1. How does Gilman use the setting, her narrator 's "prison" upstairs, to represent the narrator 's predicament? What does her confinement tell us, if anything, about a woman 's position in society at the time of the story 's events?
In Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator’s setting in an environment similar to that of a prison helps represent the narrator’s powerlessness over herself and her medical care. In her description of the room, the narrator states, “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls” (Gilman), in addition to mentioning a gate at the top of the steps and a “great immovable bed” (Gilman). However, this unsettling description is eerily similar to that of a jail
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As readers know, the narrator was barred from doing any “exciting” or strenuous activities such as reading, writing, or even visiting family members. Therefore, the only “interesting” source of mental stimulation available to her was the yellow wallpaper in her “prison”, thus resulting in her increasing infatuation. The start of her obsession begins after John’s refusal to let the narrator move to another room, which is when readers first uncover her disgust towards the wallpaper, as shown when she writes, “No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long” (Gilman). But, her hatred doesn’t stop there, for after a failed attempt to persuade John to remove the wallpaper, her repugnance only intensifies as she begins to read further and further into the wallpaper. The narrator states, “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Gilman), which shows that she is beginning to visualize disturbing images in it. However, her obsession truly takes a life of its own after John refuses to let the narrator visit her relatives, as this is when she begins to believe that the wallpaper is a “alive”. It is after …show more content…
Both stories show that the common view of marriage included an authoritative husband who exercised control over their spouse, thus leaving their wives in a role similar to that of a prisoner or slave. This rather traditional view of marriage regarded women as obedient subordinates who wouldn’t dare be non-compliant in fear of being mocked or punished. We can see this “powerless wife” stereotype in “The Story of an Hour” when Mrs. Mallard, who, after getting over the initial shock that her husband passed away, began to say “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin). This shows that, after being under her husband’s control for years, Mrs. Mallard was finally able to live the way that she saw fit, without having to listen to anyone. However, this freedom is short lived as Mr. Mallard returns home, obviously not deceased. This shock of having her newly-discovered freedom ripped away from her so quickly led Mrs. Mallard to die of what is presumably a heart attack, incorrectly described as one “of the joy that kills” (Chopin) by doctors. Likewise, “The Yellow Wallpaper” paints a similar marriage dynamic where the husband is in power (which is explored in detail in the response to question one). John, the narrator’s wife, makes
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
Her mental state is again revealed a few pages later when she states, "It is getting to be a great effort for me to think straight" (Gilman 430). Related to thought disorder is obsession, which the protagonist displays in her relentless thoughts about the yellow wallpaper which covers her bedroom walls. The narrator begins her obsession with the yellow wallpaper at the very beginning of the story. "I never saw a worse paper in my life," she says. "It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study" (Gilman 427)....
"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.
Gilman manipulates the reader s perspective throughout her story as she immediately introduces us to her world. Language plays an important role as a normal woman assesses her husband s profession and her own supposed illness. The narrator comes across intelligent if not a little paranoid-less concerned with a slighthysterical tendency but rather a queer untenanted (Gilman 691) house. Her suspicion occurs early on; appearing at first as misdirection meant to foreshadow a possible ghost story. She goes on to describe the most beautiful place with a delicious garden (Gilman 692). Her depiction is that of a quaint home-leading thereader to imagine a stable woman in a new setting. Clearly the narrator s broad vocabulary is an indication of her right-mindedness as well as her ability to examine a condition she disagrees with.
...ble to see that it actually incorporates themes of women’s rights. Gilman mainly used the setting to support her themes. This short story was written in 1892, at that time, there was only one women's suffrage law. Now, because of many determinant feminists, speakers, teachers, and writers, the women’s rights movement has grown increasing large and is still in progress today. This quite recent movement took over more then a century to grant women the rights they deserve to allow them to be seen as equals to men. This story was a creative and moving way to really show how life may have been as a woman in the nineteenth century.
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.
In her novel one of the main factors is that the women’s rights were over ruled by oppression. The stories show the different emotions both characters face while being in a secluded area for a long period of time. In Gilman’s story she talks about a woman who is struggling with postpartum depression. The woman’s husband is a medical doctor and he wants to “fix” her sickness. He believes she can change by being in a secluded area.
Many critics question whether this story is meant as a personal documentation about Gilman or a reflection of women’s position in society in 1892. However, due to her creation of this unreliable narrator, it creates the allusion that this story has many meanings. The narrator generates the way we see John and the ironic theme of entrapment, through many different angles. The subject of the story changes from reality, to her obsession with the wallpaper and consumes the narrator’s tone and thoughts. The way Gilman used narration to manipulate the reader’s interpretation John and to convey the theme of entrapment makes this an effective piece of literature.
As the narrator makes this discovery, the reader can observe how the wallpaper is now central to the plot. “You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well under way in following, it turns a back-somersault and there you are. It slaps you across the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream”(The Yellow Wallpaper, Page 81, Paragraph 4). In the following paragraph, it is apparent that her mind is now consumed by the yellow wallpaper and perplexing patterns, thus becoming essential within the plot. An indication that the crawling women is the narrator herself, is evident when John’s sister, Jennie spoke, “Then she said that the paper stained everything it touched and that she had found yellow smooches on all my clothes, and John’s, and she wished we would be more careful”( The Yellow Wallpaper, Page 82, Paragraph 3). The pattern within the yellow wallpaper has now become the narrator's main objective. She becomes insane trying to release the woman stuck inside, which resembles herself being trapped within her own life. An example of this can be seen observed in the following line, “As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her. I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper” ( The Yellow Wallpaper, Page 85, Paragraph 2-3). The narrator’s suffering from the degree she is at, getting worse and worse within her deliria shes find the truth. The contrast between the unknown narrator and questionable women helps to reveal the significance and development of the yellow wallpaper throughout the story. From John’s constant constraints, the horrid wallpaper, and not being able to write, the narrator becomes creative through her hysteria envisioning a woman, who self subconsciously
Her tense mind is then further pushed towards insanity by her husband, John. As one of the few characters in the story, John plays a pivotal role in the regression of the narrator’s mind. Again, the narrator uses the wallpaper to convey her emotions. Just as the shapes in the wallpaper become clearer to the narrator, in her mind, she is having the epiphany that John is in control of her.
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.
The wallpaper, the narrator's obsession, destroyed the peace of mind for all parties concerned. The imagery, used in the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", paints a vivid picture and the reader becomes a front row spectator to the mental deterioration of the narrator to utter insanity.
In both stories the women's husbands had direct control over their lives. In 'The Yellow Wallpaper'; the narrator's husband controlled her both mentally and physically. He does not allow her to have any sort of mental or physical stimulation. She is virtually imprisoned in her bedroom, supposedly to allow her to rest and recover her health. She is forbidden to work and not even supposed to write. She does not even have a say in the location or décor of the room she is forced to spend almost even moment in. Furthermore, visitors are absolutely not allowed. She says, 'It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work-but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to let me have those stimulating people about now';(Gilman 635). Mrs. Mallard in 'The Story of an Hour'; had to deal with the same sort of affliction. Her husband had control over her 'body and soul';. She felt that he lived her life for her and did 'not believe that anyone had the right to impose a private will on a fellow creature'; (Chopin 13).
Gilman has stated in multiple papers that the main reason for her writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” was to shed light on her awful experience with this ‘rest cure’. However, she also managed to inject her own feminist agenda into the piece. Charlotte Perkins Gilman chose to include certain subtle, but alarming details regarding the narrator’s life as a representation of how women were treated at the time. She wants us to understand why the narrator ends up being driven to madness, or in her case, freedom. There are untold layers to this truly simple, short story just like there were many layers to Gilman