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“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was originally read and interpreted as a horror story but from the authors perspective, it was an accurate representation of the troubles most women of her time period went through. It's also considered the The text is most commonly viewed from a feminist and a psychoanalytical perspective which brings to light the apparent symbolism within the story as well as digging beneath the wallpaper and understanding the purpose behind the story.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story about a nineteenth-century white, middle-class woman, but it addresses “woman's” situation in so far as women as a group must still contend with male power in medicine, marriage, and indeed most, if not all, of culture.” (Hedges, 231) During the late 19th century when “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written, society was run predominately by men. Men set the standards for women with their ideals of “True Womanhood”, expecting the women in their lives to express such virtues as purity, piety, domesticity and submissiveness. Of course, strong-willed and independently thinking women like Gilman seemed to be ahead of her time and realized most medicine practices like the rest cure were mainly a way to make sure that the woman remained submissive to her husband. She portrayed this idea through the narrator and protagonist figure of “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
“Gilman projects mental derangement onto a familiar literary figure, a middle class wife and mother. She places the source of madness in the sacrosanct sphere for dutiful women-the home. ” (Golden) By placing the narrator in a familiar setting and in a familiar scenario to most women at the time, Gilman conveys to her audience the reality of the situation of the potent...
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...from any forms of strenuous physical activity, prolonged socialization and any kind of creative outlet like writing in the case of “The Yellow Wallpaper”'s narrator. Instead, they were encouraged to rest over a period of time with the idea that the bed rest and isolation would cure them.
Our narrators husband, John, was a medical professional who prescribed the narrator with a rest cure to treat what we now know as post-partum depression.
“For many years I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia--and beyond...I went, in devout faith and some faint stir of hope, to a noted specialist in nervous diseases... This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, to which he concluded there was nothing much the matter with me, and sent me home with solemn advice to "live as domestic a life as far as possible,"...” (Gilman)
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman has carefully crafted her sentences and metaphors to instill a picture of lurid and creepy male oppression. The surface of the text contains clues about Gilman’s perceptions of the treatment and roles of women, the narrator stumbling over words like “phosphates”, her being uncertain whether the correct term was “phosphates or phosphites” (Gilman 1684), which clearly shows that in her time women had been overlooked in education and because for a time, only men had that privilege, they were able to learn what they had to in order to earn jobs, which is illustrated in her husband and her brother both being “a physician of high standing” (Gilman 1684). The character Gilman has set up has the qualities and traits of the Victorian woman...
"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.
"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 temporarily nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency - what is one to do?"
Mitchell’s rest cure. The reader follows the chronological, first-person accounts of the narrator as she goes through her treatment, and although it only contains traces of autobiography from the author, the story gives an inventive and complex look at the inefficiencies and the opposite effects the treatment had on its patients. Through a lack of self-trust, a gradual increase in paranoia, and the personal relationship developed with the ominous figure in the wallpaper, Gilman’s narrator displays the ineffectiveness of the Rest Cure’s sedentary lifestyle.
Both the narrator and Mrs. Marroner are searching for peace in her male conquered world. The narrator of the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is symbolic for all women in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, a prisoner of a confining society. Just like society, her husband, John, controls and determines much of what his wife should or should not do, leaving her incapable of making her own decisions. Because he is a man and a physician of high standing, she accepts his orders. When reflecting on men’s behavior, Hausman said, “Gilman tried to prove that what the men think is a biologically ordained pattern of behavior was, in fact, a convention specifically related to their society and the biohistorical organization of human culture” (Hausman). Men treated their wives poorly because that is what they experienced in previous generations. Repression of women’s rights in society stereotype that women are fragile. Men believed they should not work and be discouraged from intell...
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story told from the first person point of view of a doctor's wife who has nervous condition. The first person standpoint gives the reader access only to the woman’s thoughts, and thus, is limited. The limited viewpoint of this story helps the reader to experience a feeling of isolation, just as the wife feels throughout the story. The point of view is also limited in that the story takes places in the present, and as a result the wife has no benefit of hindsight, and is never able to actually see that the men in her life are part of the reason she never gets well. This paper will discuss how Gilman’s choice of point of view helps communicate the central theme of the story- that women of the time were viewed as being subordinate to men. Also, the paper will discuss how ignoring oneself and one’s desires is self-destructive, as seen throughout the story as the woman’s condition worsens while she is in isolation, in the room with the yellow wallpaper, and her at the same time as her thoughts are being oppressed by her husband and brother.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the reader is treated to an intimate portrait of developing insanity. At the same time, the story's first person narrator provides insight into the social attitudes of the story's late Victorian time period. The story sets up a sense of gradually increasing distrust between the narrator and her husband, John, a doctor, which suggests that gender roles were strictly defined; however, as the story is just one representation of the time period, the examination of other sources is necessary to better understand the nature of American attitudes in the late 1800s. Specifically, this essay will analyze the representation of women's roles in "The Yellow Wallpaper" alongside two other texts produced during this time period, in the effort to discover whether Gilman's depiction of women accurately reflects the society that produced it.
Women have been mistreated, enchained and dominated by men for most part of the human history. Until the second half of the twentieth century, there was great inequality between the social and economic conditions of men and women (Pearson Education). The battle for women's emancipation, however, had started in 1848 by the first women's rights convention, which was led by some remarkable and brave women (Pearson Education). One of the most notable feminists of that period was the writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was also one of the most influential feminists who felt strongly about and spoke frequently on the nineteenth-century lives for women. Her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" characterizes the condition of women of the nineteenth century through the main character’s life and actions in the text. It is considered to be one of the most influential pieces because of its realism and prime examples of treatment of women in that time. This essay analyzes issues the protagonist goes through while she is trying to break the element of barter from her marriage and love with her husband. This relationship status was very common between nineteenth-century women and their husbands.
This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, to which a still good physique responded so promptly that he concluded there was nothing much the matter with me, and sent me home with solemn advice to ‘live as domestic a life as far as possible’, to ‘have but two hours’ intellectual life a day’ and ‘never to touch pen, brush or pencil again’ as long...
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, The Yellow Wallpaper we are introduced to characters that can be argued to be representational of society in the 19th century. The narrator, wife to a seemingly prominent doctor, gives us a vision into the alienation and loss of reality due to her lack of labor. I also contend however that this alienation can also be attributed to her infantilization by her husband, which she willingly accepts. "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage" (1). The narrator here realizes her place among the order of society and even notes that it is to be expected. She is aware of her understanding that things between she and her husband are not equal not only because he is a doctor but because he is a man, and her husband.
The narrator is suffering from a mild depression that her physician husband has prescribed complete bed rest in order for her to recover. During their summer vacation, she is confined to a room at the top of the house where she can see the world passing her by day in and day out. Her brother who is also a physician concurs with her husband's prescription leaving her with no option but to succumb to the torment of being left alone in the room with the yellow wallpaper.
An additional factor that further proves the rest cure as a misogynistic medical practice is Mitchell’s prescription for male neurasthenic patients. While women were being forced into confinement and denied intellectual exercises, men were prescribed to go West and have an invigorating experience that refreshed both their mental and physical health. Though men were diagnosed with nervousness, it was regarded as a result of his superior intellect and an overtaxing of his highly evolved brain. Unlike women, men were meant to enter the professions and therefore needed to be invigorated both mentally and physically so that they could refresh the nervous system and return to work. Because Mitchell believed that under nervous stress “the strong man becomes like the average woman” he prescribed that his patients find
“The Yellow Wallpaper” was a groundbreaking piece for its time. It not only expressed feministic views through the defiance of a male but also discussed mental illness and the inefficacy of medical treatment at the time. This fictional piece questioned and challenged the submissive role forced upon women of the 19th century and disclosed some of the mental struggles one might go through during this time of questing. Gilman shows however that even in the most horrific struggle to overcome male dominance, it is possible. She herself escapes which again shows a feminist empowerment to end the
In The Yellow Wallpaper Gilman shows the true nature of a relationship in the 1800’s and how each genders role played in both the relationship and in society. As the story begins, both the narrator’s husband and brother, regard her as nervously depressed and hysterical. “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 what is one to do?” (Gilman, 35). The narrator’s feelings or actual understanding of what’s going on with herself, do...
"Gilman attached the nineteenth century's configuration of private space as woman's domain and its attendant generalizations about femininity. Gilman seeks to blur the distinction between private and public life. Gilman unflaggingly urged her audience to consider their logic in assigning women to the home. The composition of home life altered radically between the beginning and final decades of the nineteenth century" (17).