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Themes of the short story yellow wallpaper
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The Narrator or Jane: The Lady Behind the Wallpaper
In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, reveals John’s ‘superior wisdom’ and the effects it has on his wife. The narrator is a highly expressive and imaginative woman, however, her name is unknown to the readers. She is a young, upper-middle-class woman, newly married and a mother that suffers from depression. The narrator’s husband, John, is a physician with a practical and rational way; however, he belittles his wife’s illness and her thoughts. John believes that his wife will cure of depression if she follows the ‘resting cure”, which in reality, is a passive object treatment that ignores the concerns of the patients. The author, Charlotte Perkins
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Gilman reveals through the setting and the behavior of the narrator that the treatment is worse than the condition itself. The narrator tells the story from her perspective, but through her secret journal that she slyly writes in. The author’s development of the plot and the setting uncovers how John’s ‘help’ and concern for his wife disguises his bullying. This story shows how the personal world of torture, inner turmoil, and depression changes the narrator’s mind under her living conditions. It also displays the character, John, as egotistic, which leads him to misjudge, patronize, and dominate his wife, which affects the wife’s health and her own well-being. The story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, relates to gender division by keeping a woman in a childlike state of ignorance and stunting their full development.
The narrator reduces to act like a petulant child, who is unable to stand up for herself without seeming disobedient or unreasonable. The narrator cannot speak out against her physician, husband, John, because he is extremely practical and of high standing. She states: “What is one to do?” (Gilman p.2), which highlights that woman during that era must give unquestioningly to male authority. This is the reason that the narrator’s health deteriorates. She retreats into her obsessive fantasy about the yellow wallpaper in her room, the only place she can keep some power and control and exercise the power of her mind. Her condition is gradually worsening and not becoming better because she is imagining that something is behind the wallpaper, a formless figure at first, which she later defines as a trapped woman. Her husband, however, believes that she will recover and get well soon if she abides by his scheduled prescription and routine and not listening to her own ‘fancies”. His oblivious behavior towards her shows that he disguises his way of helping her, which is a form of
bullying. The narrator’s husband, John, embodies ‘superior wisdom’, which causes him to treat his wife’s depression less severely than that of his other critical patient’s cases. John is the all-encompassing authority, which the narrator reveals in her journal that she secretly writes in, so John would not scold her. The narrator mentions that her husband, John, disapproves of her writing because it causes stimulus, which will worsen her condition. John is assertive because he thinks he knows what’s best for his wife that he disregards her own opinion of the matter. John tells his wife that without her own will she will not recover, so she should not let her imaginative ideas take over her. He also will not allow for her to have company or give her permission to visit her cousin, Henry, and Julia because he assumes she cannot handle the stimulus. The author exposes this behavior of his through his words, such as “blessed little goose” or “little girl”, which reveals that he constantly patronizes her and refuses to fulfill her small wishes and desires. The narrator pleads and begs John if she can shift to a room downstairs, however, he forbids it. John’s actions expose his dominating behavior towards his wife; he refuses to switch bedrooms because he does not want to listen to his wife’s “fancies”. The narrator chastises herself for not appreciating John’s caring and loving behavior. John’s behavior towards her causes her to feel guilty and a complete burden on him. Her mind is mentally unstable and she is physically confined in an upstairs room to recuperate, however, the room and socially the yellow wallpaper becomes the reason of her growing insanity. Her condition worsens, which shows through the narrator’s restraint to write. She feels guilty that she must hide that she writes in a journal from her husband because he would disdain and rebuke her for ‘foolish behavior’. The narrator is conscience and knows if she continues to plead and argue with John, he would send her away to Dr. Weir Mitchell, who is just like John and the narrator’s brother, who is also a physician, but worse. John’s attitude towards his wife is intimidating because she can no longer communicate and express herself freely without him thinking it’s just her imagination. This change signifies the loss of communication in John’s and his wife’s relationship with one another. In the beginning of the story, the narrator was able to speak and voice her opinion despite the fact that John would not adhere or fulfill her wishes. By treating her as a “case” or a “wife” and not a human being with a will of her own and choosing and making decisions for her, he helps destroy her mental state. The connection and the equal status that a man and woman should share in marriage are surely not present in Johns and his wife’s marital life. Although, John does not intend to harm his wife, and his ignorance is ultimately what worsens her condition. The author portrays John as a bully; he is destroying his wife’s mental stability, although he cares for his wife, he fails and ignores her desires. Gilman shows the relationship shared between John and the narrator, which brings to light, the paternalistic society that they live in. John dominates his wife, in an ultimately patronizing way due to the power imbalance, which affects their marriage. This exposes through the author’s word choice, the reader’s know John’s name, and however, the readers are kept unaware of the name of the anonymous narrator. The narrator loses connection with herself, which is why she personifies the wallpaper, and her condition worsens. John tells his wife to exercise her self-control, however, it is contradicting because he controls every aspect of his wife’s life. He stifles her creativity and intellect because he forces her into a place to become a powerless wife, which shows that he is skeptical of her seemingly weak, “feminine” disorder. The mental constraints placed upon the narrator, is ultimately what drives her insane because she forces herself to listen and adhere to what John tells her to do and believe. She forces herself to become completely dependent and remain idle to cure her of depression. The author Gilman expresses through the narrator that one’s mind is kept in a state of forced inactivity will lead to self- destruction. The author builds a sense of uncanny terror, which helps the reader build a portrait of a woman who descends into the world of madness and depression. It is descriptive, creative, and ultimately an engaging story because the setting and the plot allows the readers to grasp the mental trauma that the narrator endures; it shows the lack of companionship and loneliness she also feels. John’s overbearingly paternal solicitude is what leads to the drastic ending. Ultimately, in the ending of the story, the narrator strips down the wallpaper in her room and creeps around until John shows up at the door. She tells him that she is free and liberates herself because she finally escapes the walls of her room. This ending is ironic and remains a paradox; the narrator sinks deeply into her inner fascination because she loses consciences of her own self. Based off of my interpretation of the ending, I believe the narrator is a symbolic representation of her own situation. The narrator identifies herself with the woman trapped in the wallpaper because she also feels trapped. The author states: “I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. “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!” (Gilman 13). This quote shows that the narrator is not able to recognize herself anymore; I am inferring that Jane is the narrator’s name because John faints after the narrator says this line. My last thought, about this scene, is that the narrator is Jane because the room had only two people: John and the narrator, so due to the narrator’s severe condition, the narrator, or Jane cannot recover. I believe the author intentionally leaves the ending to openly be interpreted for her readers. She is free at last and escapes the constraints of her marriage, the society, and her own repressed mind just like the woman behind the wallpaper.
In everyday day life we go through changes and sometimes we even break down to the point we do not know what to do with ourselves, but in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story” The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is an obsessive person. The story focuses on a woman who is going through postpartum depression and has had a nervous breakdown. Her husband John moves her into a home where he wants her to rest in isolation to recover from her disorder. Throughout her time in the room the narrator discovers new things and finally understands life.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story about an anonymous female narrator and her husband John who is a physician who has rented a colonial manner in the summer. Living in that house, the narrator felt odd living there. Her husband, john who is a physician and also a doctor to his wife felt that the narrator is under nervous depression. He further mentions that when a person is under depression, every feeling is an odd feeling. Therefore, the narrator was not given permission by John to work but just to take medication and get well fast. This made the narrator to become so fixated with the yellow wallpaper in the former nursery in which she located. She was depressed for a long time and became even more depressed. This ha...
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.
After reading Charlotte Perkins Gillman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" I have come to think that the narrator does not suffer from hysteria. I have reached this idea from comparing the research I have done on hysteria to her symptoms in the story. In this paper I will discuss why I feel the narrator does not suffer from hysteria but may be suffering from postpartum depression.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is written in the first person narrative of a women's secret journal and her descent into madness. With the medical community of the nineteenth century misunderstanding and mistreating women, despite the protests of women. The treatment that John, the narrator’s husband, offers does not help at all, in fact throughout the story the narrator’s journal entrees and condition progressively worsens. Spending the summer in an abandoned mansion in order to recover from what her physician husband believes is a “temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency” (648). Her husband does not believe that her illness is serious the narrator states,“You see he does not believe I am sick” (647)! According to history men thought that they knew better than women, especially women who were “hysterical.” ...
Charlotte Perkins Gillman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story that deals with certain issues that pertained to many women during the nineteenth century. The narrator is a fairly young woman that has just moved into a "temporary" home with her "husband." Her "husband" and doctor, John, has diagnosed her with depression. His prescription is plenty of rest. This refers to the fact that in the nineteenth century, the man was responsible for taking care of the woman both financially and emotionally, while the woman was expected to stay at home. It has been well documented that this type of solitude can lead to an even deeper, darker depression.
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.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a woman who is trapped in a room covered in yellow wallpaper. The story is one that is perplexing in that the narrator is arguably both the protagonist as well as the antagonist. In the story, the woman, who is the main character, struggles with herself indirectly which results in her descent into madness. The main conflicts transpires between the narrator and her husband John who uses his power as a highly recognize male physician to control his wife by placing limitations on her, forcing her to behave as a sick woman. Hence he forced himself as the superior in their marriage and relationship being the sole decision make. Therefore it can be said what occurred externally resulted in the central conflict of” “The Yellow Wallpaper being internal. The narrator uses the wallpaper as a symbol of authenticy. Hence she internalizes her frustrations rather then openly discussing them.
"If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?" (Gilman 1). Many women in the 1800's and 1900's faced hardship when it came to standing up for themselves to their fathers, brothers and then husbands. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", is married to a physician, who rented a colonial house for the summer to nurse her back to health after her husband thinks she has neurasthenia, but actually suffers from postpartum depression. He suggested the 'rest cure'. She should not be doing any sort of mental or major physical activity, her only job was to relax and not worry about anything. Charlotte was a writer and missed writing. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is significant to literature in the sense that, the author addresses the issues of the rest cure that Dr. S. Weir Mitchell prescribed for his patients, especially to women with neurasthenia, is ineffective and leads to severe depression. This paper includes the life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in relation to women rights and her contribution to literature as one of her best short story writings.
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.
Gilman tries to show that according to her husband, the narrator continually brings her great depression upon herself. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman also attempts to show that the lack of social exposure, physical repression, and ugly wallpaper cause the treatment to be extremely ineffective and detrimental. The disorder which is being treated is actually strengthened to the point of a serious mental illness. Similarly in today’s society, medical and psychological advice may have the same effect. Medical technology and practice have progressed considerably since the time of the “Yellow Wallpaper.” This is not to say that today’s physicians are infallible. Perhaps some of today’s treatments are the “Yellow Wallpaper” of the future .
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s tantalizing short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” tells the horrifying tale of a nineteenth century woman whose husband condemns her to a rest cure, a popular approach during the era to treat post-partum depression. Although John, the unnamed narrator’s husband, does not truly believe his wife is ill, he ultimately condemns her to mental insanity through his treatment. The story somewhat resembles Gilman’s shocking personal biography, namely the rest cure she underwent under the watchful eye of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, two years after the birth of her daughter, Katherine. Superficially, the rest cure the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" endures loosely replicates Gilman’s personal anguish as she underwent such a treatment. More complexly, however, the story both accentuates and indirectly criticizes the oppression women faced in both marriage and motherhood.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator and her husband John, rent out a house for three months. During their stay the narrator explains how she isn’t allowed to work and takes tonics and phosphates to recover from hysteria. The narrator is the main character in the story and goes through several changes throughout the story. The narrator’s mind slowly deteriorates because of her mental condition and the lack of attention she receives from everyone around her.