Critical Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a first-person narration of madness experienced by an unnamed woman in the Victorian era. The madness is exposed through a “nervous condition” diagnosed by the writer’s husband, a physician, who believes the only cure is prohibiting all intellectual thought and to remain in solitude for a “rest-cure”. The act of confinement propels the narrator into an internal spiral of defiance against patriarchal discourse. Through characterization and symbolism, “The Yellow Wallpaper” exhibits an inventive parallel between the narrator’s mental deterioration and her internal struggle to break free from female oppression imposed on her through her husband and society.

Berenji, Fahimeh Q. "Time and Gender in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”." Journal of History Culture and Art Research, vol. 2, no. 2, 1 Jan. 2013, pp. 221-234, Database: MLA International Bibliography -- Publications. kutaksam.karabuk.edu.tr/index.php. Accessed 18 Nov. 2017.

The forceful tone throughout the passage I chose, and story, shows that Gilman was forcefully trying to get her point across through the narrator of the story, that resting, and confinement were not the answers to curing mental health issues, such as postpartum depression, in the late nineteenth century, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do? I did write for a while in spite of them, but it does exhaust me a good deal- having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (Gilman, P. 462). She is forceful. She does not agree with the ideas of rest and confinement as a cure. The narrator wants to be able to be free and live with the normal excitements of life. In addition, she states forcefully, that she writes in spite of her husband and brother. The narrator knows that writing helps her and wants the reader to know that she continues to do it anyways, because she knows that it is in the best interest of her health, to be able to clear her head, by writing down her

Through a woman's perspective of assumed insanity, Charlotte Perkins Gilman comments on the role of the female in the late nineteenth century society in relation to her male counterpart in her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." Gilman uses her own experience with mental instability to show the lack of power that women wielded in shaping the course of their psychological treatment. Further she uses vivid and horrific imagery to draw on the imagination of the reader to conceive the terrors within the mind of the psychologically wounded.

Gilman uses indirect characterization in revealing the narrator’s private thoughts and feelings through the narrator’s secret journal. Since the narrator is diagnosed with nervous depression, – “conventional women’s disease of the nineteenth century” – her husband John, who is also her physician, recommends that her treatment be a rest cure, where she is not allowed to do anything active, especially reading and writing (Treichler, 1984, p.61). Treichler writes that during that time, doctors dictated this therapy because it was believed that too much intellectual stimulation would cause women to experience this illness (1984). But, because the narrator insists that the freedom to read and write would improve her condition, she decides to keep a secret journal as an outlet for her thoughts and imagination (Gilman, 1892).

Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Fall of The House of Usher’ both serve a highly horrific purpose which is both good examples for the gothic. The strongest example of gothic is ‘The Fall of The House of Usher’ as it established the extreme horror intense and shows the gothic scene of the house.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” a short story about a mentally ill women,written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman at age 32, in 1892 is a story with a hidden meaning and many truths. Charlotte Perkins Gilman coincidentally also had a mental illness and developed cancer leading her to kill herself in the sixties. The story begins with Jane, the mentally ill woman who feels a bit distressed, and although both of the well respected men in her life are physicians she is put simply on a “rest cure”. This rest cure as well as many symbols such as the Yellow Wallpaper, her journal, and her inevitable breakdown are prime examples of the typical life of a woman in this time period and their suppressed lives that they lived even with something as serious as a

The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by nineteenth-century feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was first published in 1892 in New England Magazine. Gilman 's story, based upon her own experience with a “rest cure” for mental illness, was written as a critique of the medical treatment prescribed to women suffering from a condition then known as “neurasthenia.” The significance of “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a feminist text, however, was not acknowledged until the critically

In her mind she knows she that is somewhat okay with being controlled. They won’t let her write or go where she wants because of her illness. She knows what she needs but feels obligated to heed her husband’s demands. She knows she is not as sick as her husband lets on but she has allowed him mental and physical control. She feels trapped and recognizes that she needs something that belongs to only her so that she can hold onto her own identity. The only real escape she finds is through her writing, which she still hides from those who wait on her as well as her husband. She uses the

An ardent proponent of such causes as women 's suffrage and their societal and economic independence. Gilman shows how the rest cure, with its imposed captivity, actually does more harm than good, driving the narrator of the story insane. The first person narrator is a wife and a mother suffering from what is most like postpartum depression. She tells her story through a series of “secret” diary entries, which is she must hide from everyone especially her husband, who has forbidden her to write as a part of her rest cure. The narrator, a woman who is powerless against her husband

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, reflects elements of Gothic literature. Gothic literature came to light during the Romantic Era of the late eighteenth-century. Famous Gothic stories are described as eerie, horrific, and supernatural. Some famous examples of Gothic literature that may have inspired Gilman include: Frankenstein, Dracula, and the works of Edgar Allen Poe.

Within the medical community, doctors often neglected women 's health during the nineteenth century. Society viewed women as weak and fragile beings making them more susceptible to illness. Surprisingly some believed that women could consciously control their sickness to gain attention or to avoid their womanly duties (Poirier 16). Silas Weir Mitchell was a well-known neurologist during Gilman 's life. He made many medical discoveries during his career along with creating treatment for locomotor ataxia (a nervous disease), neurotic women, and gunshot wounds that disrupted the nervous systems (Poirier 17). This procedure, called the Rest Cure, consists of the patient resting and exerting as little energy as possible alongside maintaining a balanced diet. Gillman personally visited Mitchell in seek of help during a time of great depression post the birth of her daughter. However, his treatment did not help but, caused her almost to lose her sanity. Gillman addresses Mitchel in her literature "John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall. But I don’t want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once, and she says he is just like John and my brother (Gilman 197)." Janes husband, brother, and Mitchell are alike in the fact they all believe a woman 's hysteria correlates with their sex. These men also agree in one form of treatment: isolation, rest, and food. Showing that men of

My perspective of Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" is influenced by a great number of different and diverse methods of reading. However, one cannot overlook the feminist theorists’ on this story, for the story is often proclaimed to be a founding work of feminism. Further, the historical and biographical contexts the story was written in can be enlightened by mentioning Gilman’s relationship with S. Weir Mitchell. And I can’t help but read the story and think of Foucault’s concept of Panopticism as a method of social control. Lastly, of course, there’s the psychological perspective on the story, although in my readings of psychology, particularly the psychological knowledge surrounding both women and queers, I find the

The reader gets a first glimpse at her insanity as she constantly jumps from one subject to another. Gilman’s thought process is much like that of an insane being as she begins to let her thoughts run together in a mass of confusion. For example, at the beginning, Gilman is writing about a discussion with her husband, John, when suddenly she skips to a description of the old house: “But John says if I feel so I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself-before him, at least, and that makes me very tired. I don’t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs…” (Gilman 470). This sense of confusion throughout the story relays to the reader that Gilman is indeed severely mentally confused and ill. According to several doctors in the medical journal Psychological Assessment, some of the characteristics of mentally ill patients during interpersonal and personal behavior include interruptions and ignoring personal boundaries (Kosson 91). These characteristics are seen in Gilman’s conversations with herself.

One of the most obvious, yet in the nineteenth century completely unrecognised and undiagnosed, reasons behind symptoms of supposed insanity would be post-natal depression. Gilmans narrator suffers from just this as she exclaims: ‘Such a dear baby! And yet I CANNOT be with him, it makes me so nervous’, conveying a certain disconnection with her son. The narrator feels her husband fails to understand her perspective: she is the complete opposite of her ‘public sphere’ husband who ‘is practical in the extreme… and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures’. She yearns for a life which she believes this domestic role has stolen from her: Gilman’s narrator longs to write but John warns ‘that with