The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman has a tone of a mentally ill women who worsens while under the thumb of her husband who is her doctor first and husband second. She numerously attempts to reveal her true, current state of mind to her husband but he shows that he thinks he knows best. The internal conflict of being better but not being heard leads to her ultimate breakdown and shock to her husband, John. Everyone has experience this type conflict, whether concealed or disclosed to another, of trying to convey your true feelings but not getting the results you need to progress properly. This story is very much peculiar as it is true and trying for those who struggle under various mental stresses. In one incident, the conflict …show more content…
Others could interpret the women allegorically by seeing the woman as the same woman behind the wallpaper. She is trapped under her duties and culture roles as a woman in the late 1800s, which is submissive and obedient to her husband’s authority with very light questioning of that authority. Charlotte wrote this after her ordeal of leaving her first marriage and doctor while being treated for depression. The correlation of being stuck and not knowing what to do while only having the option to react because you have been placed in a mental corner, is how I see the story and mental journey for Charlotte, as I see her as both the women in this story. This story could be interpreted as Charlotte showing her independence as a women being oppressed in the situation she has found herself in with her first marriage and recently becoming a mother who may have felt bound to a motherly roll the rest of her life. Charlotte seems, to me, to be a writer and working first, and wife and mother …show more content…
The attempts the women tries so to be in vain till the end when it over boils. The women set herself free in the only way she knew how. Sometimes when people are in tight situation, or when their goals are being blocked, they react even when it doesn’t make sense. The women reacted to being closed up and oppressed and, to her family, it didn’t make
The inner feral nature of mankind is indifferent to rationality when the mind body or soul is trapped and unable to find an escape. Human beings are animals in nature, and often when a situation arises when they are, or feel trapped, they begin to lose sense of rationality and their grip on reality, and instead make unsettling and nonsensical decisions. Within “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather, the effects of a human being being trapped are explored in two different ways through two different people with very different personalities. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story about a young woman named Jane, who suffers from what she calls a “nervous weakness”, and what she writes about what she goes
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
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.
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.
The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” used her hatred but yet love towards the wallpaper in the room she was staying in to symbolize the domestic life that many women including herself are trapped in. “ Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor.” (Gilman, 778) shows the narrator’s escape from her mental confinement. Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” felt that her husband's death was her source of freedom. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring of life.” (Chopin, 784) shows how the world opened up before her eyes signifying she has gained her own definition of freedom which was being free of her husband. Elisa Allen in “The Chrysanthemums” never reached her own mental freedom due to the losing of her hope of something more and continued to live her simple farmer’s wife life. “She turned up her coat collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly--like an old woman.” (Steinbeck, 11) shows her giving up by weeping like a woman showing she is weak and still lives in the set standards of a
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s powerful story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is about a woman who was driven to madness by her depression and controlling husband. The story is told by the wife, in first person, and is based on Gilman’s own life experience. Gilman suffered from post-partum depression after her daughter was born and was prescribed the “resting cure” which is resting and isolation. In the story, the narrator’s husband puts her in isolation because he believes that will cure her of her depression and breakdowns. He won’t let her do anything, so she turns to writing in her secret journal to try and cure her depression. Since she has nothing to do all day, she turns her attention to the yellow wallpaper in the room. She becomes obsessed with it and begins to see a woman trapped inside the pattern. The wallpaper dominates the narrator’s imagination and she becomes possessed and secretive about hiding her obsession with it. The narrator suspects the her husband and sister are aware of her obsession so she starts to destroy the wallpaper and goes into a frenzy trying to free the caged woman in the pattern of the wallpaper. The narrator becomes insane, thinking that she also came out of the wallpaper, and creeps around the room, and when her husband checks on her, he faints because of what she has become, and she continues to creep around the room, stepping over body.
“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.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman explores the oppression of women in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of their freedom, which many times led to their confinement. The short story illustrates male superiority and the restriction of a woman’s choice regarding her own life. The author’s diction created a horrific and creepy tone to illustrate the supernatural elements that serve as metaphors to disguise the true meaning of the story. Through the use of imagery, the reader can see that the narrator is living within a social class, so even though the author is trying to create a universal voice for all women that have been similar situations, it is not possible. This is not possible because there are many
Women's roles within society have changed drastically throughout history. Today, women assume relative equality in society with men; women have the right to vote, own property, get divorced, and hold the same jobs, among other things. Prior to 1919, however, women were dominated by the largely misogynistic society that existed in the United States; women did not have the right to vote and were not regarded as equal to men in marriage or otherwise (“woman suffrage”). The late nineteenth century in the United States was also a time when society viewed individuals with mental illnesses as “a threat to public safety” (Holtzman). Therefore, “people with mental illness were cared for by family members, who quietly attended to their needs in rural areas” (Holtzman). These are the conditions the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” was living within.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story that continues to transcend time with its’ themes of feminism and mental health issues. The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper must struggle not only against her own mind, but the oppressive nature of her husband and her horribly inaccurate treatment plan, the combination of which destroys her sense of self. Throughout the story the narrator shares her experiences of her mental illness in a day to day basis until she completely loses her sanity. This just shows how serious it can be to ignore a type of mental illness for too long.
Researcher, Beverly A. Hume, claims that Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper “on her experiences with S. Weir Mitchell’s ‘rest cure’ treatment” (Hume 478). The rest cure treatment aforementioned is described as the “treatment of disease... by rest and isolation in a good hygienic environment” (Merriam-Webster). In “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman explained that she followed the advice of her physicians for nearly three months and then “cast the noted specialist’s advice to the winds and went to work again.” Gilman mentions how she initially wrote The Yellow Wallpaper with the intentions to let her physician know that his rest cure recommendations were enough to drive someone into “mental ruin,” but he never acknowledged her short story. Some criticized Gilman in saying that her work could drive someone mad, but she clearly states that “it was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (“Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper”). Through her heroic-like attempt to prevent others from being driven crazy, she created a work highlighting the oppression of women, directly displaying the mistreatment of female patients,
Trapped. Stuck. No way out. Faced with these insurmountable obstacles, a character may deny their perilous situation. Some may try to escape. However, in the late 1800s, there often was no way out. In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator is vacationing with her controlling and prescriptive husband, who is also a respected physician. Suffering from mental health issues, the only cure offered by her husband is bedrest and isolation. While the narrator descends into solitary madness, she becomes more and more unstable, leading to the story’s dramatic conclusion. Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator shows that she is rebellious, imaginative, and eventually, psychotic.
In the short story titled, The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman speaks outwardly of the methods to treat psychosis. In both the short story as well as the film adaptation by Sue Szostak, the designated treatment plan is depicted as being withdrawn from society and confined within an attic.
When we don 't have a voice that is respected in society, but we want to say something, what do we do? We followed authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and write. She wrote the role of yellow tapestry in 1890 to eliminate the discrimination of women and the general ignorance about mental illness. On paper, we are going to see the madness of a woman because of the mistreatment of her husband and his lack of knowledge about the State of mind of women. Gilman uses entries in a journal to show us how the protagonist becomes crazy subtly and his manner of writing speak poorly of her husband, John. At first reading, the role of yellow tapestry seems silly, not more than the diary of a Madwoman. But if we analyze it and think in the historical
Crazy is a word most often deemed to teenagers, toddlers, and the mentally insane. The protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman, could quite easily be described by this word, but I would suggest that rather than crazy, this woman was actually quite intelligent because against all odds, she was able to finally welcome her creative side, it just happened to be in a form that no one had expected. She was not crazy, she was a warrior, trapped in a battle of conscious verses unconscious. Only after completely analyzing the narrator, her physical state, and her mental illness, will we be able to understand the woman in the wallpaper and decide who was victorious in the narrator’s inner battle.