Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" serves as a semi-autobiographical short story that deals with the struggles of postpartum psychosis and its' repercussions as witnessed through the story's unnamed female narrator. By analyzing, Gilman’s approach to exploring the concept of social conventions and patriarchal oppression. Gilman's story can be analyzed in depth as both being an anti-feminist and feminist piece of literature. These aspects include the narrator's husband treatment towards her individuality, her fascination with the yellow wallpaper and her eventual fulfillment of independence.
At the beginning of the story, readers are introduced to the narrator who is suffering from postpartum depression while receiving medical attention from her physician husband, John. As the story progresses, Gilman illustrates the male dominated society through which it was customary for the men to assume authority whereas the women were expected to respect his charge in return. As shown, John often infantilizes the narrator by calling her his "blessed little goose" (599). This emphasizes that John's anti-feminist beliefs are discern as he seizes command by neglecting to treat his wife as an equal partner and overlooks her opinions as being invaluable. Nonetheless, the narrator contently accepts John's pet names while simultaneously embracing her designated role in society: "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that" (597) in marriage. This suggests that the narrator is not seeking more in the relationship than what is expected and has come to accept his treatment as the norm in a marriage.
John's patriarchal oppression continues as he bluntly rejects to comply with the narrator's request of repapering the nurs...
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... Gilman’s highlights the significance of liberation from the narrow societal roles that identified the women during the era through which women were customarily oppressed of their capabilities of understanding their self-worth and personal independence. Duration the story, the narrator experiences a gradual transformation and by the end she has an epiphany of her husband’s oppression and authority over every aspect of her life. As the narrator progressively spirals into madness, her perceptions on the society’s values change in favour of the feminist views. As a result, these driving forces motive the narrator to free herself from her husband and the society’s confinements. By identifying herself with the woman behind in the wallpaper, the narrator eventually employs the wallpaper as her instrument in the pursuit of her freedom of reasons and rights in the society.
... Through the concluding scenes where the narrator goes into her mental illness rebellion, Gilman encourages women to do what they can to stand up for themselves. Works Cited Mahin, Michael J. The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper: "An Intertextual Comparison of the "Conventional" Connotations of Marriage and Propriety." Domestic Goddesses (1999) -. Web.
First, the 1900’s is a time where women are trying to put away the homemaker image and obtain work. This causes many hardships between husbands and wives. Jane is on the verge of beginning to leave her homemaker image and begin a career in writing. “I am sitting by the window now, up in the atrocious nursery, and there is nothing to hinder my writing much as I please, save lack of strength” (Gilman, 1599). Jane is starting to recognize that she is loosing her feminism. John recognizes this and tries to do everything he can to stop Jane. John knows that Jane is putting aside her role as being a wife, homemaker and mother. In these times, husbands’ do not believe that women could balance both home and work responsibilities. Jane decides to oppose the homemaker life and branch out into writing. The feminist role is “The concept of "The New Woman," for example, began to circulate in the 1890s-1910s as women are pushing for broader roles outside the home-roles that could draw on women's intelligence and non-domestic skills and talents” (http:/...
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, women were often portrayed as submissive to men. Women were seen as oppressed by society as well as by the males in their lives. Both of Gilman’s bodies of works, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Turned”, illustrate the fight for selfhood by women in a demoralized and oppressive environment. The narrator’s escape from her unbalanced marriage and captivity is her complete loss of sanity. Mrs. Marroner overcomes her husband’s infidelity and emotional control by taking in the vulnerable Gerta and leaving her husband. Their situations cause them and readers to start questioning the “naturalness” of gender roles.
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.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to show how women’s mental illness is addressed in the time. Women were treated as the lesser or weaker sex. Women’s mental illness was highly misunderstood and misdiagnosed. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” illustrates a feminist approach to mental disease. Gilman uses this work to reach out to others to help them understand a woman’s treacherous descent into depression and psychosis. There are many contributing factors to the narrator’s illness and it is easy to see the effect the men have on her. Women were treated very differently and often outcast if they did not meet a certain norm. Mental illness is one of the main factors men believe
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.
In Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author takes the reader through the terrors of a woman’s psychosis. The story convey to understatements pertaining to feminism and individuality that at the time was only idealized. Gillman illustrates her chronological descent into insanity. The narrators husband John, who is also her physician diagnosed her with “nervous depression” and therefore ordered her to isolate until she recuperates. She is not only deprived of outside contact but also of her passion to write, since it could deteriorate her condition. The central conflict of the story is person versus society; the healthy part of her, in touch with herself clashing with her internalized thoughts of her society’s expectations. In a feminist point of view the central idea pertains to the social confinement that woman undergo due to their society.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature 's Ancestral House: Another Look At 'The Yellow Wallpaper '." Women 's Studies 12.2 (1986): 113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Women have been mistreated, enchained and dominated by men for most part of the human history. Until the second half of the twentieth century, there was great inequality between the social and economic conditions of men and women (Pearson Education). The battle for women's emancipation, however, had started in 1848 by the first women's rights convention, which was led by some remarkable and brave women (Pearson Education). One of the most notable feminists of that period was the writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was also one of the most influential feminists who felt strongly about and spoke frequently on the nineteenth-century lives for women. Her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" characterizes the condition of women of the nineteenth century through the main character’s life and actions in the text. It is considered to be one of the most influential pieces because of its realism and prime examples of treatment of women in that time. This essay analyzes issues the protagonist goes through while she is trying to break the element of barter from her marriage and love with her husband. This relationship status was very common between nineteenth-century women and their husbands.
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.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” was a groundbreaking piece for its time. It not only expressed feministic views through the defiance of a male but also discussed mental illness and the inefficacy of medical treatment at the time. This fictional piece questioned and challenged the submissive role forced upon women of the 19th century and disclosed some of the mental struggles one might go through during this time of questing. Gilman shows however that even in the most horrific struggle to overcome male dominance, it is possible. She herself escapes which again shows a feminist empowerment to end the
Gilman in her autobiography, encourages women to make something out of themselves stating “Women 's work is not solely in the home” (Gilman). My endeavor once was to become a housewife, but after studying and re reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” I do not want to put my fate into the hands of a man, when I have my own two hands right beside me. I want to pursue a career, and keep at it even when I do find the right man in my life, I want to think for myself and not base my own opinions off of the people and society around me. Elizabeth Keyser, a literary critic of “The Yellow Wallpaper” states in an article, “she offers a blueprint for reversing gender roles, and a game plan for encourage a feminist comeback to patriarchy” (Weinbaum). Gilman through her story, encourages women to continue to question the society that we live in, till we feel like we are equal. The narrator does this with her husband, as she continues to write even though she is forbidden to it, and she rips off the wallpaper even though her husband says there is nothing wrong with it. As a woman, Gilman has encouraged me to question my own traditional ways, and to unclothe myself from the conventional norms that have been woven into
Societal control of the accepted terms by which a woman can operate and live in lends itself to the ultimate subjugation of women, especially in regards to her self-expression and dissent. Gilman does an extraordinary job of effectively communicating and transforming this apparent truth into an eerie tale of one woman’s gradual spiral towards the depths of madness. This descent, however, is marked with the undertones of opportunity. On one hand, the narrator has lost all hope. On the other, she has found freedom in losing all hope. This subversion of the patriarchal paradigm is tactfully juxtaposed against a backdrop of the trappings of insanity.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.
isolation was. She wanted to set an example for the society that women should be given equal opportunities as that of man. She wanted an upliftment of the women, they can enjoy equal freedom and gender equality. In her article “why I wrote the yellow wallpaper” she have response the critics’ negative point that it wasn’t written to drive crazy but safe people especially women from being driven crazy. Gilman with the help of her writing wanted a better society where women are consider no less than men and where they would be no women suffering with depression or driven into insanity.