Document Assignment: The Yellow Wallpaper

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is centred in the writer’s narration, by setting the narrator to be not entirely reliable and an oppressed woman. The character are showed to be feeling trapped and unhappy with

In the late 19th century, many women were diagnosed with insanity, dementia, and other mental disorders. Although a large portion of these diagnoses were accurate, many of the female patients were mishandled and given the wrong prescriptions. Some treatments included locking patients in an empty room and forcing them to take medicine that either had no effect, or exacerbated the situation. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, demonstrates this corruption and goes into detail on how a female patient’s lack of power and control is detrimental to her mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a horrific short story that reflects the struggle of women during this era. Gilman was born in 1860 in Hartfield, Connecticut. Furthermore, Gilman did not have a good life growing up. Her father abandoned her and her mother soon after she was born, leaving them to fend for their own. In this time, it was not fit for a woman to live independently.

This was known to be a very effective means of treatment at the time. The narrator’s condition is a type of nervous depression that can lead to obsessive “fancies” and imaginations. From the perspective of understanding oneself and accepting the present situation’s circumstances, the main character is indeed the sanest person in the story.

During the early 1800’s, the rights of men were still deemed more important than the rights of women. This issue was finally brought into discussion in the late 1800’s, where women now started to fight for their rights. This time period also brought around the start of feminism. The fact that Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a feminine story to make a statement about men controlling women is shown through three main points: what the woman sees in the yellow wallpaper, how the husband treats the woman, and also through the narrator herself.

The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This story gives the reader a glimpse into the mind of a woman struggling to come to terms with her reality. As the story progresses, Gilman gives the reader a sense of the frustrations the main character is being subjected to and how trapped, yet still ignored, she feels with her current situation. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes the narrator’s internal struggles.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is known for her writings dealing with feminism and the archetype of marriage. Gilman is celebrated for her controversial topics and her unapologetic tone. First written in 1892, “The Yellow Wallpaper” was first thought to be outrageous and appalling. According to an article written by Gilman entitled “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1913, she describes the outrage following the publication of the short story. Many physicians felt that Gilman’s description of mental illness was spot on. While others felt it should never have been written. One physician responded by stating, “Such a story ought not to be written, he said; it was enough to drive anyone mad to read it(Gilman 820)”. The powerful short story was written

There is no end to the different approaches presented in critiques of "The Yellow Wallpaper." A prominent

The Yellow Wallpaper is a Gothic horror short story written by author Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892. The story depicts the struggles many women had to face in the late nineteenth century. The narrator delivers her story through a series of journal entries that she keeps hidden from everyone around her. She is a middle-aged American who is struggling with depression. Her doctor is her husband who often makes light of her mental illness.

The Yellow Wallpaper was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The short story, which is a collection of journal entries, was published in 1892 and is thought of as one of the earliest writings in American feminist literature. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is written in first person by a women who is married to a doctor. The young couple is renting an old mansion property for three months and are accompanied by the husband’s sister and the couple’s young baby. The main character is thought of as sick by the physician husband, and sentenced to “bed rest” as a form of medial treatment.

While men may have had more physical infirmities, women amassed psychological and emotional conditions. In this story the author conveys “This tale, as Gilman suggests, indicts those ‘wise men’ who attempt to manage ‘mad’ women medically” (Hume 3). With the number of female psychological issues rising, the need for treatment became detrimental. The only treatment that was initiated and prescribed was the “rest cure”, which basically meant for the woman to do absolutely nothing. Post-partum depression, being one of the more common diagnosed ailments, did not have a medical protocol or designated treatment in the 1800’s.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s grim short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” of female empowerment and equality was read four times by her first husband whom considered it “the most ghastly tale he ever read. Says it beats Poe (Moss and Wilson 427).” The story opens from the perspective of a nameless woman, who lives in the attic of an ornate house. The house is a very elaborate property, yet the female character must not leave the constraints of an old nursery room. Her husband, John, is a doctor and is supposedly a good one.

The story is about a woman who suffers from mental illness after the three months of being closeted in a room with her husband for the sake of her health. She becomes obsessed with the rooms revolting yellow wallpaper. Gilman wrote this story to change people’s mindset about the role of women in society, illustrating that how woman’s lack of autonomy has a direct impact on her mental health and it also affects their emotional and physical wellbeing. This story was inspired by the treatment she had suffered at the hands of her first husband. The narrator in the story must do as her husband, who is also her doctor demands, although the treatment he prescribes contrasts directly with what she truly, needs mental stimulation and the freedom to escape the monotony of the room to which she is confined.

The Yellow wallpaper The yellow wallpaper is as much a story about the treatment depression in women in the late 1800 and early 1900 as it is about Charlotte Gilman own life. In Gillman short story the yellow wallpaper she is able to take personal accounts from her own life and manifest them in to a masterpiece that illustrates to the reader the interworking of a women’s mind when it is faced with major life changes. Different aspects of the story show this, from the color of the wallpaper to the characters and ones own personal life experience with depression.

“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