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. Eventually, we realize that the woman in the wallpaper is the narrator. Throughout the story, the narrator 's mental state continues to deteriorate. Being both the narrator 's husband and physician, John assumes that he knows what’s best for his wife. However, in this essay, I will argue that Gilman portrays John as an antagonist or “villain” in her story because, through his actions, he is the main reason for his wife 's descent into insanity which proves that he didn’t know what was best for his wife after all. Therefore, John represents the bars of the wallpaper which confines the woman and doesn 't allow her to be free. First, we can observe the descriptions or feelings that the narrator expresses when speaking about John. Although these descriptions or feelings may seem positive at times, they slowly become more negative and judgmental throughout the story as she realizes that John doesn’t
To begin with, “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, also went through postpartum depression. This story, is about a woman who has gone insane by post-partum depression and a dangerous treatment. On the other hand, an analysis of the mother’s character discloses that this story is basically about
Just as in Rowlandson’s piece the reader is able to follow the narrator’s transition in opinion towards her captor. Unlike Rowlandson though, the narrator trusts her captor and Gilman paints John as credible and smart, “Can you not trust me as a physician as I tell you so,” (652) John says when the narrator tells him that she does not believe that she is truly getting better. With the use of the epistolary novel style of writing, Gilman was able to play with diction and show the change in the narrator from the beginning of the piece to the end. By the end, the narrator begins to use choppy, fragmented language that contrasts with the long, sensible sentences used in the beginning of the piece. “I always lock the door when I creep out daylight.
In charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman illustrates the topic of mental health and through the employment of foreshadowing the theme isolation can lead to insanity is evident and contributes meaning to the story. The theme is shown through the foreshadowing of the narrator's diminution of rationality. One scenario in which this is instituted is when the narrator found that the her “bed stead is fairly gnawed” (Gilman 13). This foreshadowed the narrator’s insanity because it hints at maybe she isn’t revealing everything about her behavior that she lets on. Later on, when the narrator is psychotically trying to pull of all of the wallpaper, she “tried to lift and push it (the bed) until I was lame, and then I got so angry
“The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a short story that portrays a very common view of nineteenth century culture and medicine. The story, written in classical fiction form, has a plot, setting, a cast of characters, and a point of view from which the story is told. The way in which the story is told, and the unexpected conclusion, are two of the main reasons why “The Yellow Wallpaper” is such an important piece of nineteenth century fiction. There are few characters in the story; however, each one plays a crucial role in allowing the reader to come to a deeper understanding of the meaning behind the story by allowing the reader insight into the mind of the narrator.
Like the narrator, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the story’s author, had suffered from post-partum depression and was prescribed the rest cure. The rest cure’s impact on Gilman was similar to the impact the treatment had on the narrator in which Gilman “came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin” (Gilman). However, unlike the narrator, Gilman was helped by a wise friend and went back to work “ultimately recovering some measure of power” (Gilman). With proper treatment and support, Gilman was able to pick herself back up from mental ruin and write “The Yellow Wallpaper” to share the adverse effects the rest cure had on women. Gilman states, the story “was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.”
Feminist theory is a big underlying factor in this since John is the patriarch of the story and the marriage, dictating what type of treatment she will receive and what she will and will not do while being treated. Charlotte Perkins Gilman produced this piece of literature in the 19 Century, a time in which women were not treated as equals with men and “The Yellow Wallpaper” seems to be a direct response to the fixed gender roles and social norms of not only a male dominated medical institution, but society as a whole. Many different examples are presented in “The Yellow Wallpaper” that tell that the narrator is not in control of her treatment, such as; “John is a physician, and perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster”, and “ 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?” along with “So I take phosphates or phosphites,—whichever it is,—and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again.
In the “Yellow Wallpaper” from Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman suffering from nervous depression narrates her own story. Her husband and her occupy a curious mansion for the summer. He choses to establish their bedroom in the nursery at the top of the house. The first description of this room appears quite positive despite some disturbing elements she mentions: “the windows are barred”, “there are rings and things in the walls” (194) and especially the awful yellow wallpaper she starts describing in a troubling way: “it is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others” (194). She confesses, her husband John, a physician, wants the best for her and is doing everything in his power to help her recovering from her
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.”
Passage Analysis #1 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman, in this particular passage of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” explores the theme of female oppression through imagery and symbolism of the wall-paper. These elements of literature make the wall-paper come to life for both the narrator and the audience. “The front pattern does move”(55) personifies the wall-paper to be so animate and physically restraining that the woman behind it must shake it to attempt to escape. The italicization of “does” serves to further affirm that the wallpaper exhibits restrictive human-like behaviors - particularly those of dominant men in society. The narrator states that there are “a great many woman behind”(55), extending the metaphor to all Victorian women in the United States and others around the world who are oppressed.
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.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gillman represents the narrator, showing how she becomes defeated throughout her own personal journal. She first becomes paranoid and distrustful towards her husband, john. Then she begins to have hallucinations towards the yellow wallpaper of the room that she is currently staying. Lastly she lets her own severe mental breakdowns take control over her. According to Calum A. Kerr, “The story continues with the introduction of the narrators husband as a physician of high standing and the fact she is sick with what her husband claims as temporary nervous depression.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” Literary Analysis The “Yellow Wallpaper” is a iconic short story written by Charlotte Perkins, a famous feminist author. The novel takes place the 19th century and deals with the issue of how women dealt with mental health issues, specifically postpartum depression. Back in the 19th century the way physicians dealt with women 's mental health was much different then it is today, back then they believed that the cure for depression was solvable by isolation and rest. As a result many women suffering from postpartum depression were forced into isolation which only made their situation worse. Jane; the narrator of the short story, is one of these woman forced into the rest treatment by her physician husband.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a young woman who is battling severe depression. The protagonist is essentially locked away for the summer as a cure for her psychological disorder(s) (Craig 36). Being locked in the house with the yellow wallpaper worsens her mental state and eventually drives her to insanity. Throughout the course of the story, the protagonist’s mental state noticeably declines; she claims there are people in the wallpaper and believes it is haunting her. Several Gothic themes are scattered throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper”; however, the protagonist’s isolation, the presence of insanity, and the occurring idea of supernatural elements are most prominent and can be used to justify “The Yellow
During this time period, women were generally oppressed and had little to say in anything. Gilman uses symbolism to help facilitate the story and give better meaning behind what Jane is going through. The first thing that is mentioned in the story is the house. It symbolizes a sort of safe haven for Jane. It is where she is supposed to get better and express herself freely.
Assignment Title: Text Analysis Exercise Introduction Charlotte Perkins Gilman was best known for her writings regarding the unequal status of women within the constraint of marriage. Gilman, as a sociologist and a reformer, argued that women’s traditional role in domestic sphere confined their creativity and intelligence. The text to be analyzed here is a remarkable work of Gilman’s: the short story The Yellow Wallpaper. The story is set in 1892 and is told in strict first-person narration in the form of a journal by a woman who suffers from depression.