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Diction In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Decent Essays

Many children often bring inanimate objects to life with their imagination. The narrator is introduced at the beginning of “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a woman who is recovering from what other appears to be a mental illness. The woman is with her husband John, who is a physician. The narrator and John stay in the nursery where there is yellow wallpaper covering the walls. Slowly, the narrator forms a childish obsession with the wallpaper to the point where it seems she is losing her mind. Charlotte Perkins Gilman has a very unique use of literary technique throughout her short story. Gilman uses the literary technique of diction to show how the narrator is being treated like a child, and how she acts like a child. Gilman shows that the narrator is being treated like a child by the way her husband speaks and acts towards her. In the short story, John calls her “a blessed little goose”(3) and “little girl”(8). This shows he is calling her childish names as if she is a child. It can be inferred that John does not value the narrator’s opinion or what she has to say. John, also, says, “I am a doctor, dear, and I know”(8). This is like a father telling his child “I know because I know”. It shows, again, that he does not value her opinion and he thinks he is superior to her. He does not want her questioning his authority. John, also, says, “‘Bless her little heart! She shall be as sick as she pleases!’”(8). The excerpt suggests that John thinks the narrator is faking it, like a

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