallpaper off to free the woman, she even tries to capture the woman in the yellow wallpaper. “I want to astonish him. I've got a rope up here that even Jennie did not find. If that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her!”(Gilman Pg. 9) this quote shows that the narrator is trying to capture the woman in the yellow wallpaper to prove to her husband that the women is indeed real. The narrator’s husband comes in and sees what she’s doing and then he faints, the narrator creeps
It expresses that the women behind the wallpaper has no control over the situation, and same goes with the narrator. The women behind the wallpaper cannot get out from behind it, she cannot break it or tear it. While the narrator cannot get out of her husband’s controls, she cannot have the things that she wishes. It started out being that she hated the wallpaper, then she slowly starts to see this formless figure, to now where she believes that there is a woman stuck behind it. Slowly she starts to rip off the wallpaper to help free the women behind it, and she finally becomes the woman behind the wallpaper. She frees herself from the confined room, and her controlling
...lor that made the woman despise it so very much. By being able to understand the various meanings behind the wallpaper the reader is able to fully comprehend the narrative behind the entire story and why her mental health keeps diminishing. The ending of the story reveals that the woman no longer only saw the woman in the walls at night; she began to believe that she actually was said woman.