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The yellow wallpaper charlotte perkins gilman
The yellow wallpaper charlotte perkins gilman
Character analysis yellow wallpaper the narrator
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The Protagonist’s Physical and Social Conditioning in Charlotte Perkins
Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.
The wife, protagonist, in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins
Gilman, is trapped. Suffering from a “slight hysterical tendency” (p
676), an affliction no one really understands, her husband, a
physician, prescribes a treatment, which offers her little support to
be well again. Her condition is further aggravated by limitations of
her social role as his wife. She is confined, controlled and devalued
by her husband. She is powerless to renegotiate her situation. She is
trapped by her treatment, her environment and her social role as a
wife, with no hope of change. Given the hopelessness of her situation,
she chooses to overpower what she can defeat, a figment of her
imagination.
The setting is a colonial mansion, which the husband, John, has rented
as a place of respite for her recovery. It is run down and neglected,
like his wife – run down from her illness and emotionally neglected,
as her desires are overruled by his practicality. The mansion has
housed children in the past. The nursery serves as the couple’s
bedroom, where “the windows are barred” (p 677), to prevent the children
from injuring themselves from a fall. Like the children, she is protected
and imprisoned. This “atrocious nursery” (p 677) is covered with “a smouldering
unclean yellow” (p 677) wallpaper, which becomes her obsession.
Surrounding the mansion is plenty of fresh air, an aspect of her
treatment. But the wife suspects an air about the house -- an air of
an unwanted presence. Being isolated, the mansion is a perfect place
for her confinement, another aspect of her treatment. Her husband has
prescribed a version of the “rest cure”[1]. His “rest cure” amounts
to being idle. The wife is a writer with artistic sensibility. She is
deeply offended by the yellow wallpaper and its “sprawling flamboyant
patterns committing every artistic sin” (p 677). She needs an outlet
to express herself, through writing, but is prevented from doing so,
as part of her “rest”. However, she still writes, covertly. John is a
physician, an expert on physical illness. Being practical, he is not
predisposed to be an expert on the artistic temperament. She disagrees
with her treatment, but remains silent on that issue, displaying
appropriate wifely behaviours.
To be appropriate, to exhibit “proper self-control” (p 676) is
required as his wife in the nineteenth century. She is the property
of her husband and must appear to submit to his will. John is, by
modern standards, a control freak -- a well intentioned control freak.
He controls her environment by choosing the mansion and the choice of
The narrator begins the story by recounting how she speculates there may be something wrong with the mansion they will be living in for three months. According to her the price of rent was way too cheap and she even goes on to describe it as “queer”. However she is quickly laughed at and dismissed by her husband who as she puts it “is practical in the extreme.” As the story continues the reader learns that the narrator is thought to be sick by her husband John yet she is not as convinced as him. According
The narrator is trying to get better from her illness but her husband “He laughs at me so about this wallpaper” (515). He puts her down and her insecurities do not make it any better. She is treated like a child. John says to his wife “What is it little girl” (518)? Since he is taking care of her she must obey him “There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word”. The narrator thinks John is the reason why she cannot get better because he wants her to stay in a room instead of communicating with the world and working outside the house.
To initiate on the theme of control I will proceed to speak about the narrators husband, who has complete control over her. Her husband John has told her time and time again that she is sick; this can be viewed as control for she cannot tell him otherwise for he is a physician and he knows better, as does the narrator’s brother who is also a physician. At the beginning of the story she can be viewed as an obedient child taking orders from a professor, and whatever these male doctors say is true. The narrator goes on to say, “personally, I disagree with their ideas” (557), that goes without saying that she is not very accepting of their diagnosis yet has no option to overturn her “treatment” the bed rest and isolation. Another example of her husband’s control would be the choice in room in which she must stay in. Her opinion is about the room she stays in is of no value. She is forced to stay in a room she feels uneasy about, but John has trapped her in this particular room, where the windows have bars and the bed is bolted to the floor, and of course the dreadful wall paper, “I never worse paper in my life.” (558) she says. Although she wishes to switch rooms and be in one of the downstairs rooms one that, “opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window. ...” (558). However, she knows that, “John would not hear of it.”(558) to change the rooms.
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.
John is a physician, and he feels like he knows the best treatment for her depression. Even though he feels like there is nothing really wrong with her and constantly reminds her of this. The treatment ultimately is to be locked away in the old nursery with yellow wallpaper and bars on the windows. Loralee MacPike writes a piece titled “Environment as Psychopathological Symbolism in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’,” to illustrate the impact of setting and environment. MacPike makes the point that “The woman is legally a child; socially, economically, and philosophically she must be led by an adult—her husband; and therefore the nursery is an appropriate place to house her.” This is a very valid point showing that women are considered lesser and unequal to their male counterparts. MacPike is trying to trying to explain the male role in keeping the women oppressed and isolated. Because the narrator is suffering from postpartum depression, the old nursery is the perfect prison for her. The yellow wallpaper is just one more thing to push her over the edge. She was already suffering from postpartum depression and the isolation merely makes it worse. Postpartum depression already makes many feel very inadequate, so the isolation in a nursery just makes the narrator spiral more and more into
The character of the husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is introduced as a respected physician and a caring husband who strives to improve the mental health of his wife, the narrator, who is diagnosed with temporary nervous condition. John tries throughout the story to apply professional treatment methods and medications in his approach to helping his wife gain strength. However, his patient, his wife, seems to disregard John’s professional opinions and act as if she is following his advices only during his awakening presence with her. The narrator seems to be in need of John’s positive opinion about the status of her mental condition in order to avoid the criticism even though she disagrees with his treatment methodology. John, without doubt, cares for his wife and her wellbeing, but he does not realize how his treatment method negatively impacts their relationship his wife’s progress towards gaining strength. Although John was portrayed as a caring and a loving physician and husband to the narrator through out most of the story, he was also suggested as being intrusive and directive to a provoking level in the mind of the narrator.
"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.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Perkins Gilman tells the story of a woman with hysteria whose husband keeps her in a bedroom until he feels she is
The way and rate that people mature at can be directly attributed to the values and beliefs of the society that surrounds an individual. It is undeniable that society’s perspective on many controversial issues will generally be adopted by the younger generations in a given society. Moreover, the exposure to significant events, coupled with the major influence of family members, can have an enormous impact on how an individual matures. Additionally, family members greatly help each other develop into moral adults by instilling in each other values that will ultimately determine an individual’s character. In Harper Lee’s timeless classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, the constant reiteration of Atticus Finch’s values, in conjunction with the exposure to significant events, assist in Jem and Scout’s maturation into virtuous adolescents.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a woman who suffered greatly from depression. Her husband and mother persuaded her to see a specialist in women’s “nervous disorders” that prescribed a “rest cure”. Her battle of depression became a key influence in her literary work. Gilman writes “The Yellow-Wallpaper” portraying a narrator who is constantly battling her own entrapment but builds a one-on-one relationship with the “trapped women” inside the wallpaper who symbolizes what the narrator is feeling inside of her head. The narrator conceives the illusion of a trapped woman, who represents herself, in her time of confinement whom she confides in and tries to control in order to gain her freedom from the entrapment of her husband.
The story starts out with a hysterical.woman who is overprotected by her loving husband, John. She is taken to a summer home to recover from a nervous condition. However, in this story, the house is not her own and she does not want to be in it. She declares it is “haunted” and “that there is something queer about it” (The Yellow Wall-Paper. 160). Although she acknowledges the beauty of the house and especially what surrounds it, she constantly goes back to her feeling that there is something strange about the house. It is not a symbol of security for the domestic activities, it seems like the facilitates her release, accommodating her, her writing and her thoughts, she is told to rest and sleep, she is not even allow to write. “ I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word”(162). This shows how controlling John is over her as a husband and doctor. She is absolutely forbidden to work until she is well again. Here John seems to be more of a father than a husband, a man of the house. John acts as the dominant person in the marriage; a sign of typical middle class, family arrangement.
The narrator is ordered by her husband, who is serving as her physician as well, that she is “absolutely forbidden to work” and instead get “perfect rest,” and “all the air” the narrator can get (Gilman, 549). The narrator is confined to spend her time in a room which is playing tricks on her mind until she can no longer identify reality from her imagination. Another cause of the narrator’s loneliness is her husband’s rare presence at home due to his work as a physician, “away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious,” leaving the narrator with his sister, who even then also leaves the narrator alone most of the time (Gilman, 550). The narrator falls into a state of insanity because she hardly had anyone with her to normally interact with. The only interaction she did have was that of the yellow wallpaper which constantly plagued her mind.
Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper focuses on the maltreatment and inequality of females. Under her husband's command, a young woman suffering from postpartum depression is forced into complete isolation. Not only is she disconnected with the world around her, she must give up the right of self expression. She is not allowed "to engage in normal social conversation" because there is "the possibility of over-stimulating intellectual discussion." Writing, the one thing that she loves to do and longs to do most, is forbidden. This woman is confined to her room; a room that is not pleasurable by any means. The yellow wallpaper is the feature that seems to be the most perplexing. As the days go by, the "wallpaper comes to occupy the narrator's entire reality" until "she rips it from the walls to reveal its real meaning." In this moment, she feels as though she is finally free to be who she wants to be. Although she is driven to insanity, she is able to escape her oppressors. The Yellow Wallpaper can be used as an example of the effects of forcing others to live with strict limitations. It cannot be denied that oppression causes rebellion.
Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health, but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper which is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
Gilman shows through this theme that when one is forced to stay mentally inactive can only lead to mental self-destruction. The narrator is forced into a room and told to be passive, she is not allowed to have visitors, or write, or do much at all besides sleep. Her husband believes that a resting cure will rid her of her “slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 478). Without the means to express herself or exercise her mind in anyway the narrator begins to delve deeper and deeper into her fantasies. The narrator begins to keep a secret journal, about which she states “And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way - it is such a relief” (Gilman 483)! John tells his wife that she must control her imagination, lest it run away with her. In this way John has asserted full and complete dominance over his wife. The narrator, though an equal adult to her husband, is reduced to an infancy. In this state the narrator begins her slow descent into hysteria, for in her effort to understand herself she fully and completely loses herself.