Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through

In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman characterizes herself in the life of Jane, a woman suffering from nervous depression who, like Gilman, was prescribed a

After learning of Gilman’s personal story, it becomes apparent that “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and the struggle of its narrator, carries a distinct message. Gilman grew up in an unhappy and impoverished family with a brother, a single mother, and no father figure. She later went on to marry Charles Stetson (whom she later divorced) and had a daughter with him. After the birth of her daughter, Gilman fell into a deeply depressed state, indicating the relevance of postpartum depression. When she consulted Dr. Weir Mitchell about it, she was prescribed a “rest cure.” It was this event that inspired Gilman to write “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and many similarities can be drawn between

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.

Gilman’s husband, John is a great example of a controlling spouse and male. John held full control over Gilman’s life, completed all decisions, and treated her with such inferiority. He never takes her ideas serious and sees them as laughable moments: “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 226). This not only displays John’s inferiority but as well as what is expected from society at this time. Gilman see’s this small action of her husband laughing at her a norm, rather than John holding power over her. Once, Jane, the unnamed narrator, who is a stranger to herself, takes full control of her thoughts, she quickly reverses John’s character. Instead of seeing John as a resilient,

Annals of Pharmacotherapy. (32: 7). 1998. 829.33. Print. Most people who wrote about "The Yellow Wallpaper" do so from the perspective of a literary scholar. This however is written by someone in the health care field. C.B. Frye says that fiction can impact the larger world; in this case it impacted mental health and the work of Gillman's doctor, S Weir Mitchell. Although the short story acts as a testimony from a patient, there is either no or very little information from the perspective of the health care community about why the rest cure was used.

At the start of the summer in 1882, Gilman suffered her first bout with depression (Bauer 31). Gilman described her mental illness as “a worse horror than before, for now I saw the stark fact – that I was well while away and sick while at home – a heartening prospect! Soon ensued the same utter prostration, the unbearable inner misery, the ceaseless tears” (Undergoing 871). Through this daunting tale, she is describing her own personal battle with mental illness. This is a “striking story of female confinement and escape, a paradigmatic tale which seems to tell the story that all literary women would tell if they could speak their ‘speechless woe’” (Gilbert and Gubar 868).

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote, “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892. She brings to light a typical agenda for a female in a patriarchal society. It presents the relationship between men and women. Women were only considered for marriage and motherhood. Men were suited to pursue education and have a career. Women’s roles in society robbed them of expression. This left no one happy. Women wanted the same opportunities. Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” to prove to readers that women have rights. Women shouldn’t be viewed as physically and intellectually weaker than men. They shouldn’t take the role of motherhood and only focus on the domestic work around the house. She wanted to change the traditional norm and encourage women’s independence.

A fundamental theme throughout Gilman’s work is that the narrator is not allowed to go to her creative outlet, or be around people who might elicit creativity. She should not be able to express herself due to John’s prescription of the “rest cure”, which resorts to her keeping a hidden journal. Gilman presents men in her narrator’s life as having high standing in the medical world, “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

Charlotte Perkins Gilman took a leap of faith while writing one of the most notorious stories of her time. The era in which it was written was a time where women were frowned upon for voicing their opinions. Women’s roles in society have evolved over a course of many years. Jobs, social standings, and other rights have not always come easy like they do today. Women were not treated as equals. Gilman’s voice is undoubtedly heard in her story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, writing about a woman driven mad by a controlling husband. The two main characters, the narrator and John, relate a sense of irony that Gilman often portrays in her fiction. His negligence and subordination are cast upon the narrator, and her troubles are told through her diary. When first read over, the story seems like it is just about a woman with a mental health problem. When read deeper, the reader will grasp the underlying theme. This feministic story is derived from a time period where women were not given the freedom to make their own decisions. Gilman wanted people to be aware of this. By knowing the time period in which her story is set, it is easier to understand what the narrator is going through. Generally speaking, Gilman’s use of characters and setting, make an excellent short story work, and give a powerful message.The mistreatment and inequality of the narrator is what ultimately drives her to the breaking point. The point

1. "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1899) contains elements that could be construed as a feminist take on a paternalistic society or a gothic ghost story. When the writer states that ""¦ he hardly lets me stir without direction," I can't imagine anything more claustrophobic. Given the period in which this is written, it makes sense that this attitude is fueled by the endemic paternalism of the time. When the heads with bulging eyes began to appear in the wallpaper, as if these heads represented a harvest of women trapped in a paternalistic society, this could be construed as the writer portraying the oppression of women, but it could also be viewed as a ghostly manifestation. However, the one consistent theme throughout the story is that the writer is slowly losing her mind, due in large part to her husband's well-intentioned prescription of rest. While this type of treatment would never be tolerated in Western society today, from what I know of that period the husband was probably acting in good faith. If this assessment is true, then this can't be a story about the oppression of women or a ghost story, but a story about the slow encroachment of insanity brought about by a paternalistic approach to medicine.

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

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a compelling story about a women with depression who is forced to undergo extreme bedrest, and because of this, becomes insane. Many would analyze the story and conclude that the purpose of writing it was to tell about a woman who becomes mad, or to portray the medical treatment of women in earlier times. Although this may be the case, it seems that the real reason for writing the story was to reveal the criticism of marriage and the oppression of women. The years prior to the story were ones known for women’s suffrage. Gilman’s purpose was to reveal the low standards of women in that time, even though they were not directly described in the story.

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

It’s a short story about a woman who goes insane when in bedrest that was diagnosed by her husband. She is told to reside in their vacation home, which is in a rural and rarely socialized part of the country. There, she must rest and recover from her tangle on the brinks of sanity. In the 1950’s men know very little about the mental health of women, besides what they wanted to. Further, the story displays how the woman’s husband kept her from socializing, exercising, or reading and doing what made her happy because it “put manic thoughts in her head”. Gillman had very famously suffered a similar fate. She lived a very severely impacted life in which she spent suffering from severe bouts of depression. Also, Gilman wrote this story while suffering from her own mental breakdown which was a result of her own distressed and dysfunctional marriage(From Woman to Human). In a sense, her life was very unconventional for women of that time. Gillman divorced her husband to end their dysfunctional marriage and allowed her husband to raise the child, which was unheard of in this day and age, for society made it pretty clear that a woman’s job was at home with the children. Finally, this shows how severely impaired our nation was at the time. As a society, we took it upon ourselves to place the health and future of our women into the hands of the often abusive men of their lives, which furthered any already prevalent mental problems that any female may suffer