The Yellow Wallpaper is a semi-autobiographical short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Before proceeding directly to the analysis of this short story, it is important to understand the writer herself. Gilman used her personal struggle with postpartum depression, to create a powerful fictional story, which has wide subtext for women. When the narrator admits that there is more than one captured crawling woman Gilman points out that the meaning of her story goes beyond the isolated, individual situation. The main goal of writing this story is to rescue the women from further suffering under “rest cure” and to condemn the oppression of women, which was usual for the twentieth century. The most prominent technical and stylistic feature of the …show more content…
Readers know the name of the narrator's husband (John), but her name is not mentioned anywhere; her identity is simply the wife of John. This imbalance of power applies to other areas of their relationship. John dominates over his wife, hiding it under the guise of concern for her. He forbids her to do anything that will employ her mind productively, and generally refers to her as a child, for example, he says: "blessed little goose". At first, the story-teller tries to fight against the growing oppression. She even challenges John’s treatment by writing the diary. Yet, while one part of her may believe John wrong, another part believes that since he is the man, the doctor, and therefore the authority, he may be right. Because they hold unequal power positions in the relationship and in society, she lacks the courage and self-esteem to assert her will over his even though she knows that his “treatment” is harming her. When he tells to practice in self-control over her irritation with him, the effect is ironic; he controls everything and even makes her feel ungrateful for such a care. Almost every aspect of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is ironic in some way. For example, the narrator writes: “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” Certainly in a healthy marriage, such things are not acceptable. Later, she says, “I am glad my case is not serious,” at a point when it is clear that is
As was common of the treatment of women during the nineteenth century, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is one of oppression as John, the protagonist's physician husband, tries to cure her mental illness with a treatment plan of solitude and rest after moving in hopes his wife will regain her health. While critics have debated what causes the character's eventual insanity, María Teresa González Mínguez suggests that lack of a creative outlet lends to the woman's rapid regression. The protagonist's lack of a creative outlet combined with isolation ensures a downward spiral for the woman as symptoms of her mental illness ultimately consume her. While John hopes monitoring his wife's behaviors will cure her, his efforts only worsen her mental state.
The yellow wallpaper in the room the narrator despises, is a reflection of women’s status in society, being trapped under the power of males. The narrator lost all of her freedom to John. John has gotten to such a point of control where she cannot even pick who she can spend time with and where she can sleep. After John told her she could not, the narrator started writing down her thoughts and her mental illness was getting so bad to the point where there has been “things in that paper that nobody knows but [her].” The narrator is now completely insane because of her husband.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” narrative moves beyond a “nervous depression” (376) matter, it operates around John imposing his own personal opinions, half hazard physician’s diagnosis, and furthermore, his overall arrogance that he
For example, in the fire swamp, Westley is telling Buttercup a funny story. Next, Buttercup notices giant rat creatures coming towards them, which makes the reader scared of what's going to happen next. Then, Westley beats the giant rat creatures, which makes the reader relieved. Later, Prince Humperdinck traps Buttercup and Westley. Buttercup reluctantly chooses to go with Prince Humperdinck to spare Westley’s life, which makes the reader feel sad.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator, Jane, has postpartum depression. In order to cure this depression, John, Jane’s husband and a doctor, administer the rest treatment on her. Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” through her personal experience. Along with writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” she wrote an explanation for why she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
Unfortunately, humans do not and will never know all there is to know. Some questions will remain unanswered; however, the questions are still important. While intelligence tends to present itself as knowledge, it should instead be associated with imagination or curiosity. One important topic Charlotte Perkins Gilman addresses in her story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the tendency for society to hold those in authority to the highest prestige; experts may seem entirely knowledgeable in their area of expertise while not having the entire picture. It is better to question even the most accredited individual or established subject matter due to information possibly being absent or misunderstood.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story told through diary entries of a woman who suffers from postpartum depression. The narrator, whose name is never mentioned, becomes obsessed with the ugly yellow wallpaper in the summer home her husband rented for them. While at the home the Narrator studies the wallpaper and starts to believe there is a woman in the wallpaper. Her obsession with the wallpaper slowly makes her mental state deteriorate. Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses many literary devices such as symbolism, personification and imagery to help convey her message and get it across to the reader.
The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story full of imaginative symbolism and descriptive settings. However, without the narrator’s unique point of view and how it affects her perception of her environment, the story would fail to inform the reader of the narrator’s emotional plummet. The gothic function of the short story is to allow the reader to be with the narrator as she gradually loses her sanity and the point of view of the narrator is key in ensuring the reader has an understanding of the narrator’s emotional and mental state throughout the story. It’s clear from the beginning of the story that the narrator’s point of view greatly differs from that of her husband’s and other family in her life.
In Charlotte Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” she tells a horrific ghost story about symptoms of the rest cure. The “rest cure” was a treatment developed by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell who restricted women of intellectual stimuli and condemned them to a domestic life to help their postpartum recovery. After being a victim of this treatment, Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Careful attention to the use of Gilman’s symbols in her short story allows the reader to analyze some of the themes concerning feminism and societal misogyny. Foreshadowing throughout, Gilman uses the house, the writing, and the wallpaper as symbols to show how man’s use of the “rest cure” limit women in society and offers that the solution to this issue is to persistently tear away at man’s injustice.
The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 shows mental illness through the narrator first hand. The theme in this story is going insane verses loneliness as well as being trapped. These themes are shown through the main character (the narrator of the story) as she works through her own mind, life, and surroundings. First, the theme of the woman’s state of mind is the main focus in this story.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is suffering from postpartum depression. The narrator 's husband John, who also happens to be her physician, prescribes the rest cure to help lift his wife of her depressive state and ultimately heal her depression. However, the rest cure does not allow the narrator to experience any mental stimulation. Therefore, to manage her boredom the narrator begins obsessing over the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. After analyzing the pattern for awhile, the narrator witnesses a woman trapped behind bars.
In “Yellow Wallpaper” dramatic irony is used by more than one of the characters in the story. One example is when the husband John, is very unaware of his wife’s hidden diary (Gilmore 92). This is brought into the story because the author wants to give the reader
The story "The yellow wall-paper" briefly described the theme of gender inequality by telling us how did a normal female patient become crazy. In this story, the narrator has to follow the decisions which are all made by his husband, this makes her felt confusing and upset. Her husband has never listened to her ideas because he thinks that she has already had some kind of mental disease. The gender inequality problem and the conflicts come with it directly caused the madness of the narrator. Meanwhile, the conflicts between the narrator and herself, like she always tells herself that “John is professional in curing patients, he must be right”, and also the conflict between her husband and herself, like John often ignores her feelings, both perfectly illustrate the idea of “gender inequality”.
Charlotte Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, (1899) is a text that describes how suppression of women and their confinement in domestic sphere leads to descend into insanity for escape. The story is written as diary entries of the protagonist, who is living with her husband in an old mansion for the summer. The protagonist, who remains unnamed, is suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her child and is on ‘rest’ cure by her physician husband. In this paper, I will try to prove that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ acts as a subversive text by portraying the protagonist’s “descent into madness” as a result of the suppression that women faced in Victorian period.
She wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” in an effort to open the public’s eyes to the unfairness of this treatment. By infusing Jane’s narrative with childish language and actions without ever actually calling “Jane” by her name, Gilman creates a universal experience any woman of the time could insert herself into. This allowed women to fully realize the injustice they faced. John’s belittlement of Jane also serves to create both a universal and eye opening experience for the women reading it. Additionally, for those who were willing to read into the symbolism, the nursery and the meaning underlying it added to the injustice Gilman conveys.