Throughout most of history women have been considered to be submissive and weaker than men. Wifehood and motherhood has been viewed amongst women's most meaningful calling to some people. In the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" author Charlotte Perkins Gilman interprets her own struggle to overcome subordination and dependency to her husband who is also a physician. Through her emotional instability and her trapped mind set, Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" suggests that to find freedom within oneself, like many trapped women in the world, one must liberate the mind and spirit before one can truly be free. The social isolation between Gilman and others in this short story is seen in her deserted upstairs bedroom. Between the atrocious yellow wallpaper and her inability to better her emotinal status, Gilman represented issues that many …show more content…
Just this nervous weakness I suppose" (222). Trying to escape from what she thought was a nursery room not knowing it was clear that this room full of bars and unattractive wallpaper was a room fitted for someone with her condition. As I read on it wasn't until later on in the story that I realized Gilman was considerably depressed and discouraged. "I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time" (220). Throughout American history, woman have been frowned upon for not being exceptional mothers. As a result many woman have suffered from post pardum depression. It is unfortunate that a first time mother is expected to know exactly how to deal with the new responsibility of caring for a child for the first time. For example, a woman who has worked a full time job and has been solely reliable for taking care of only herself is now faced with a complete new life where she has to stay home and care not only for herself, but another human being. For many years woman have been expected to understand and perform "wife" duties as well as obide to those with dominance and higher
Being left alone for long periods of time can certainly mess with a person’s way of thinking. Isolation can often lead to insanity as you are alone with your thoughts and are able to go deep into exploring your mind. Someone with an unstable state of mind needs to express themself rather than being secluded, because this leads to them being in a state of forced inactivity which is destined for self-destruction. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses irony, symbolism, and epiphany to show how the narrator’s fragile state of mind can easily be altered by isolating her.
Charlotte Gilman’s work The Yellow Wallpaper is an incredible scheme that keeps the whole story the author wants to present behind the outer one the story of a demented woman kept in a nursing house. The fundamental idea about the outer surface and the inner essence covered by it is both implemented into the structure and expressed by the message of the story. The recount of the psychological metamorphosis that the character undergoes is hidden behind the matter-of-a-fact story about a mad woman and her visions in a gloomy room with yellow paper on the walls. The understanding of the mental recovery the character experiences is contingent on the reader s ability to distinguish between the cover and the essence below it as applied in the structure of the story.
desire to free this narrator from her husband and the rest of the males in her life. She wanted company, activity and stimulation. Which woman of that time or this time should be freely allowed to have. Gilman did an outstanding job of illustrating the position of women of that time, and to an extent, of this time as well, held in their society.
Madness is one of the key themes in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is presented in a way that makes the work of literature a very diverse short story. Although madness isn’t the only theme, it helps the reader better understand many of the other themes in the story. For example, gender inequality, freedom, and confinement. All of these topics can be analyzed through the idea of madness in the story. When I first read this short story I was looking at it through a narrow view of madness and insanity. However, when I read the story again in another course, it allowed me to look at the other themes in this story and analyze them. Because of this I was able to notice things about the story that I had not encountered before. This is why “The Yellow Wallpaper” became one of the most interesting works I have read this semester.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a well-known feminist at the times when she wrote the story. And the fact that she went through the same thing as the narrator of the story, makes Gilman’s story even more interesting to read (366). “The Yellow Wallpaper” points out men’s power over women, and the risks of women’s complete reliance and belief on a male understanding and analysis of their needs and problems, which generally have negative effects on women (366). This can be seen in the story, when John misdiagnoses his wife’s sickness, and causes her to suffer more and go insane at the end; and when at the same time, the new mom’s helplessness, and weakness towards her husband and his decisions since she does –and has to do- everything he tells her to do. She can’t fight back and tell him that she wants to see a psychologist to get a better treatment or she can’t tell him that she believes she would get better if she worked and exercised (Gilman 367).
What is it truly like to be alone? Is being alone good for you? Does it have benefits? People need to have a face to face interaction daily in order for our brains to stay in shape. We need to have someone to talk to to keep our brains thinking about what they are saying and what we are going to say back. Without that, our mind shuts down and goes to “another world”. Isolation affects many people nation wide. Being isolated has negative health effects, such as hallucinations and high levels of stress.
In literature, women are often depicted as weak, compliant, and inferior to men. The nineteenth century was a time period where women were repressed and controlled by their husband and other male figures. Charlotte Gilman, wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper," showing her disagreement with the limitations that society placed on women during the nineteenth century. According to Edsitement, the story is based on an event in Gilman’s life. Gilman suffered from depression, and she went to see a physician name, Silas Weir Mitchell. He prescribed the rest cure, which then drove her into insanity. She then rebelled against his advice, and moved to California to continue writing. She then wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which is inflated version of her experience. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the main character is going through depression and she is being oppressed by her husband and she represents the oppression that many women in society face. Gilman illustrates this effect through the use of symbols such as the yellow wallpaper, the nursery room, and the barred windows.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" has been viewed as a narrative study of Gilman’s own depression and nervousness. The narrator of the story and Gilman are very similar as they both reached for medical help. The Yellow Wallpaper was written in a time of great change. During the early to mid-nineteenth century domestic ideology positioned woman as the sacred and principled leaders of their home. Gilman would advocate other roles for women which Gilman thought should be much more equal economically, socially and politically with men. She argued that women should have the same rights and also be financially independent from men, which Gilman showed by promoting this. The Yellow Wallpaper is more than just a story of
Her depression influenced a lot in her way of think and writing. She used her experience as the basis of the short story in which she was trying to show the society the inhumanity and injustice to woman. It is important to restate that in the 1890 women were more seem as a housekeeper. It is why Gilman considered they were trying to isolate her from the real world. Nowadays, The depression has affected many people around the world but the cure is not to keep people away from others. Instead, it is recommended to share with
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.
The story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about control. In the late 1800's, women were looked upon as having no effect on society other than bearing children and keeping house. It was difficult for women to express themselves in a world dominated by males. The men held the jobs, the men held the knowledge, the men held the key to the lock known as society - or so they thought. The narrator in "The Wallpaper" is under this kind of control from her husband, John. Although most readers believe this story is about a woman who goes insane, it is actually about a woman’s quest for control of her life.
"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 -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?" (Gilman 1). Many women in the 1800's and 1900's faced hardship when it came to standing up for themselves to their fathers, brothers and then husbands. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", is married to a physician, who rented a colonial house for the summer to nurse her back to health after her husband thinks she has neurasthenia, but actually suffers from postpartum depression. He suggested the 'rest cure'. She should not be doing any sort of mental or major physical activity, her only job was to relax and not worry about anything. Charlotte was a writer and missed writing. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is significant to literature in the sense that, the author addresses the issues of the rest cure that Dr. S. Weir Mitchell prescribed for his patients, especially to women with neurasthenia, is ineffective and leads to severe depression. This paper includes the life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in relation to women rights and her contribution to literature as one of her best short story writings.
Women have struggled for decades to carve out their place in society, but before they could do that they were tasked with standing their ground in their own marriages. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a journalist, feminist and women’s rights activist who used her writing to shed light on women’s unequal status in the institution of marriage. In Gilman’s time it was a social norm that women were concerned only with the domestic trappings of the marriage, while the husband took the active role. In Gilman’s most famous short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman uses a captivating plot, the symbolism of some frustrating wallpaper, and an overall theme of the importance of self expression to articulate the sometimes harmful aspects of a woman’s place
Women have been taught that they are inferior to men and because of this, many have developed low self-esteem and mental illnesses. Depriving one of many basic rights while also telling them that they are the lesser gender can severely damage one psychologically. Charlotte Perkins Gilman challenged the mental abuse towards women in her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Perkins Gilman highlighted how men and even other women made women out to be lesser creatures than men. The main character, Jane, is pent up in a room by the hands of her husband and brother to “cure” her. She is looked after by her sister-in-law, Jeannie, and after being confined and not allowed to do anything productive, her sanity breaks. This story illustrates the harmful mental effects of centuries of women being socially confined and oppressed.
Gilman uses “The Yellow Wallpaper” to illustrate the control man has over women in modern day society. The wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper” goes through a nervous depression during the short story. Gilman never really comes out and states the reasons behind the wife’s mental condition, but throughout the short story she constantly makes references to the woman’s sense of inferiority to her husband, John. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, John is used to represent all men and their feelings toward women. Although men do not consciously take control over females’ live, they still do. It has always been man’s nature to take charge and be the dominant gender.