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The effect of mental illnesses on a society
Summary of the yellow wallpaper by charlotte perkins gilman
The effect of mental illnesses on a society
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“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story that gives an uncommon look at point of view. Gilman gives us a narrator that comes across as reliable at first but later challenges our initial understanding. We read about our nameless protagonist through a series of journal entries. The story is written in first person unreliable because we are unable to to trust our narrator due to her mental illness; she informs us that she has “temporary nervous depression - with hysterical tendency ”(273). Through her mental deterioration we see her thoughts, feelings, and different emotions from a perspective we typically aren't familiar reading about. The well rounded character shows us what it was like for women at that time while keeping …show more content…
us intrigued by rapidly changing the narration of the story. We take a step into the narrator's mind and experience her deepest thoughts and feelings while she is slowly pushed to insanity. To everyone around her she has lost touch with reality, yet she begins to finally see what she longs for the most, freedom. The female protagonist writes about her arrival to the mansion where she is to stay while being treated for her illness. We are able to infer she feels distant from the house due to its nature; “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house… there is something queer about it” (273). Within the mansion is a nursery where she is imprisoned. She despises every aspect of the nursery; the bars on the window, the bolted down bed, and the hideous yellow wallpaper: “No wonder the children hate it! I should hate it myself if I had to live Dallager 2 in this room long” (274). Even the idea of her being forced to stay in a nursery shows us that she is viewed as a child who isn't capable of responsibilities. Her only physical escape is being able to visit the garden outside her window. The wallpaper that covers the room makes her see things only she can see, this leads to her believing there is a woman behind the wallpaper who later ends up being herself. She desperately tries to free herself by ripping the wallpaper off the wall; “I’ve got out at last,’ said I ‘in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’” (283). She had to become mentally unstable for her to gain an insight on life; she finally realized the role she played in society and the lack of freedom all women faced. The main character is trapped both physically and mentally, she is not able to speak out on her different thoughts and feelings. The journal she writes in for an escape has no dates to show us a timeline of the progression of her illness. Our only clues are the short entries she provides for us when she has the opportunity to write, from that we can see the substantial development of her illness. She starts off by merely analyzing the wallpaper for something to pass the time, but that becomes an obsession; she devotes every awakened minute to understanding the patterns within the wallpaper; “I’m feeling ever so much better! I don't sleep much at night, for it is so interesting to watch developments; but I sleep a good deal in the daytime” (280). Her mental entrapment is a product of her physical confinement in the room. Gilman portrays the main character as a woman who is suffering from postpartum depression. She is confined in a room without the ability to have a creative escape as treatment to help cure her illness. She knows that the treatment will not help her but has no choice but to Dallager 3 listen to her husband: “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (273). She uses a journal as a distraction from her illness by writing about the house and the room she is confined in; her desire to write outweighs the possible consequences of her being caught. The constant sneaking around with her journal puts a heavy toll on her: “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal - having to be sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (273). On top of her not being able to freely do what she wants she also has a husband who control her every move. Any hope that the narrator has of getting better is diminished by her husband and his attitude towards her and her depression. The narrator's husband is furthering her mental instability by demoralizing her with condescending statements; “‘What is, little girl? ‘he said, ‘Don't go walking around like that - you'll get cold’” (278). With comments like this it makes it less likely for her to reach out for help from the husband and she becomes more withdrawn. Even though her husband is a physician he doesn't believe that she is sick. “John is a physician… perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick!” (273). John is like any man during this time, he is controlling of his wife and believes he knows best. He doesn't like the idea of the protagonist expressing her imagination because it would “exhaust” her, despite this the narrator keeps a secret journal from him, “There comes John, and I must put this away, - he hates to have me write a word” (274). She refers to her journal repeatedly letting the reader know the extent of her illness. The woman uses the journal as a therapeutic escape so she can express her creativity: “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me” (275). Without the journal the reader would have Dallager 4 no way of understanding the frustration the women experiences due to her strict husband. Even though the narrator is conscious of her illness and is aware of her husband's lack of recognition she desperately attempts to instill an understanding of her condition to him: “Dear John! He love me very dearly, and hates to leave me sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go... But he said I wasn't able to go” (277). The narrator doesn't have a single person who is capable of understanding what she is going through; this a significant part in the worsening of her depression. Not one person that she knows can relate to the physical and mental constraints that are put upon her. Just like “The Yellow Wallpaper” it is easy to feel trapped by society.
The two choices are: fit into society expectations or be shut out. Gilman illustrates a character who is battling an internal fight from depression while struggling with the way society characterizes her. Over the progression of her mental illness she becomes aware of how the men in her life treat her. We start to realize that despite how she is viewed, she is a strong woman; she puts her emotions to the side and puts on a happy face for her husband: “I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time. Of course I don't when John is here, or anybody else, but when I am alone” (277). It is easy to relate to Gilman's narrator because we able to empathize with her thoughts and feelings. Even though we as a reader have to build an image of the character without the use of even a name the woman's writing gives us insight on her feelings. The protagonist’s will is constantly being attacked by outside forces, such as her husband, her brother, and the caretakers, as well as fighting with her internal thoughts. The peeling of the wallpaper and the action of her ripping it off the wall is her mind's way of being released from its restrains; the action is comparable to
a Dallager 5 leak in a damn before it finally gives way. We are left with deciding the fate of our narrator, do we believe she has finally freed herself or has she further confined herself from reality? Gilman portrays the narrators as being completely insane in the end, but yet she is the happiest she has ever been and is finally free from all the restrictions that were forced upon her.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” has opened many people’s eyes since it was first published in 1892. In the beginning, readers only acknowledged Gilman’s story as showing how women with mental illnesses were treated by physicians during the 1800’s. They overlooked the deeper meaning the text contained, and it was not until later that readers discovered it. Eventually, “The Yellow Wallpaper” became known as feminist literature. Gilman does a great job showing how women suffered from inadequate medical treatment, but above that she depicts how nineteenth century women were trapped in their roles in society and yearned to escape from being controlled by males.
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.
The stories “Shouldn't I Feel Pretty?” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” feature a dynamic protagonist who undergoes a character development which reveals the consequences of oppression caused by societal standards. Gilman crafted the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” with the purpose of exposing the tyrannical role of gender roles to women. In the story, the narrator suffers a slight postpartum depression in the beginning, but her condition gets progressively worse because her husband John believes “that there is nothing the matter with [her] but temporary nervous depression-- a slight hysterical tendency” (331). He concludes that the best treatment for his wife is for her to be “absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until [she is] well again” (332).
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
“There are things in that paper which nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous. And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder—I begin to think—I wish John would take me away from here!” The late 19th century hosted a hardship for women in our society. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman expressed a form of patriarchy within the story. Gilman never addressed the woman in the “The Yellow Wallpaper” by a name, demonstrating her deficiency of individual identity. The author crafted for the narrator to hold an insignificant role in civilization and to live by the direction of man. Representing a hierarchy between men and women in the 19th century, the wallpaper submerged the concentration of the woman and began compelling her into a more profound insanity.
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.
Throughout the story, the reader is called to trust the narrator although it is clear she is going crazy, for she is the only telling the story. Gilman is able to develop the theme through this character’s point of view by showing that the narrator has no choice in the world in which she lives-- she must obey the men in her life above all else. If Gilman chose any other perspective, the story would not have been able to portray the woman’s oppression as well, because the reader would not have been able to see into her mind as it slipped away well into insanity.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a self-told story about a woman who approaches insanity. The story examines the change in the protagonist's character over three months of her seclusion in a room with yellow wallpaper and examines how she deals with her "disease." Since the story is written from a feminist perspective, it becomes evident that the story focuses on the effect of the society's structure on women and how society's values destruct women's individuality. In "Yellow Wallpaper," heroine's attempt to free her own individuality leads to mental breakdown.
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.
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.
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.
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tells the story of a woman's descent into madness as a result of the "rest and ignore the problem cure" that is frequently prescribed to cure hysteria and nervous conditions in women. More importantly, the story is about control and attacks the role of women in society. The narrator of the story is symbolic for all women in the late 1800s, a prisoner of a confining society. Women are expected to bear children, keep house and do only as they are told. Since men are privileged enough to have education, they hold jobs and make all the decisions. Thus, women are cast into the prison of acquiescence because they live in a world dominated by men. Since men suppress women, John, the narrator's husband, is presumed to have control over the protagonist. Gilman, however, suggests otherwise. She implies that it is a combination of society's control as well as the woman's personal weakness that contribute to the suppression of women. These two factors result in the woman's inability to make her own decisions and voice opposition to men.
“The Yellow Wallpaper:” a Symbol for Women As the narrator presents a dangerous and startling view into the world of depression, Charlotte Perkins Gilman introduces a completely revitalized way of storytelling using the classic elements of fiction. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” combines a multitude of story elements that cannot be replicated. Her vast use of adjectives and horrifying descriptions of the wallpaper bring together a story that is both frightening and intensely well told. Using the story’s few characters and remote setting, Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents the wallpaper as both a representation of the narrator and the story’s theme, as well as a symbol for her descent into the abyss of insanity. As the story opens, the suspiciously unnamed narrator and her husband, John, temporarily move into a new home (226).
The woman behind this work of literature portrays the role of women in the society during that period of time. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a well written story describing a woman who suffers from insanity and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The author uses her own experience to criticize male domination of women during the nineteenth century. Although the story was written fifty years ago, "The Yellow Wallpaper" still brings a clear message how powerless women were during that time.
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