A Close Reading Of `` The Yellow Wallpaper `` By Charlotte Gilmans

Throughout history, our perception of different topics has changed drastically. For example, our view on slavery or government has changed from accepting the culture normal to accepting almost the exact opposite of the traditional idea. Currently, as a society, we work diligently to alter the ancient view we possess on women and mental illness. Charlotte Perkins Gilman represents a type of person who led her time period in revolutionary ideas. In her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman illustrates the internal battles of both being a woman in a society controlled by men and a person who suffers from mental illness, at a time when that topic was not commonly discussed. As Mason Cooley says, “every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.” Cooley used this statement to draw attention to the seriousness of mental illness. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman utilizes the diary of the protagonist to illustrate the deeper thoughts of someone suffering from mental illness, while John, both a husband and physician, ignores his wife’s symptoms and believes that she just needs to rest. The ever-changing role of women in society plays an important role in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” By using descriptive imagery, ambiguous scenes and a first person point-of-view, Gilman creates a short story that utilizes setting to critique the gender roles of the nineteenth-century.

In "The Yellow Wallpaper", the progressing madness of the protagonist demonstrates loss of self. Charlotte Perkins Gilman published the article on January 1892, this story focuses on the real-life depression and how gender can play a serious role in society. The narrator had many forces that were up against her, from being depressed to having to face the every day fact that she truly not accepted equally along with man. There were many questions in what was the real reason that she was depressed but she wanted to keep the suspense of everything, she wanted to keep the mystery a secret.

In most stories, the narrator talks about present or past events that are undoubtedly true and the narrator just stating the facts and not offering his or her perspective. In this case, there is no need to question the narrator’s credibility. However, other narrators may state some facts, but in the end, it all comes to his or her perspective. And as we all now, there are two sides to every story, so can we really believe the narrator’s perspective? This is exactly the question all readers of “The Yellow Wallpaper” ask themselves.

The illustration on page one drew me towards The Yellow Wallpaper, published in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This short story initially conjured up images of macabre events and the supernatural. A husband, wife, and their newborn are “lucky” to find an inexpensive rental and choose the former nursey as their bedchamber, a room with bars on the windows and torn wallpaper. Narrated in the first person by the wife, the setting reminded me of the television series, American Horror Story. As the story unfolds, either the wife has made a ghostly discovery, or she is going insane.

The “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman communicates it’s most prominent message throughout the story; that women are kept as prisoners in life and in marriage when forced to live a domestic life that lacks the opportunity for personal growth. The narrator’s husband likely believed that he was doing what was best for his wife. However, the gender oppression dictated during this short story's time period caused John's belief of superiority. The narrator’s husband, and men, in general, were given opportunities work, grow, and make connections outside the home, unlike women during this time. According to society, men knew better than women and according to the author, complete happiness is not possible in the life of marriage.

In Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Jane is driven insane when the neurasthenia rest cure is given to he by her husband and physician, John. The rest cure was created by Dr. Weir Mitchell targeted towards women who displayed symptoms of neurasthenia,”a psychological disorder marked especially by easy fatigability and often by lack of motivation, [and] feelings of inadequacy”(Merriam- Webster). Jane is forbidden to work and write. She is told to not overexert her mind or body, and her illness and thoughts are constantly belittled by her husband. Her creative, imaginative and greatly contrast her husband who chooses to assimilate in society and assume his expected role as the caregiver in the family.Although she is forbidden, Jane secretly writes in a journal to express her thoughts, feeling she needs just the opposite of what the resting cure requires. The narrator expresses her utter revulsion for the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom, which she quickly becomes fascinated with. She even begins hallucinated a woman trapped behind bars in the wallpaper, going as far as ripping out the wallpaper to free the woman, whom she thinks is herself. The narrator is driven insane by the confinements placed on her by both the rest cure and her husband. Her imagination is confined, coercing her to release it in something else. As a result, the narrator overanalyzes the wallpaper, soon reaching a point in which she loses her self identity and

In Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator does not actually have a psychotic outbreak because of her depression, but by having to hide her true emotions to fake happiness and being seen as having socially acceptable behaviors. While the narrator believes that being social will help improve her depressive state, John (the narrator’s doctor and “husband”), believes that the resting cure will be more effective in helping the narrator overcome her depression. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is essentially the narrator’s journal, and the narrator expresses her true emotions and channels her fears into each entry. Unfortunately by being isolated from people for a long period of time (due to the resting cure) the narrator loses all grip of reality and

In literature, authors always apply different techniques to better illustrate their arguments or opinions on situations or ideas related to their backgrounds. For Charlotte Gilman, her works advocated for women’s identity. However, the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” made her distinct from others due to her clever use of symbolism and unique narration that engaged and entertained audiences. Even more, she challenged readers to fight for their beliefs by showing her audacity to revolutionize against society as an example. Through the semi-autobiographical psychological horror “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Gilman defined herself as an artistic yet rebellious author that encouraged others to be fearless by symbolizing the wallpaper as

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Catherine Perkins Gilman, the narrator’s thoughts and mental sickness led to madness and feeling less accepted by her family.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” (published in 1892) is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Narrated by a woman through her descent into madness, the protagonist is perceived to be suffering from a “temporary nervous depression — a slight hysterical tendency” and is being misdiagnosed with the rest cure treatment (par. 10). Although not as well-known as other literary works, one believes that “The Yellow Wallpaper” is considered an American classic for its remarkable plot and in-depth analysis that instill a strong personal reaction.

Published in 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” may be approached as an American example of the female Gothic, a literary genre pioneered by English writers such as Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe. According to the book “Loving with a Vengeance: Mass Produced Fantasies for Women,” author Tania Modleski points out that texts belonging to this genre typically focus on female protagonists who find themselves in romantic relationships with men that eventually come to oppress them. Thus, Gothic narratives trace the female protagonist’s victimization at the hands of a male lover or a husband, providing “an outlet for women’s fears about fathers and husbands” (Modleski 10). Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), which describes the misadventures of orphaned Emily who is pursued and persecuted by a violent suitor, is often cited as a quintessential Gothic novel. However, elements of this genre can also be discerned in such renowned literary classics as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), with its Gothic setting, ghostly happenings, the brooding male protagonist, and the motif of the madwoman in the attic. It must be noted, however, that the female Gothic was a popular genre, which was not initially valued for its subversive content and even frequently dismissed by critics (Watt 5). Only later, following the advent of critical theory and gender studies, was it reclaimed and celebrated by feminist critics such as Modleski. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Experiences are one of the most essential parts of life. Each experience can give knowledge on how to react in the future or in this case, how to deliver a point. Charlotte Perkins Gilman expresses her experiences and feelings with her writing in order to create a stronger case and bring change for women. Gilman fought the time’s misogynistic culture with many works such as her newspaper, The Forerunner, The Yellow Wallpaper, Women and Economics, as well as several others essays or short stories. In these stories, Gilman draws from her experiences to fight 19th century sexist culture. Charlotte Gilman’s experiences greatly influenced the content of her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, using a story similar to her own as a mechanism in

During the nineteenth century, women along with men were expected to fill separate spheres of society. Most men were expected to live a public life while women were accordingly expected to live their lives largely homebound, taking care of the cooking, cleaning with child rearing. Free time for women was not supposed to be spent socializing, yet doing other things related to the maintenance of the family, from sewing socks to the laundry. Very few women had the same opportunities for education as men. A small fraction of women started to protest for their rights and some is abolitionist writers. Among those writers, Charlotte Perkins Stetson, who was women’s rights activism.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) born into an upper middle class society, married in 1884 and remarried in1900. Suffered from post-partum depression after giving birth prescribed “rest cure” by her actual physician. Gilman is a feminist and played a huge role in brining attention to women’s issues for example marriage law divorce, domestic violence, and medical treatment. Gilman’s story The Yellow Wallpaper written in 1892 is a semi-autobiographical story based on the events during her first marriage, which has wide-ranging implications for women. Storyline is about an unnamed narrator (female), her husband John who also happens to be her physician, and narrator’s sister in law Jennie vacationing in a colonial mansion for the summer. The

The Yellow Wallpaper" is mostly self-depicting. Charlotte Perkins Gilman made it after she fled from her better half with her infant tyke young lady to California. More basic than the story's comparable qualities to Gilman's own specific experience is the greater issue of a woman's privilege to be creative and free. The story can be seen as maintaining a woman's qualification to act and speak to herself; the alternative unmistakably prompts to free for all, as it finishes for Jane.