Gilman 's The Turning Point Of Life Essay

Like all characters throughout literature, Gilman’s narrator undergoes a journey of sorts, or a quest. However, her journey is all in her head, for she is battling a mental illness. Her husband, a

The story is scattered with metaphors and allegories pertaining to the issue of female oppression and can be seen in the actions of the narrator and her husband in the story. During the story, the narrator is pressured by her husband and the doctors about her nervous condition, and agreed to the treatment, because that is what her husband would want. Gilman uses many typical characteristics of a woman in her story; innocent, loyal and obedient to her husband. Like many historical disputes of women writing, her husband bans her from writing, and even diagnoses her as ill to stop the writing. Phrases in the story also link

July 3, 1860, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born. Gilman’s life began troubled. Her father left the family, “leaving Charlotte’s mother to raise two children on her own… as a result her education suffered greatly.” Coming back from her troubled past would prove to be a difficult task. At the age of twenty- four “Gilman married… Charles Stetson.” Following their marriage Charlotte and her husband had a baby girl named Katherine. Gilman had always suffered from depression, but it became much worse after having her baby. After spending much time in sadness and despair

Gilman was a young adult that experienced post-partum depression after her first born, like the girl in the story, and because of her own views on society she wrote this piece. Gilman was a strong believer that

Creativity in women was not widely accepted in Gilman’s society and was often deemed improbable. In one of Jane’s entries she describes, “There comes John, and I must put this away he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 175). This sentence is powerful because the written word is often more powerful than the spoken word. Women were rarely given the luxury of speaking freely, much less writing freely. John’s reluctance to allow Jane to write illustrates the narrow minded ideals men had concerning women. In “Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman writes that Dr. Mitchell, “ concluded there was nothing much the matter with me, and sent me home with solemn advice to "live as domestic a life as far as possible," to "have but two hours' intellectual life a day," and "never to touch pen, brush or pencil again as long as I lived’”(51). Both Gilman and Jane were creative women that used writing as therapy to express what others around them could not understand. Jane’s journal and her writing symbolize the creative talents and intelligence many women were capable of but were forced to conceal.

Gilman claims to have suffered from many nervous breakdowns and melancholia, along with many other things, for many years. After the third year, she went to a specialist who applied his rest cure. It was concluded that there was nothing wrong with her, and ordered her to not participate in any activity that involved being creative. After obeying these directions for a few months, she got to the point of mental deterioration, which was the complete opposite of what she was desiring. She went back to work in everyday life.

During the nineteenth century in the United States, woman was on the bottom of society. They had to follow the rules of society. Gilman was married to a doctor whose name in the short story is John. She had “nervous depression” which now is known as postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is where a female gives birth and has it because she has trouble attaching to her baby and the symptoms are appetite loss, anxiety and different moods. In that time females who had some sort of mental illness were kept away from society, especially when their husband was in high society. The story was "inspired partially from the way

During those years she had increasingly become more aware of the masculine dominance and injustices inflicted on women. 11 months into her marriage, Gilman had her only daughter Katherine. Gilman was concerned and anticipated the difficulties of rekindling her desire to be a writer considering the demands being a wife and mother consisted. Soon after the birth of Katherine Gilman became dispirited and her marriage went downhill. Her husband and mother insisted that she rest and will power to overcome her depression. She was soon sent to a prominent neurologist, Gilman was prescribed a “rest cure” which consisted of total bedrest for several weeks and limited intellectual activity thereafter. Postpartum depression was not widely understood. As Gilman put it in “Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?” (1913), the doctor “sent me home after six weeks with the solemn advice to “live as domestic a life as possible, to have but two hours of intellectual activity daily, and never touch pen, brush,or pencil again for as long as I lived. Gilman returned to her family and followed the physician’s instructions for three months and was driven nearly mad. She resumed her life as a wife and mother and enthusiastic writer. She was soon convinced that her marriage was a threat to her sanity, moved to California with her daughter and successfully divorced. Sources say that her former husband remarried her best friend, in turn

Gilman married an artist by the name of Charles Steson from 1880-1884. During those years she had increasingly become more aware of the masculine dominance and injustices inflicted on women. 11 months into her marriage, Gilman had her only daughter Katherine. Gilman was concerned and anticipated the difficulties of rekindling her desire to be a writer considering the demands being a wife and mother consisted. Soon after the birth of Katherine Gilman became dispirited and her marriage went downhill. Her husband and mother insisted that she rest and will power to overcome her depression. She was soon sent to a prominent neurologist, Gilman was prescribed a “rest cure” which consisted of total bedrest for several weeks and limited intellectual

Gilman’s affect on society makes her popular for her poetry and her childhood story. She

It brings a heavy darkness” (30). Even though this shows Gilman occasionally had trouble with her depression, it also shows she understood how to manage it, and she became exceedingly aware of her limitations. Gilman was also exposed to oppression during her youth. She witnessed her mother being oppressed by her father when he left her with two children and no way to support herself (Knight 29). Because of the exposure to these things, Gilman grew into a highly mature and well-rounded young woman. One can infer Gilman led a seemingly conventional childhood with few problems.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short fiction, written by Charlotte Gilman; an American author who was born in Hartford and who suffered from a lonely childhood due to her father’s abandonment. She worked as an art teacher and married the artist Charles Stetson, who turns her married life into a nightmare full of sadness and gloom. Her depression and illness came after giving birth to her daughter. Gilman committed suicide later, after she discovered that she had a deadly illness. Gilman’s work in the Yellow Wallpaper conveyed the miserable life of a married woman, a life very similar to her own.

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

Throughout the story, Gilman spends the majority of her time napping and writing in one confined space: a room upstairs, which has been chosen for her by her husband. The reader discovers throughout the story that she is actually locked in this room by her husband and his sister, Jennie. She is encouraged by them to sleep and take things easy in order to heal herself. In this way, Gilman’s husband and

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in Hartford, Connecticut. Early in her life her parents divorced, so her father could remarry.(Wladaver) Despite family problems, she loved an intellectual environment. She studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she met her first husband.” ( Wladaver) During her life she suffered from and was diagnosed with varieties of depression disorders. She lived in an era that was dominated by males and women held a more domestic/submissive