Charlotte Perkins Gilman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” develops the themes of Insanity through the use of a woman character who forcefully struggle during the late 1800’s. Insanity plays a significant role in this short story where Gilman tries to portray the women’s situation at that time. This story is based on a women’s life and she believes she is sick. She expects better mediation and treatment from her doctor husband. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell recommends her to choose a silent place to take complete bed rest that helps her to get well soon from her illness. But at the same time she wants proper treatment from her husband because she believe if her husband pay attention, she can get well soon. Gilman had own experienced with the same illness. …show more content…
Gilman also talks about the consequence of the “rest-cure” for depression that the treatment was not effective at all. John was trying to cure her anxiety, but driving his wife insane. In this short story there is lots of evidence tell us that she was upset and depressed and her husband was the reason for her sickness.
She said “You see he does not believe I am sick! What can one do?” (238). This quote revealed that the woman’s helplessness over the situations of her own life. She then adds that her husband is a doctor, he is an educated person and maybe he ignores her problems. She also knew that her husband’s expertise in medicine may be the reason that she is not getting well. She says, “I am glad my case is not serious!”(240). It is strongly clear that she is worried about her case is very serious. Her marriage and social expectation are the reasons for her illness because her husband is over controlling her and she is unable to express herself even could not think about herself. As a result, she could not make her own decisions because her husband creates situation to dependent on …show more content…
him. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a work of fiction, which allows readers to know about the 19th century women's life and they don’t have freedom to express themselves.
For these reasons she feels loneliness. It also discovers women’s role in society and how imaginary events connected to the real world. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the female character faces problems due to social norms of the 19th century expected women to act only as respectful wives and mother. At that time women had to stay at home and take care of their kids and stand as an obedient, and respectful wives. They were not allowed to study when men took care of having a career and paying other household expenses. Women had pressure from their families to get married early and they did not have any other option because she is a woman in a male controlled society. She did not agree to take this kind of treatment, but she could not tell her husband. When people cannot do what they want to do or cannot, express their opinion, they get mentally depressed. I think staying in a room or resting in bed all day was not the best treatment for a woman who is suffering from depression. If she communicate with outside of the world or live around the people, it would be the best treatment for her recovery. But she is actually forced to hide her anxieties from her husband because John takes all of her decisions and she did not like it. She was not able to express her emotions and feelings to her husband. She was only able to express
her irritation, anxiety, and sadness inside the wallpaper. She has only this freedom. Moreover, she was not allowed to write even she was not allowed to take care her baby. Therefore, she spent her most of the day in that room without doing anything except look at the wall. If she keeps busy herself in the writing that helps her to keep active physically and mentally and she can be independent. If a person has nothing to do, her life would be miserable. The house in “The Yellow Wallpaper” represents that she feels lonely because she is not allowed to go outside and cannot talk with any one. John is the only person in the house that she can talk to. John create an environment like a prison. The house is prison for her and her husband’s painful treatment make worse, her mental condition, because this treatment isolating her from the outside of the world. If a mentally healthy person placed in this situation, she will lose her mind. She said that “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad”(239). John always upset her, it affects her mentally and there is ongoing tension between the main character and her husband. For these reasons, she feels depressed. She feels their relationship is not working but she wanted to save her marriage.
While on vacation for the summer, the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is, at the most, depressed at the beginning of their visit to a colonial mansion. Her husband John, however, thinks there is nothing wrong with her except temporary nervous depression (pg 391) and has her confined to a bedroom upstairs. I believe John loves her very much and is trying to help her get well, but he won’t believe there is an illness unless he can read about it or see something physical with his own eyes. "He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures." (pg 391) During the time of this writing it was the norm that men dominated women. Women were to be seen but not heard. They were not to argue with men, so she was forced to do as he said. Her husband has forbidden her to "work" until she is well again. (pg 392) She is held prisoner in her bedroom and has nothing to do to keep her mind active except stare at the wallpaper, although she did sneak in writing in her journal when possible.
She was placed in this treatment called the “rest cure” that made her somewhat like a prisoner. She started to slowly decrease into psychosis due to her husband’s treatment, the environment, and the way society has treated her illness. The love the husband felt for his wife and the fear he had of losing her lead him to treat her in questionable ways. He placed her in environment that made her feel trapped and aided to her reduction in sanity. Ann Oakley in her article, “Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper” discusses how important this story truly is. Oakley talks about the gender differences and the harm that it can bring to a society. This treatment was acceptable and normal for the situation because society has taught him and her that it was normal. Even if the protagonist’s husband meant well the treatment she was placed in for depression lead her to have more psychological damage, increasing her insanity more each
“The Yellow Wallpaper” speaks of a woman who struggled of more than mere insanity, but also the pressures of life. Her life continuously seemed to weigh her down and she felt trapped by what was expected of her along with her mental disease. Her environment, marital relationship, and desire to escape her illness thrust Jane deeper into insanity. In the end Jane finds a way to truly escape her disease.
When a person attempts to control someone else’s life, it only reflects the lack of control they have on their own. My mother always used to tell me “don’t let someone change who you are, to become what they need.” After reading the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman I thought of my mother’s saying. This short story is very interesting. It begins by the perspective of a women who is suffering from temporary nervous depression. The narrator begins by describing a huge mansion that she and her husband, John, have rented for the summer. John is a mysterious man who is also a physician. Their move into the country is partially motivated by his desire to expose his suffering wife to its clean air and calm life so she
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.
“There are things in that paper which nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous. And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder—I begin to think—I wish John would take me away from here!” The late 19th century hosted a hardship for women in our society. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman expressed a form of patriarchy within the story. Gilman never addressed the woman in the “The Yellow Wallpaper” by a name, demonstrating her deficiency of individual identity. The author crafted for the narrator to hold an insignificant role in civilization and to live by the direction of man. Representing a hierarchy between men and women in the 19th century, the wallpaper submerged the concentration of the woman and began compelling her into a more profound insanity.
"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.
Finally, the yellow wallpaper presents perspectives of how men control females. As stated previously, In the story, John uses his power as a doctor to control his wife. He encaged his wife in a summer home, placing her in a room filled with barricades and many faults. As a human she is deprived of her rights and her ability to form house duties is taken away so she can rest as he calls it. Without a doubt, she fell into insanity because of the situation she was placed in. When she ripped the paper off the wall, it was a sign of freedom from her husband, and the bars that held her captive for weeks. Certainly she has a vivid imagination and being placed in bondage and unable to write which in turn lead her to mental health problems.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a self-told story about a woman who approaches insanity. The story examines the change in the protagonist's character over three months of her seclusion in a room with yellow wallpaper and examines how she deals with her "disease." Since the story is written from a feminist perspective, it becomes evident that the story focuses on the effect of the society's structure on women and how society's values destruct women's individuality. In "Yellow Wallpaper," heroine's attempt to free her own individuality leads to mental breakdown.
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
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.
The Yellow Wallpaper is a very astonishing story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that daringly reaches out to explore the mental state of a woman whose mind eventually begins to be broken down to a state of insanity by the appearance of a creeping woman who is trapped behind a revolting yellow wallpaper. This short story takes a look at the causes of the narrator’s insanity by how she was confined in a house alone, trapped with only her mind and a dull wallpaper; while dealing with depression and consuming strong
In seeing the story through the wife's eyes, we can see that her mental illness in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is inevitable. Between society's view of women at that time, the husband's attitude towards her, and his ineffective remedies, the wife's mental instability can only grow worse. The wallpaper lets the reader follow the woman's regression into insanity as the story progresses. Only with the first person point of view (the wife's) can the reader follow this regression of the mind. All in all, this is a sad story of a woman's struggle for sanity in an indifferent society.
The woman behind this work of literature portrays the role of women in the society during that period of time. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a well written story describing a woman who suffers from insanity and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The author uses her own experience to criticize male domination of women during the nineteenth century. Although the story was written fifty years ago, "The Yellow Wallpaper" still brings a clear message how powerless women were during that time.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper in 1890 about her experience in a psychiatric hospital. The doctor she had prescribed her “the rest cure” to get over her condition (Beekman). Gilman included the name of the sanitarium she stayed at in the piece as well which was named after the doctor that “treated” her. The short story was a more exaggerated version of her month long stay at Weir Mitchell and is about a woman whose name is never revealed and she slowly goes insane under the watch of her doctor husband and his sister (The Yellow Wallpaper 745). Many elements of fiction were utilized by Gilman in this piece to emphasize the theme freedom and confinement. Three of the most important elements are symbolism, setting and character.