During our time in class, we have had the opportunity to study ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, a short novel written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; A popular feminist during the Victorian era. The story was first published in the 1892 issue of ‘The New England Magazine’. Gilman was born July 3rd 1860 and died August 17th 1935. She married Charles Walter Stetson in 1884. Her postnatal depression led up to her divorce in 1888. As it was for nearly all women in the Victorian era, Gilman was told she was suffering from hysteria. This is then reflected in the novel, when the protagonist mentions how her ‘condition is worsening’. In fact, the novel is very didactic, as it shows how poorly women were treated in the Victorian era. She took her problems to a recommended to physician. She was told to abandon her love of writing and was made house-bound. This nearly drove her insane. Her cure was 'The Yellow Wallpaper'. In lots of ways, the story is more non fiction than fiction, as it tells us how badly women were treated, and how insignificant the women were. The setting is a feature that instantly shows the genre of the novel. It is clear to any reader that this novel has a gothic setting. For example, the quote, “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house.” First of all, the word hereditary is often used in gothic novels because of its meaning; the passing of sins. The word hereditary, when used in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' can be very ambiguous as the two meanings could fit easily into the story. This helps prove our point that the novel fits into the gothic tradition as ambiguity is popular amongst gothic pieces. This quote also has even more gothic traits. An obvious one, even so, it still shows signs that t... ... middle of paper ... ...at she has done wrong. A quote to back up my suggestion is “there is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken and two bulbous eyes staring it you upside down.” A broken neck could suggest suicide. It is not clear that it is the protagonist who has the “broken neck” but it is a likely outcome. This links to the question “does ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ fit into the gothic tradition” as religious things are used a lot in gothic pieces. There are a variety of interpretations for the movement behind the wallpaper. My personal interpretation is that the wallpaper represents the protagonist, and how she is symbolically trapped by her own marriage, and she has no freedom. Another interpretation is how, at night time, the front of the pattern can be seen as bars, and yet still the woman behind is visible; therefore looking like the woman behind is imprisoned.
Until she sees a woman creeping behind the pattern one night tempting her to go see if the wallpaper is actually moving which is when her husband catches her. He always seems to talk down to her treating her like a child in this particular instance calling her “little girl”. In spite of this she sees this as an opportunity to talk to let him know her concerns informing him that she is not getting better as he so adamantly believes. Nevertheless, her attempts are futile for he dismisses her once more putting his supposed medical opinion above his wife’s feelings. The story takes a shocking turn as she finally discerns what that figure is: a woman. As the story progress she believes the sole reason for her recovery is the wallpaper. She tells no one of this because she foresees they may be incredulous so she again feels the need to repress her thoughts and feelings. On the last night of their stay, she is determined to free the woman trapped behind bars. She begins to tear strips of the wallpaper and continues to all night by morning yards of the paper are stripped off. Her sister in law Jennie offers to help but at this point the narrator is territorially protective of the wallpaper. She locks herself in the room and is determined to strip the wall bare. As she is tearing the wallpaper apart she sees strangled heads in the pattern shrieking as the wallpaper is being torn off. At this point, she is furious and even
However, even though Christianity is a symbol that is prominent in O’Connor’s works, she still manages to pull in the grotesque theme that she is renowned for. These two themes are very contradicting but has become a well-known theme for many writers. It is often referred to as “Southern Gothic.”
All through the story, the yellow wallpaper acts as an antagonist, causing her to become very annoyed and disturbed. There is nothing to do in the secluded room but stare at the wallpaper. The narrator tells of the haphazard pattern having no organization or symmetrical plot. Her constant examination of and reflection on the wallpaper caused her much distress.... ...
As readers know, the narrator was barred from doing any “exciting” or strenuous activities such as reading, writing, or even visiting family members. Therefore, the only “interesting” source of mental stimulation available to her was the yellow wallpaper in her “prison”, thus resulting in her increasing infatuation. The start of her obsession begins after John’s refusal to let the narrator move to another room, which is when readers first uncover her disgust towards the wallpaper, as shown when she writes, “No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long” (Gilman). But, her hatred doesn’t stop there, for after a failed attempt to persuade John to remove the wallpaper, her repugnance only intensifies as she begins to read further and further into the wallpaper. The narrator states, “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Gilman), which shows that she is beginning to visualize disturbing images in it. However, her obsession truly takes a life of its own after John refuses to let the narrator visit her relatives, as this is when she begins to believe that the wallpaper is a “alive”. It is after
Specifically, she asks rhetorical questions to make readers think about the situation in the story. For example, in the story Jane says: ”You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?” (Gilman,1). When Jane asks that question Jane is unhappy about John’s attitude against her situation. In addition to that she tries to say she can’t do anything by herself against John who is a doctor. Also she tries take attention about the women rights in 19th century. Because at that time, women didn’t have to right to vote or get education. So more than just saying that John doesn’t believe that Jane is sick, also Jane tries to say is that she can not argue with her husband John because she doesn’t really have the right to argue with him at that period of time. An article about the overview of the story talks about the woman rights at Gilman’s time period and makes this statement:”The Victorian ideal stressed female chastity and innocence and held that a woman's ultimate roles were those of wife and mother. She was thus discouraged from aspiring to other occupations.”(“Overview”). So Gilman tries to give more messages about different things in life by using parallelism and rhetorical questions in her
This quote proves the societal repression of women by using the figure in the wallpaper as a symbol of the main character, trying to escape the pattern of her daily life. She is beginning to see that what is making her depressed is having no control over her own life, she is trapped in the routine of being controlled by her husband. This quote is also an example of societal repression of women because she wants to get out of her life, get out of the room, and away from the wallpaper. The author included her change of view of the wallpaper at night in the moonlight as a way to show that when John isn’t paying attention she sees the flaws in him and her life, and realizes how much she would like to be free. She notices that there is someone trapped in the wallpaper and she later tries to help it escape, which symbolizes her escaping her pattern and encourages more women of her time to escape as well. The author used symbolism in order for the reader to understand how unhappy the women is with her role and expectations in her daily life. Prior to this quote, the narrator describes how the nursery is one of the less extravagant rooms in the house for
The themes of the story are inferiority of women in marriage, expressing yourself, and the effects of treatment and they are universal. The main theme is the importance of expressing yourself, because if you don’t express yourself, you will lose yourself and then you won’t be who you truly are. An important symbol is the yellow wallpaper, which is in the room the narrator spends all her time in and is forced to stay in. She has nothing to do but stare at the intriguing wallpaper that has a woman trapped behind a pattern like she is trapped in her room. She also refers to the wallpaper as paper; therefore she reads the wallpaper like a text decoding the images like words.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" has been viewed as either a work of supernatural horror or as a feminist treatise regarding the role of women in society. A close analysis of Gilman's use of symbols reveals "The Yellow Wallpaper" as her response to the male view of hysteria from ancient times through the nineteenth century. " In "The Yellow Wallpaper" Gilman questions the validity of Hippocrates's theory of the wandering uterus and Weir Mitchell's "rest cure". As she wrote in her essay "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper?", "[the story] was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy…" (107). By her own account, Gilman's purpose in writing "The Yellow Wallpaper" was to educate and inform the public of the misinterpretation of hysterical symptoms.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s narrative entitled “The Yellow Wallpaper” portrays a nameless wife who gradually descends into psychosis due to a prescribed treatment of the time known as the “rest cure.” Gilman’s work is an excellent example of feminine oppression so prominent in the late nineteenth century. Women of the period were considered the weaker sex. They were at the will of their husbands who made decisions concerning all aspects of life including medical treatments, living arrangements and social activities. The intellectual stagnation and oppression of the narrator can be directly linked to her downward spiral into madness. The uses of literary elements in the story help demonstrate this theory.
She studies the pattern every chance she has, whether it is day or night time. Jane believes the figure trapped within the wallpaper is a woman, and writes, “By daylight she is subdued quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour” (653). During this time, she’s starting to displace herself onto the yellow wallpaper. The mysterious woman-like figure Jane sees in the wallpaper is trapped, just like she is stuck in their rental house by her husband.
...ble to see that it actually incorporates themes of women’s rights. Gilman mainly used the setting to support her themes. This short story was written in 1892, at that time, there was only one women's suffrage law. Now, because of many determinant feminists, speakers, teachers, and writers, the women’s rights movement has grown increasing large and is still in progress today. This quite recent movement took over more then a century to grant women the rights they deserve to allow them to be seen as equals to men. This story was a creative and moving way to really show how life may have been as a woman in the nineteenth century.
But nobody could climb through that pattern – it strangles so” (Gilman 1479). The narrator writes of sometimes seeing this woman out during the day, creeping around. This is most definitely a projection of how the narrator feels when she is around her husband. When he is home, she tip toes around him to appear better and normal; she tries not to upset him. She also views the paper as bars jailing in this mysterious woman; “At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be” (Gilman 1477). This is another obvious projection as to how she is feeling. She is quite literally jailed in a room where the windows are barred and the bed is nailed to the floor, she is not permitted to write or work or express herself in anyway, she is also told she must remain upstairs. She is living in her own personal jail with no escape. This is why her obsession with the wallpaper is so strong; this is why she is prepared to do whatever she can to free the woman who is jailed behind the pattern of the wallpaper. She knows that she cannot be caught, so she goes to drastic measures to get her free “I have locked the door and thrown the key down
"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.
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.
Early nineteenth century hysteria in women was extremely common. It was the first mental disorders attributed only to women. However, there was a grave misconception; the symptoms of hysteria at the time were seen as nervousness, hallucinations, emotional outbursts, various urges of sexual variety, sexual thoughts, fainting, sexual desire or frustration and irritability (Pearson). Although there were many symptoms they were not limited to this list. Many of these symptoms were just signs of expression that women had; however, society immediately decided that these women had hysteria with no real proof. These women then had a label, holding them back from their normal everyday lives that they were unable to fix because they were not allowed to. Because most doctors were men, they relayed the cure to these symptoms with sexual acts which were masked by portraying them as a cure such as “hysterical paroxysm” (Pearson). These so called “treatments” carried on for centuries after but are no longer used as a cure to hysteria. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of The Yellow Wallpaper was a feminist who at one point in her life was said to be labeled as hysteric. She then began expressing these feelings that she had through her writings. Most of these writings were based on her personal experiences with the disease. She believed that if she wrote about her situations and how she was able to push away from society to better herself that it could help other women with hysteria or the symptoms of it. Her representation of hysteria in The Yellow Wallpaper does not really differ from what women at the time expressed about themselves. Gilman’s representation and first hand experiences wit...