Doodle's Short Story: The Yellow Wall

“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.

First published in 1982, The yellow wallpaper is an engaging narrative , written in first person in which the narrator suffers from some type of nervous disorder . Her husband who prefers to refer to her condition as a temporary nervous depression or a slight hysterical tendency recommends that the narrator seeks solitude so as to recuperate . The short story mimics the form of secret and private entries on journals by the author. The haunting short story chronicles that descent of the narrator and protagonist into maddened and paranormal activities. Some people however interpret it as her chronicles to freedom .The author effectively employs the use of literary

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.

Trapped in the upstairs of an old mansion with barred windows and disturbing yellow colored wallpaper, the main character is ordered by her husband, a physician, to stay in bed and isolate her mind from any outside wandering thoughts. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, describes the digression of the narrator’s mental state as she suffers from a form of depression. As the story progresses, the hatred she gains for the wallpaper amplifies and her thoughts begin to alter her perception of the room around her. The wallpaper serves as a symbol that mimics the narrator’s trapped and suffering mental state while she slips away from sanity reinforcing the argument that something as simple as wallpaper can completely

In literature, women are often depicted as weak, compliant, and inferior to men. The nineteenth century was a time period where women were repressed and controlled by their husband and other male figures. Charlotte Gilman, wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper," showing her disagreement with the limitations that society placed on women during the nineteenth century. According to Edsitement, the story is based on an event in Gilman’s life. Gilman suffered from depression, and she went to see a physician name, Silas Weir Mitchell. He prescribed the rest cure, which then drove her into insanity. She then rebelled against his advice, and moved to California to continue writing. She then wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which is inflated version of her

While Poe focuses on the narrator being influenced by alcohol and superstition, the restriction society and John has placed on the narrator in “the Yellow Wallpaper” causes her to become paranoid about her reality and people around her. The more John represses the narrator, the more her mind starts to look for an outlet after having her creative thoughts and writing restricted. There is a scene where the narrator asks John if she can visit her cousins Henry and Julia which he denies and she starts crying and has to be brought to bed. The narrators crying is a physical manifestation of her frustration for her situation but there is evidence it has taken a toll on her mental state as well. After this event the narrator looks at the wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper” provides an insight into the life of the narrator- a woman suppressed and unable to express herself because of her controlling husband- leading the reader down her fall to insanity, allowing for her inner conflict to be clearly expressed. The first person point of the view the author artfully uses and the symbolism present with the wallpaper cleverly depicts the inner conflict of the narrator, losing her own sanity due to the constraints of her current life. However, while it seems that the narrator in “ The Yellow Wallpaper” succumbed to her own insanity, the endless conflict within herself and her downward spiral to insanity is seen through a different light, as an inevitable path rather than a choice taken as the story develops.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper” we are introduced to a woman who enjoys writing. Gilman does not give the reader the name of the women who narrates the story through her stream of consciousness. She shares that she has a nervous depression condition. John, the narrator’s husband feels it is “a slight hysterical tendency” (266). She has been treated for some nervous habits that she feels are legitimately causing harm to her way of life. However she feels her husband, a physician, and her doctor believe that she is embellishing her condition. The woman shares with the reader early in the story that she is defensive of how others around her perceive her emotional state. This causes a small abrasion of animosity that

In the “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, there are many of literary techniques that illustrates the theme to express the story. Irony, imagery and symbolism are some literary devices that is presented among the story.  “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman who has a mental illness but cannot heal due to her husband’s lack of acceptance and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The story appears to take place during a time where women were oppressed. Women were treated as if they were under one’s thumb in society during this period which is approximately the 19th century.

Another way Gilman enhances unwilling imprisonment is through figurative language. The narrator describes the moonlight metaphorically: “it creeps so slowly, and always comes in by one window or another” (Gilman 293). The moonlight makes the woman behind the wallpaper become clearer night by night. This personification describes the way insanity is creeping onto the narrator. For a very long time, the moon associates with early fertility-centered societies and female power. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the contrast between daytime with its constant limitations and nighttime with its unpredictable freedoms are symbolized by the alternating effects of sun and moonlight on the wallpaper. During the daytime the freedom of the narrator is

As man developed more complex social systems, society placed more emphasis of childbearing. Over time, motherhood was raised to the status of “saintly”. This was certainly true in western cultures during the late 19th/early 20th century.  Charlotte Perkins Gilman did not agree with the image of motherhood that society proposed to its members at the time. “Arguably ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ reveals women’s frustration in a culture that seemingly glorifies motherhood while it actually relegates women to nursery-prisons” (Bauer 65).  Among the many other social commentaries contained within this story, is the symbolic use of the nursery as a prison for the main character.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” we find ourselves involved with a wife who recently conceived a child, but appears to be suffering from nervous depression (we later discover this is postpartum depression). Her husband, John, a highly prestigious physician recommends that she refrain from any form of work, including no writing. Since the story is told from the first person perspective we are able to understand as the story progresses, the growing resentment that the wife has towards her husband. While the first person perspective plays its role in the story, the setting allows us to further understand the quickly changing emotions and outlooks during the story. The final key element of this story has to do with imagery. Throughout this story we are bombarded with different words to describe various items such as the wallpaper, the bed, along with many others. This occurs to help the reader understand the ever-changing ideas our main character has.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman is a short story about a woman who is suffering from postpartum depression. Her husband, the doctor, is attempting to make her well by moving her to a colonial house for the summer while their house is under repairs. Being a doctor and doctor’s wife, the narrator and her husband were part of the upper middle class. This short story takes place in a time when women were confined in their roles in society. In her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman uses narrative technique and symbolism to develop the theme that women are oppressed in their roles in marriage and society.

Throughout history, women have struggled to be seen as equals and have had to fight for their freedom from the roles society placed upon them. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman both use their literary works to show the challenges women went through, and how they battled for the freedoms they desperately wanted. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman that goes to a summer home to rest and get well under the supervision of her husband who is also a physician. Her husband decided it would be best if she sat in a room alone and did nothing. In the end, she becomes insane and finally finds her freedom. “The Story of An Hour” is about, Mrs. Mallard, a woman who has just found out her husband has died. Mrs. Mallard

The author has used the image of “the walls” not only to regard as the memorial but also to allude the invisible borders that were built up to separate the people, their races, ethics, as well as the family members. Throughout the play, each scenario illustrates each horrifying boundary that the wars in general, and the Vietnam Wars in particular has created. For example: the walls between Dan or Jerry separate them with the livings; the walls between Julie, Terry are the borders between ideas; the walls between Sergeant Lee Morris and Sarah Mitchell, or between Stu and Dave are the walls of suffers, sorrows, misunderstandings, and desolations; and the walls between Scruggs and Carhart with Maya and Vi are the walls of discrimination and prejudice.