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Literary analysis the yellow wallpaper
Literary analysis of yellow wallpaper
Literary analysis essay on the yellow wallpaper
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In Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the reader gets a detailed view of the insanity that consumes the narrator and watches her journey in coping with this madness and in freeing herself. Gilman is very particular about her usage of words in describing the yellow wallpaper. The use of words like “creepy”, “repellent”, “smoldering”, “atrocious”, and “foul” convey a clear picture to the reader how the narrator may be feeling. The strips of yellow wallpaper are plastered unevenly around her room, and she is eventually led to tear apart bits of the paper. The narrator describes the wallpaper as “bloated”, in that it is on the verge of exploding. The reader can assume that the narrator feels bloated in a similar sense. She also describes the pattern as one that “flourishes – a kind of …show more content…
‘debased Romanesque’ with delirium tremens – [which] go waddling up and down in isolated columns of fatuity”.
“Flourishes” implies that there exists an underlying freedom, meaning the narrator can possibly escape. The wallpaper may have once been beautiful, but has since been tampered with, and has lost its beauty, explaining her outlook of it being “debased Romanesque”. The wallpaper follows what the narrator understands as “delirium tremens”, which is Latin for a “shaking frenzy”. It is most commonly used in the context of the extreme reaction somebody has after their withdrawal from alcohol. Again, this implies that the wallpaper was beautiful during one period of time, but ended up causing the narrator to go crazy. The curves “waddle” across the wall, giving it an infant-like, or even animal-like characteristic. It doesn’t follow a particular pattern, and the narrator meanders around her room the same way the wallpaper is personified as randomly wandering. The pattern is situated in “isolated columns of fatuity”. The fact that the narrator describes it as stupid foolishness (like that of an immature child) shows the true captivity she is suffering
through. The narrator lives in this foolish isolation as well, so it can be argued that she is living inside of the yellow wallpaper and is trying to free herself. Her steady yet persistent efforts lead to her insanity. The madness that encloses the narrator is one that consumes her, but Gilman’s language suggests that she is trying to battle it, which explains her ripping apart her wallpaper. She feels ripped apart and is curious to see what is hiding behind the paper. The language Gilman uses perfectly encompasses the narrator and her feelings towards everyone and everything around her.
would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, through expressive word choice and descriptions, allows the reader to grasp the concepts she portrays and understand the way her unnamed narrator feels as the character draws herself nearer and nearer to insanity. “The Yellow Wallpaper” begins with the narrator writing in a journal about the summer home she and her husband have rented while their home is being remodeled. In the second entry, she mentions their bedroom which contains the horrendous yellow wallpaper. After this, not one day goes by when she doesn’t write about the wallpaper. She talks about the twisting, never-ending pattern; the heads she can see hanging upside-down as if strangled by it; and most importantly the
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
“The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a woman who is trapped in a room covered in yellow wallpaper. The story is one that is perplexing in that the narrator is arguably both the protagonist as well as the antagonist. In the story, the woman, who is the main character, struggles with herself indirectly which results in her descent into madness. The main conflicts transpires between the narrator and her husband John who uses his power as a highly recognize male physician to control his wife by placing limitations on her, forcing her to behave as a sick woman. Hence he forced himself as the superior in their marriage and relationship being the sole decision make. Therefore it can be said what occurred externally resulted in the central conflict of” “The Yellow Wallpaper being internal. The narrator uses the wallpaper as a symbol of authenticy. Hence she internalizes her frustrations rather then openly discussing them.
Throughout the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the reader can identify how the narrator’s interpretation of the yellow wallpapers changes as she became mad and fixated on the pattern hidden within. As the story progresses, the viewer can discover how the wallpaper becomes significant to the narrator, through her fascination with the ostensibly formless model, and urge to figure out what it means. The pattern within the unsettling yellow wallpaper is a vital symbol within the text because as the narrator’s interpretation of the pattern changes, the wallpaper figuratively begins to reflect how she feels trapped. The narrator’s obsession with the patterned wallpaper
...chniques that Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses in "The Yellow Wallpaper" to suggest that a type of loneliness (in women) caused by imprisoning oppression can lead to the deadliest form of insanity. By using setting, Gilman shows how the barred windows intensifies the young woman's imprisoning oppression, the isolated summer home represents the loneliness the young woman feels, and her hallucinations of the wallpaper pattern indicates her transition to insanity. Wallpaper symbolism is used throughout the story the pattern representing the strangling nature of the imprisoning oppression, the fading yellow color showing the fading away of the young woman, and the hovering smell representing the deadly insanity to which she succumbs. Like the darkness that quickly consumes, the imprisoning loneliness of oppression swallows its victim down into the abyss of insanity.
Although both protagonists in the stories go through a psychological disorder that turns their lives upside down, they find ways to feel content once again. In Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a nervous wife, an overprotective husband, and a large, damp room covered in musty wallpaper all play important roles in driving the wife insane. Gilman's masterful use of not only the setting, both time and place, but also of first person point of view, allows the reader to process the woman's growing insanity. The narrator develops a very intimate relationship with the yellow wallpaper throughout the story, as it is her constant companion. Her initial reaction to it is a feeling of hatred; she dislikes the color and despises the pattern, but does not attribute anything peculiar to it. Two weeks into their stay she begins to project a sort of personality onto the paper, so she studies the pattern more closely, noticing for the first time “a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design” (Gilman). At this point, her madness is vague, but becoming more defined, because although the figure that she sees behind the pattern has no solid shape, she dwells on it and
The “Yellow Wall Paper “ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a chilling study and experiment of mental disorder in nineteenth century. This is a story of a miserable wife, a young woman in anguish, stress surrounding her in the walls of her bedroom and under the control of her husband doctor, who had given her the treatment of isolation and rest. This short story vividly reflects both a woman in torment and oppression as well as a woman struggling for self expression.
She describes the color of the wallpaper as “a smouldering unclean yellow” with “a sickly sulphur tint.” The depiction is evocative of urine, which would be inescapable in a house with a baby in the late 19th century, without the luxury of disposable diapers. The smell would permeate the home, but although the narrator’s baby is a reasonable source of this “peculiar odor,” she attributes it to the wallpaper. The protagonist’s description of this particular aspect of the setting indicates a persistent, if subconscious, regard for her baby. She provides imagery with similar connotations when she describes a portion of the wallpaper where “the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down,” similar to the lolling head of an infant. Gilman’s inclusion of these descriptions of the surroundings reveals the guilt the narrator feels for “not [doing her] duty in any way.” She is unable to attend to her child due to her nervousness, but all the same, she regrets her failure to fulfill her expected roles in the family. Through the author’s use of setting, she clarifies the narrator’s sense of shame due to her roles as an absentee mother to her “dear baby” and a “comparative burden” to
Evidence of Gilman's life experiences can be seen all throughout the story. The main character in the story, a slightly neurotic woman, is married to a prominent physician. This husband refuses to believe anything is wrong with his wife's health simply because her physical health is intact. Thus, he prescribes for his wife nothing more than relaxation and cessation of her writings. This character clearly correlates to the doctor who "treated" Gilman for her nervous breakdown. The description of the room and the wallpaper is clearly crucial to the story as a whole. The room itself is described as large and airy, with windows facing towards a "delicious garden." The wallpaper does not fit the room at all. It is a repulsive, pale yellow color. The description of the wallpaper seems to function metaphorically. The wallpaper becomes much more detailed and much more of a fixture in the main characters life as the story progresses. The wallpaper essentially takes on a life of its own. This progression seems to represent mental illness itself. As mental illness progresses, it becomes much more whole and enveloping. Gilman attempts to represent the depth of mental illness through the wallpaper. For example, the woman in the story comes to the conclusion that there is a woman in the wallpaper behind the pattern.
The house and property are seen as positive only when the narrator first describes them. Gilman uses the imagery to create an air of suspense and insinuates the narrator’s coming fall into insanity. The setting of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” in large part, leads to the narrator’s collapse. Almost instantly, the narrator’s already unstable mind perceives a ghostliness that begins to set her even more on edge.
This story is much more than a woman that is insane and is ignored by
The short story titled, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is given its name for no other reason than the disturbing yellow wallpaper that the narrator comes to hate so much; it also plays as a significant symbol in the story. The wallpaper itself can represent many various ideas and circumstances, and among them, the sense of feeling trapped, the impulse of creativity gone awry, and what was supposed to be a simple distraction transfigures into an unhealthy obsession. By examining the continuous references to the yellow wallpaper itself, one can begin to notice how their frequency develops the plot throughout the course of the story. As well as giving the reader an understanding as to why the wallpaper is a more adequate and appropriate symbol to represent the lady’s confinement and the deterioration of her mental and emotional health. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the color of the wallpaper symbolizes the internal and external conflicts of the narrator that reflect the expectations and treatment of the narrator, as well as represent the sense of being controlled in addition to the feeling of being trapped.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, there are three main factors that lead up to the mental breakdown of the narrator. The narrator in this story is a woman who wants more from life than being a housewife. These factors are, her “nervous depression” (p.1670) in the beginning, the lack of contact with anyone but her husband throughout their stay at the colonial mansion, and the fact that she is locked in a room with such an eerie feeling. These three factors combined is enough to cause anyone have a mental breakdown.
The Yellow Wallpaper is not just a short story. It was written from Gilman’s perspective with the purpose of telling people that being confined will only make a person more insane. But there’s got to be someone to blame, right? Well, seeing as Gilman was a feminist, it is only logical to blame the person that put her in the sanitarium, right? There’s a deeper meaning to The Yellow Wallpaper and she used symbolism, setting, and character to help the reader better understand this short piece.