“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 is a short story that explores the effects of challenging patriarchal and social oppression on a woman’s mental health. The story’s protagonist is an unnamed woman who is prescribed a rest cure by her physician husband, John, to help her recover from what he describes to be a “nervous depression”. The woman is confined to a room in their summer home decorated with yellow wallpaper. As the days pass, she becomes increasingly fixated on the wallpaper and begins to lose touch with reality. In the final moments of the story, the woman descends into madness, and her husband passes out after discovering the states she is in. In the end, she triumphs over the oppressors that have led …show more content…
This is the last day, but it is enough." expresses the narrator's excitement. She reveals that her husband, John, is staying in town overnight and won't be back until the evening. Her sister-in-law Jennie wanted to sleep with her, but she refused and said that she would rest better alone. The narrator's refusal to let Jennie, sleep in the room with her, and her declaration that she wants to stay in the room alone, shows her growing sense of independence and control. This sense of control is also emphasized by her success in tearing off a significant portion of the yellow wallpaper that has been tormenting …show more content…
She wants to surprise him. The narrator's desire to "astonish" her husband when he returns shows her increasing desire for power and control in her relationship with him. She reveals having a rope hidden in the room that even Jennie didn't find, and if the woman in the wallpaper tries to get away, she can tie her up. The introduction of the rope as a means of tying up the woman in the wallpaper shows the narrator's increasing sense of desperation and potential for
Only the charwoman goes near him. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator feels trapped by her husband and physician, John, because he is controlling and believes he knows what is best for her. The woman that the narrator sees in the wallpaper is eventually revealed to be
Then after this she kinda just went beyond crazy. “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And i’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can 't put me back.” She wanted the woman in the yellow wallpaper to escape so she helped her out. Because her husband traumatized her she was always nervous and emotional.
She reaches a breaking point and rips the wallpaper off the walls. She got to a point where the wallpaper was detrimental to her mental health. The text shows this by, “I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper,” (220). At this moment it is apparent that the narrator is not well. This could have been prevented if John had paid more attention to her, if he had tried to pay more attention to her.
She is still seeing the woman behind it, and even sees her in various other places around the room. During her last night of sleeping in the house, she becomes very determined to rip off the wallpaper to expose the woman from her hiding place. The narrator goes absolutely bonkers. She "shook and she pulled" (219) the wallpaper from the wall in an attempt to help the woman she is seeing. The wallpaper is torn down overnight, but it is apparent that it was very difficult for the narrator to do so because only a strip is missing from the wall.
Ghracelle King ENGL 110 Februrary 12 2023 Paper 1 The “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short fiction first-person novel that describes a woman with mental health issues and emphasizes the social expectations that were in place for women at the time more specifically, in the 18th century when women had almost no control. Gilman illustrated how the narrator manages to get over her husband and the physician's restrictions in order to write and gain freedom. The woman's mental condition deteriorates in "The Yellow Wallpaper" as she receives a "rest cure" in a rented home from her husband who is also a physician. Throughout the novel, her obsession with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom is a symbol of how she descends into
In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, it shows a story about a woman struggling with depression and suffering. This story helps show readers what silencing women can do to them. Her brother and husband, both are physicians and believe they know what's best for her, which is isolating her and convincing her she is not sick. She is convinced by them even though she does not agree with what they are saying. She tries to reach out to her husband, but convinces her that she needs to rest.
She cannot do anything to her husband directly, she tears down the wallpaper as a reaction. About this issue, Karen Ford interprets the symbol of wallpaper and its connection with male discourse in her essay: “The wallpaper, in fact, sometimes appears like male discourse in its capacity to contradict and immobilize the women who are trapped within it. In this view, the narrator releases herself (and other women) from the paper by tearing it down” (311). Because the narrator says “I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back" (Gilman 23). From this aspect, the wallpaper and the woman gain different meanings: “The wallpaper is women's writing or women's discourse, and the woman in the wallpaper to be the representation of women that becomes possible only after women obtain the right to speak”
She knew no one else was allowed to touch the wallpaper while alive. She thought she was finally out of the wallpaper, she was finally free. “‘I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jennie? And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’”(656). She was now officially
As the story progresses, the narrator's mental state continues to deteriorate. She becomes convinced that there is a woman trapped behind the wallpaper, and she becomes obsessed with freeing her. This obsession is a manifestation of the narrator's own desire to break free from the constraints that society has placed upon her. She feels trapped in her role as a wife and mother, and she longs for the freedom to express herself and to be taken
She becomes obsessive over the woman in the wallpaper, theorizing that the wallpaper moves because of the woman, and assumes that the woman can escape from the wallpaper. At the end of the story, the narrator locks herself in her room and throws the key to ensure that she will catch the woman in the wallpaper. When her husband John unlocks the
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman reveals the medical community's mistakes of generalizing treatment and unfair treatment of women. The Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman who has been assigned the “rest cure” by her husband who is a doctor. Her brother, who is also a doctor, agreed with her husband’s decision. This cure is supposed to deal with her postpartum depression.
As the narrator becomes more fascinated with the wallpaper she moves progressively away from her normal day-to-day routines and lifestyle. When the narrator finally recognizes herself as the woman trapped in the wallpaper she screams at her husband "I 've got out at last," (Gilman 656) "you can 't put me back" (Gilman 656). She realizes woman are forced to hide behind the internal patterns of their lives and they need that she needs to be
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
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the short story takes place in the diary of an unnamed woman in 1892; who is being driven crazy by improper medical treatment illustrated by the narrator’s increasing obsession with the wallpaper in her bedroom. Gilman reveals to the readers that the narrator struggles with a form of mental illness throughout the story; the narrator says she has ‘temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency’. In response to these mental struggles the narrator is prescribed the ‘resting cure’; also known as bed rest. As the story progresses the woman's mental health deteriorates while her mind twists reality creating an antagonist out of an inanimate object she can’t escape due
Her fixation became an obsession which ultimately resulted in a complete mental breakdown. The narrator believed at first there was a woman in the wallpaper trying to get out, and she convinced herself she was the woman in the wallpaper. A summary of the article states, “On the day before the family is to leave the house, John comes home to find his wife creeping in circles about the nursery, surrounded by a mass of torn wallpaper. She calls out to her husband as he rushes into the room, ‘I’ve got out at last…in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most the paper, so you can’t put me back!’”