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The role of women in literature
The role of women in literature
The role of women in literature
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In “The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes about a woman going through postpartum depression and the realities of what it does to her. She could have written about this particular type of illness because Gilman too went through postpartum depression and had similar feelings that the main character has. This depression not only put a strain on the narrator’s mental health, but also on the relationships she has with her husband and sister-in-law. Throughout the story, the reader gets a firsthand view of how a woman’s mental and physical health can start to unravel while not having any real love and support by those she is surrounded by during this time of need. While on the other hand, she goes through the constant battle of searching …show more content…
However, the reader must always keep in mind the time at which this piece was written and how these relationships exemplify the realities of personal relationships during this time era. Her relationship with John is dominated by him and is almost like she is the child. Without anyone to speak to about her true feelings and stresses, she writes, another thing she must hide from John and Jennie. The reader feels a sense of fear from the narrator, “there comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 78). Yet another sign of how he does not want his wife thinking for herself and doing what she pleases. When learning about the author and her background, her feminist side shows in this piece through examples like these. The true dark sides of marriage, the loneliness, and the female role of always being superior are portrayed perfectly in this short …show more content…
The narrator studies the wallpaper, watching how its colors change from sun up to sun down. It is only a matter of time for her to start seeing images behind its pattern. Once she starts seeing a woman in the walls, her mentality towards everything, even her husband and sister-in-law, starts changing. For example, she now thinks that they are the ones acting different, “he seems very queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an inexplicable look” (Gilman 84). At the end of the story, she finally has a mental breakdown. She fights to get the woman out of the walls, tearing off the paper and all. This woman in the walls seems to resemble the narrator, trapped, alone, and watching everything that goes on. The narrator even notes that she is freed from the walls saying, “I wonder if they all come out of the wallpaper as I did?” (Gilman 88). Freedom is a reoccurring theme throughout this story. It is the narrator trying to have her own mental and physical freedom, but she is held back by John. Finally, her tearing the wallpaper off, trying to catch the woman in it, and feeling the satisfaction is what really frees her in her own way. She no longer hides these thoughts from John. She shows them to him with no problem at all and in fact, is proud to show him. “’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 89). There are
In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman recounts, by means of Jane’s journal, the story of Jane and her husband John, following the birth of their baby. Like Gilman, Jane suffers from post-partum depression, and, her husband, who is a physician, locks her in the nursery on the top floor of their summer home. After the first few weeks of her summer in isolation, Jane hides her journal, which contains her true thoughts, so that John will be unaware of...
disorder by taking her away for the summer and placing her in an old house
In everyday day life we go through changes and sometimes we even break down to the point we do not know what to do with ourselves, but in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story” The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is an obsessive person. The story focuses on a woman who is going through postpartum depression and has had a nervous breakdown. Her husband John moves her into a home where he wants her to rest in isolation to recover from her disorder. Throughout her time in the room the narrator discovers new things and finally understands life.
Throughout the late 1800s Americans were workaholics, constantly working in order to make a living for their families at home. Women stayed home and took care of the house as well as the children. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in the late 1800s.The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is no stranger to the hysteria that took over women in the 19th century. According to Mary Ellen Snodgrass, after her own postpartum emotional collapse and treatment in 1887, Gilman knew about the situation women were experiencing (“Gilman”). All the pressure of working and raising children affected all Americans, but society blamed the nervous depression mainly on women because they were women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys her own life experience and illness that she went through and how women were treated during the 1800’s.
Charlotte Gilman’s essay, “The Yellow Wallpaper” describes the relationship between a husband and wife, dealing with the wife’s depression, and how her husband treats her because she is depressed.
In the "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes her postpartum depression through the character of Jane. Jane was locked up for bed rest and was not able to go outside to help alleviate her nervous condition. Jane develops an attachment to the wallpaper and discovers a woman in the wallpaper. This shows that her physical treatment is only leading her to madness. The background of postpartum depression can be summarized by the symptoms of postpartum depression, the current treatment, and its prevention. Many people ask themselves what happens if postpartum depression gets really bad or what increases their chances. Jane's treatment can show what can happen if it is not treated correctly. If Jane would have had different treatment, then she would not have gone insane.
"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.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to show how women’s mental illness is addressed in the time. Women were treated as the lesser or weaker sex. Women’s mental illness was highly misunderstood and misdiagnosed. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” illustrates a feminist approach to mental disease. Gilman uses this work to reach out to others to help them understand a woman’s treacherous descent into depression and psychosis. There are many contributing factors to the narrator’s illness and it is easy to see the effect the men have on her. Women were treated very differently and often outcast if they did not meet a certain norm. Mental illness is one of the main factors men believe
They both feel trapped within their own lives, emotionally and physically. She saw the woman in the wallpaper as a companion in her days of isolation and self-meditation, and she realized that she needed to break free of her husband’s expectations and live her life her desired way. This gave readers insight to the emotional tendencies of the main character and motivations from discovering the meaning of the intricate wallpaper design. This is achieved when she states, “I’ve got out at last in spite of you and Jane. I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!”
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 Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman tells the story of married white upper-class women who is striving to overcome her nervous depression with the aide of her domineering husband, John. To display her discomfort, Gilman relays, “If
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.
“John is so queer now, that I don’t want to irritate him. I wish he would take another room! Besides, I don’t want anybody to get that woman out at night but myself.”(Gilman) She is now imagining the woman out of the paper and creeping around outside. She wants to catch her even though there is no one to even catch, but she doesn’t know that. Her husband is at work all day which gives her the opportunity to creep around, explore and find this woman. Her husband John would suspect her of something if she left the room at night so she must do it during the day. This quote shows symbolism in relation to the fact that the woman in the paper is symbolizing the narrator wandering around outside. Moreover, she is clearly hallucinating about this woman in wallpaper. Her visibility of insanity is quite clear when the author says, “That was clever, for really I wasn’t alone a bit! As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her. I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper.” (Gilman) The narrator is imagining interactions that have occurred with the woman she sees in the wall. They begin to peel off all the paper, working together in her mind. She then begins to imagine the wallpaper laughing at her when the sun is out. It can be concluded that her husband should not be taking care of her because he is the sole reason she is insane in the first place. This quote demonstrates symbolism because the woman in the wall represents the psychotic state that the narrator’s husband has driven her to. With this in mind, the narrator becomes connected with the woman in the wall. “I have locked the door and thrown the key down into the front path. I don’t want to go out, and I don’t want to have anyone come in, till John comes. I want to astonish him. I’ve got a
“The Yellow Wallpaper:” a Symbol for Women As the narrator presents a dangerous and startling view into the world of depression, Charlotte Perkins Gilman introduces a completely revitalized way of storytelling using the classic elements of fiction. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” combines a multitude of story elements that cannot be replicated. Her vast use of adjectives and horrifying descriptions of the wallpaper bring together a story that is both frightening and intensely well told. Using the story’s few characters and remote setting, Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents the wallpaper as both a representation of the narrator and the story’s theme, as well as a symbol for her descent into the abyss of insanity. As the story opens, the suspiciously unnamed narrator and her husband, John, temporarily move into a new home (226).
At the end of the story, the woman says, ‘I don’t want to go outside. I won’t, even if Jennie asks me to’. The woman’s mind is restricted by this house and her husband’s support. Even if she gets a chance to escape, she won’t. Because comparing with the unknown and bleak reality out there, to be fed and took good care of sounds safer and more comfortable. Although she finds part of herself and her inferior position in the marriage during her discovery of the wallpaper, it is undeniable that she lacks the ability and courage to really leave the masculine family. That inability defines her partial sense of individuality and her tragic future life.