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The Yellow Wallpaper, Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is comprised as an assortment of journal entries written in first person, by a woman who has been confined to a room by her physician husband who he believes suffers a temporary nervous depression, when she is actually suffering from postpartum depression. He prescribes her a “rest cure”. The woman remains anonymous throughout the story. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in the room, and engages in some outrageous imaginations towards the wallpaper. Gilman’s story depicts women’s struggle of independence and individuality at the rise of feminism, as well as a reflection of her own life and experiences.
During that time, Mental illness and depression was not generally understood. Outspoken women were diagnosed with "hysteria" and put on bed rest. The woman gradually goes insane when she is put on bed rest for all hours of everyday. It is a criticism of a medical practice that was created solely for women, which is one reason for it being considered a feminist story. She was thought to be delicate and predisposed to emotional outbreaks. The story explains that the bed rest and the views that supplement such a practice, is what makes women hysterical.
Gilman’s narration advocates the slow development into insanity and growing frustration that accompanies it. With each entry the woman writes, it was apparent as to how her mental pain she endured was taking over her mind and behavior as the days passed. “This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then. But in the places where it isn’t faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a stra...
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Wallpaper."' Studies in Short Fiction 26 (1989): 521-530.
"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’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
When first reading the gothic feminist tale, “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, one might assume this is a short story about a women trying to save her sanity while undergoing treatment for postpartum depression. Gilman herself had suffered post-natal depression and was encouraged to undergo the “rest cure” to cure her hysteria. The treatment prescribed to Gilman resulted in her having a very similar experience as the narrator in the short story. The “perfect rest” (648), which consisted of forced bed rest and isolation sparked the inspiration for “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This story involving an unreliable narrator, became an allegory for repression of women. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman illustrates the seclusion and oppression of women in the nineteenth century society by connecting the female imprisonment, social and mental state, and isolation to the objects in and around the room.
The narrator is afflicted with temporary nervous depression. She makes it evident that this affliction is due to her repression by her husband, John. He has total control over her thoughts and feelings, her health, and over her life. He does not take her seriously and laughs at her but, in this society, “one expects that”. (Gilman 1) He controls every aspect of her life. He forces her to stay in a room which she despises, and consequently, drives her insane. Gilman builds up the story to convey her feelings of the repercussions a woman faces in total supervision and domination by a man. She follows her husband’s counsel of total bed rest, but deep within her, she knows this will be her destruction. However, as characteristic of a woman of this time period, she obediently accommodates the demands of the man. This leaves her no choice, but to subject herself to the anguish of being totally alone in a room with ghastly yellow wallpaper.
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.
As people know from her life, Gilman had psychological issues during her life. In addition to that, she wrote a short the short story that is called “ The Yellow Wallpaper” where she talked from a view of a woman who is having psychological problems in her
Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells her readers the story of a woman desperate to be free. Gilman’s use of symbolism is nothing short of brilliant in telling the story of a new mother suffering from postpartum depression and fighting her way through societies ideas of what a woman should be. When her husband, John, also known as her physician, tells her nothing is wrong with her mind, at first she believes him because she knows that society tells her she should. However, with her husband’s misdiagnosis, or attempt to keep his wife sane for the sake of their reputation, comes a short journey into madness for his wife, Jane. Jane’s downward spiral, as one may call it, turns out to be not so downward when the reader
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a woman who suffered greatly from depression. Her husband and mother persuaded her to see a specialist in women’s “nervous disorders” that prescribed a “rest cure”. Her battle of depression became a key influence in her literary work. Gilman writes “The Yellow-Wallpaper” portraying a narrator who is constantly battling her own entrapment but builds a one-on-one relationship with the “trapped women” inside the wallpaper who symbolizes what the narrator is feeling inside of her head. The narrator conceives the illusion of a trapped woman, who represents herself, in her time of confinement whom she confides in and tries to control in order to gain her freedom from the entrapment of her husband.
On page 322, she tries to convince her husband that the treatment is not working, but he does not listen and just tells her to go to sleep.... ... middle of paper ... ... Gilman mainly used the setting to support her themes.
Women find true happiness in taking care of their families and living a simple and uncomplicated life. “The Yellow Wall-paper” follows the mental deterioration of the female narrator, who recently gave birth. She has been advised to relax, eat healthy and exercise so her health will improve. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper” exposed the danger the antiquated belief had on women in the 19th century. Gilman’s use of the yellow wallpaper illustrates a physical manifestation of the narrators descent into madness as she follows her husband’s and doctor’s advice to rest.
In Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, she writes about a woman who suffers from temporary nervous depression as diagnosed by her overbearing husband, who is a doctor. The husband, John, is condescending towards his wife when she questions his diagnosis. Therefore, to get away from the confinement of not being able to speak for herself, the woman secretly writes in her journal as a sense of relief. The woman becomes fascinated and engrossed with the yellow wallpaper that hangs in her bedroom. She comes to the realization that a woman is trapped inside the wallpaper so she must tear it down to set the woman free. The act of tearing down the wallpaper alludes to the fact that the narrator feels she
The Yellow Wallpaper” is a widely anthologized short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman was an advocate for women’s rights and a social reformer. This story was published in 1892, a time when women were often belittled and considered to be inferior to their husbands. The woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” also feels inferior to her husband because of the way he treats her and controls her actions. The woman believes she knows what is best for her mental and physical help, but her husband will not allow her to do what she wants. She has been diagnosed with postpartum depression, so she is forced to stay in the same room with very little interaction with other people. The woman, whose name is never revealed, becomes fixated and obsessed with
Women are not given jobs that require higher level thinking or any hard labor. Women's opinions do not matter, and their husbands speak for them. The narrator fits into her traditional gender role at the beginning of the story by listening what her husband tells her to do although she disagrees. She does not try to argue with him because she knows her arguments will be wasted on him; instead, she disobeys him secretly because she knows she will be in trouble if she is caught. She constantly submits because she knows she is supposed to, and her submission leads to her insanity. “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out,” (Gilman 5). The narrator has gone insane and sees herself wanting to break free from the chains that keep her bound to her gender. At the end of the story, the narrator breaks free of the prison society has put her in, and defies her gender roles and
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, serves as one of the earliest forms of a feminist publication by a female author. The morbid and somewhat twisted story of a woman suffering from postpartum depression in the 1890’s exemplifies a descrete societal critique of the stereotypical female role and culturally accepted domestic sphere, which can be identified after close and careful analysis of Gilman’s work. Although she provided explanation and extension after the story’s publication regarding how her piece came about, Gilman’s feminist opinions are aparent in her writing without further discussion of her personal identification with the protagonist. The textual structure of the piece, lack of specific detail, and symbolism
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator and her husband John can be seen as strong representations of the effects society’s stereotypical gender roles as the dominant male and submissive female have within a marriage. Because John’s wife takes on the role as the submissive female, John essentially controlled all aspects of his wife’s life, resulting in the failure of the couple to properly communicate and understand each other. The story is intended to revolve around late 19th century America, however it still occurs today. Most marriages still follow the traditional gender stereotypes, potentially resulting in a majority of couples to uphold an unhealthy relationship or file for divorce. By comparing the “The yellow wallpaper” with the article “Eroticizing Inequality in the United States: The Consequences and Determinants of Traditional Gender Role Adherence in Intimate Relationships”, the similarities between the 19th century and 21st century marriage injustice can further be examined. If more couples were able to separate the power between the male and female, America would have less unhappy marriages and divorces.