Hell-Heaven and The Yellow Wallpaper

"The story was wrenched out of Gilman 's own life, and is unique in the

    "The Yellow Wallpaper" takes a close look at one woman's mental deterioration. The narrator is emotionally isolated from her husband. Due to the lack of interaction with other people the woman befriends the reader by secretively communicating her story in a diary format. Her attitude towards the wallpaper is openly hostile at the beginning, but ends with an intimate and liberating connection. During the gradual change in the relationship between the narrator and the wallpaper, the yellow paper becomes a mirror, reflecting the process the woman is going through in her room.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a nervous wife, an overprotective husband, and a large, dank room covered in musty wallpaper all play important parts in driving the wife insane. The husband's smothering attention, combined with the isolated environment, incites the nervous nature of the wife, causing her to plunge into insanity to the point she sees herself in the wallpaper. The author's masterful use of not only the setting (of both time and place), but also of first person point of view, allows the reader to participate in the woman's growing insanity.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is about a creative woman whose talents are suppressed by her dominant husband. His efforts to oppress her in order to keep her within society's norms of what a wife is supposed to act like, only lead to her mental destruction. He is more concerned with societal norms than the mental health of his wife. In trying to become independent and overcome her own suppressed thoughts, and her husbands false diagnosis of her; she loses her sanity. One way the story illustrates his dominance is by the way he, a well-know and

In the grips of depression and the restrictions prescribed by her physician husband a woman struggles with maintaining her sanity and purpose. As a new mother and a writer, and she is denied the responsibility and intellectual stimulation of these elements in her life as part of her rest cure. Her world is reduced to prison-like enforcement on her diet, exercise, sleep and intellectual activities until she is "well again". As she gives in to the restrictions and falls deeper into depression, she focuses on the wallpaper and slides towards insanity. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story written from a first-person perspective about a young woman's mental deterioration during the 1800's and

Despite differing story lines, Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, depict the same suffering; the isolation that women have been forced to endure throughout history. In the time period that all three characters were placed, it was culturally acceptable for wives to be dominated by their husbands; their responsibility revolving around the needs of their children and those of their spouse. Most women simply did not have a means or an idea of how to rebel against their husbands. The women in all three stories are protagonists who have poor relationships of emotional attachment with their spouses. While the main character of Gilman’s story endures multiple psychotic

Throughout the madness displayed in “The Yellow wallpaper” and the disappearance of Nora at the end of “A doll’s house”, we could see both women are confined and controlled by their marriages, Nora from Henrik Ibsen's play “A Doll's House” and the narrator from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" portray the negative treatment of women throughout society during the 19th century. These women long for the activity and stimulation, which they have been deprived of as the product of a society that puts women in the lowest division, and they resolve to triumph over their husbands and free their souls. Therefore, seeing these vast similarities’ in these stories when it comes to the husbands John from “The Yellow

The Yellow Wallpaper is a story which shows the anatomy of an oppressive marriage. Simply because the narrator does not cherish the joys of married life and motherhood, and therefore, is in

She begins to tear the yellow wallpaper off of the wall, claiming that there is a woman stuck behind it. The lady that the narrator is referring to is herself. Because of her disease, she is not free to do what she pleases during the summer. She is tied down to this mansion for the summer and is forced to sleep all day. When she rips all of the wallpaper off, she thinks that she can finally be free from both her husband and his sister, " I've got out at last," said I, " in spite of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back! "(656). The author shows how eager the narrator is about being free and that it is essential for her to have a good life. The narrator needed to not be controlled by her husband, her disease, or the yellow wallpaper that haunted her day and night. In the 1800’s women having freedom was unheard of. They should be subordinate to their husbands and never go against what they say. The narrator is no different than these women. She is scared to confront her husband about her disease in fear of him lashing out at her. Since he did not believe her about her disease, she should just agree with him and move on with her life. Mental illness’ were also not taken very seriously back then. If someone was presumed to have a mental illness, they would just shove them in an insane asylum until they were

She thought her husband had no idea of the actions but she was so overt that her husband found out. After the relationship didn't work she summarily jumped to the next guy Robert without any hesitation or regrets to her actions. On the other hand Robert celerity fled her side and escaped to Mexico because he felt that she should be with her husband. The woman in the yellow wallpaper had a hard time with her depression and delusions because she was afraid that since she couldn't substantiate her claims that there was someone in the wallpaper that nobody would ever believe

The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about a mentally ill woman named Jane. She lives during a time when women did not have much they could do. The men dominated everything and were to make the decisions for the women. The man’s primary role was to be the provider, while the woman’s primary role was to be the housekeeper and caretaker. During this time period, women would have to ask their husbands, fathers, or even brothers if they could do something.

When this story was first written in 1892, women were commonly forced into the stereotypical domesticated lifestyle by their overly controlling male authority figures. When someone is trapped in a mindset that they don’t want to be part of them begin to feel caged. Not only would they feel physically caged due to the lack of control, but also their sense of self is caged behind mental barriers. This is what happens to the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The tearing down of the wallpaper throughout the story symbolizes the deterioration of the stereotypical domestic life forced upon her, this ultimately subsides to her more rebellious and free spirited self. This is possible due to the weak mental walls put in place by her husband. These

One example is how she sees that the wallpaper is such a dark, dirty yellow. When she first sees the wallpaper she describes it by saying, "The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight." (239) According to colorsmatter.com, the dark side of yellow means betrayal and madness, which is how the woman starts to act. Another example of symbolism in the yellow wallpaper is when she describes the woman shaking the pattern on the wallpaper. She says, "The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out." (243) This is where she starts seeing someone in the wallpaper and the more she studies it the more she begins to see. She becomes so obsessive over the wallpaper and tries to hide it from John and Jennie. In the end, she locks the door and rips down the wallpaper she tells John, "I've got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" This shows how crazy the wallpaper made her. From these examples it is clear that the woman feels trapped and alone because her husband is controlling her every move and thought just like many other women

“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 the story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman creates a character of a young depressed woman, on the road to a rural area with her husband, so that she can be away from writing, which appears to have a negative effect on her psychological state. Lanser says her husband “heads a litany of benevolent prescriptions that keep the narrator infantilized, immobilized, and bored literally out of her mind. Reading or writing herself upon the wallpaper allows the narrator to escape her husband’s sentence and to achieve the limited freedom of madness which constitutes a kind of sanity in the face of the insanity of male dominance” (432). In the story both theme and point of view connect and combine to establish a powerful picture of an almost prison-type of treatment for conquering depression. In the story, Jane battles with male domination, because she is informed by both her husband and brother countless brain shattering things about her own condition that she does not agree with. She makes every effort to become independent, and she desires to escape from the burdens of that domination. The Yellow Wallpaper is written from the character’s point of view in a structure similar to a diary, which explains her time spent in her home. The house is huge and old with annoying yellow wallpaper in the bedroom. The character thinks that there is a woman behind bars in the design of the wallpaper. She devotes a great deal of her