"The Yellow Wallpaper" was one of the first works to chronicle the process of going insane. Its harrowing quality derives from the fact that the author knows whereof she speaks. But even though it is based on Gilman's own breakdown, the story is crafted as a work of art, because the nightmarish motif of the yellow wallpaper itself serves as a metaphor for the disintegration of the protagonist's mind.
The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" has no name. Generally, when the protagonist of a first-person story remains unnamed throughout the work, we take this to mean that the character represents all humankind. In this story, however, it seems more likely that the main character is unnamed because the experience she is undergoing robs her of her identity. Alone in the yellow-wallpapered nursery with the barred windows, she is treated like a combination inmate and child -- denied her writing that gives her solace and lends meaning to her life, denied stimulating companionship that could distract her from her preoccupation with her meager surroundings. Denied any kind of healthy stimulus at all, she is forced to provide her own.
We can see that at the beginning of the book, our protagonist is not too far gone. Her first impression is of the ugly wallpaper; she's "never seen a worse paper in [her] life." Almost immediately, however, she veers into a type of language that could either be interpreted as metaphorical or disturbed, describing the pattern's "lame uncertain curves" that "suddenly commit suicide -- plunge[ing] off at outrageous angles, destroy[ing] themselves in unheard-of contradictions." Obviously it is the protagonist herself who feels lame and uncertain, and fears suicide -- fears that she herself will suddenly plun...
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...dentical; in other words, the woman in the wallpaper is a projection of herself. At the end, in emulation of the wallpaper-woman, she has begun to crawl, too; she creeps around and around the circumference of the room, in a ritual re-enactment of the bizarre drama of her mind. At last she rips the wallpaper off the wall, freeing the wallpaper-woman and making them one in fact as well as in deed. And only then does she permit John to come upstairs and see what she has done.
What, in fact, has Charlotte Perkins Gilman done in this story? She has shown what happens when a woman is allowed no creative expression at all, no mental stimulus, and no access to the things that fulfill her. She keeps trying to go deeper, further inside, to reach a place where she can truly reach a sense of selfhood; but denied any avenue to accomplish this, her quest becomes a nightmare.
In Alan Brown’s article “The Yellow Wallpaper’: Another Diagnosis”; Brown discusses why Charolette Perkins Gilman published The Yellow Wallpaper as well as another diagnosis on the character in The Yellow Wallpaper. In the article it is explained that Gilman published this short story as a reflection of her own life. Gilman battled depression and sought out help from expert neurologist. The neurologist had suggested that she rest and be confined to her room. This experience lead to the creation of The Yellow Wallpaper. Being confined to a room like the character in The Yellow Wallpaper is enough to drive anyone to insanity. Brown had a different idea on why the character lost her mind and began to believe she was seeing figures in the wallpaper.
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. 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.
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 Gilman s manipulation of language and syntax in her prose is crucial to the overall effect of the story. What the reader is presented is a story that uses language and syntax to portray a woman s changing mental state. The reader experiences the narrator s deteriorating mental state as she succumbs to her condition and eventually loses her sanity.
Throughout the story, the wallpaper becomes the narrators’ imagination and appears as a female figure. The narrator’s husband, John, who has a higher position as a doctor, limits her creativity and writing.
Kessler, Carol Parley. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860 -1935." Modem American Women Writers. Ed. Elaine Showalter, et al. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1991. 155 -169.
The two common threads that connect Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the narrator in her story are depression/postpartum depression, and entrapment within their roles as of women. Specifically, Gilman and the narrator are trying to escape the function society has placed on them. First, after fulfilling their expected duties as wife and mother, both Gilman and the narrator become depressed after the birth of their child. It is this depression that leads them to the infamous rest cure...
“Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman was analyzed by many perspective readers and writers. In my research paper I analyzed work by Ann Oakley and Karen Ford. These two authors had similar but yet different arguments. During my review process on both articles, I found that there can be many interpretations of any literary work. When you typically see topics written about women, you tend to see biased explanations. Reading these from a female standpoint you would go on to assume the writer will only defend what is morally right.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator becomes more depressed throughout the story because of the recommendation of isolation that was made to her. In this short story the narrator is detained in a lonesome, drab room in an attempt to free herself of a nervous disorder. The narrator’s husband, a physician, adheres to this belief and forces his wife into a treatment of solitude. Rather than heal the narrator of her psychological disorder, the treatment only contributes to its effects, driving her into a severe depression. Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where in she is locked into an upstairs room.
...lor that made the woman despise it so very much. By being able to understand the various meanings behind the wallpaper the reader is able to fully comprehend the narrative behind the entire story and why her mental health keeps diminishing. The ending of the story reveals that the woman no longer only saw the woman in the walls at night; she began to believe that she actually was said woman.
The narrator's detailed description of the wallpaper makes the reader understand the woman is well educated and has a keen eye for detail. The wallpaper evokes an emotional response from her, such as her statement, "It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study . . . " (793).
Many give credit to Paris as to being the birthplace of the restaurant, but many characteristics that define a restaurant were already found in China during the song dynasty. Although the contemporary menu first appeared in France in the eighteenth century, it does not mean that it was the first time we ever saw a menu. The very first menus appeared in the first millennium during the Chinese Song Dynasty back In the 1200s (Heimann, Heller and Mariani, 2011). The Chinese used to offer hundreds different types of foods for their customers, and considering they were the first to invent paper, the Chinese used to find it much easier to scribble them all down. As more menus emerged, the first modern menu appeared in the latter part of the eighteenth century after the French revolution. After dining, menus were commonly taken as a souvenir; reason for this is to either have evidence of the luxurious spots one dined in, or just to keep it as a historical document. The eighteenth cent...
Shetrone, A. (2011, May 18). 7 Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction BY April Shetrone. Inc.. Retrieved January 23, 2014, from http://www.inc.com/guides/201105/7-ways-to-improve-employee-satisfaction.html
Music Victoria will be nationally and internationally renowned for: Realising the full potential of Victorian music through a strong progressive and independent voice.
The Philippines has a population of about 104 million people. It is located in Southeast Asia in the Western Pacific ocean. It is composed of 7,107 islands with 3 main geographical divisions- Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The different divisions of the Philippines have differences in tradition. The Philippines has a tropical climate and a mountainous terrain; earthquakes and typhoons happen frequently. Both dry and rainy reasons occur, which makes year round agriculture possible, but this can be affected by seasonal monsoons. The Philippines is one of the richest areas of natural resources in the world (Purnell, 2013, p. 228).