Second Formal Paper
In the story The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the heroine who suffered postnatal depression was applied the “rest cure” in a colonial mansion by her husband John, a high standing physician. The heroine was not allowed to do anything she wanted during the therapy: she was not allowed to write; she was not allowed to leave the house; she was not allowed to visit her relatives. She was forced to live in a room with the walls covered by yellow wallpaper, which finally caused her to create illusions and go mad. It seemed like the heroine had a sweet family and lived in a peaceful environment. Why did the heroine become a lunatic? In another word, what caused her to be lunatic?
Gilman explained to her
…show more content…
In gradual, they just followed the unequal rules without any doubts and questions and didn’t even realize that this was a serious gender issue.
The pressure of social prejudice on women from their same gender was also presented in The Yellow Wallpaper. John’s sister Jenni came to the heroine’s house. “She was a dear girl and so careful of the heroine. She was a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession.” However, she didn’t allow the heroine to do anything either. The heroines “verily believed she thought it was the writing which made her sick (Gilman, P80).” Jenni took good care of the heroine, though, she hindered the heroine to fight for her freedom meanwhile.
It was obvious that rest cure didn’t work on the heroine, and even made her condition worse. When talking about the therapy, she said ironically: “John, a high standing physician and the husband of hers, didn’t even believe she was sick. Perhaps that was one reason she did not get well faster. (Gilman, P76)” She “personally disagreed with those ideas of forbidding her to “work” and “believed that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do her good (Gilman, P76).” She wanted to be John’s support, instead of his burden.
…show more content…
The heroine’s attitude towards the yellow wallpaper has changed over the story. She hated it at first, then noticed that the wallpaper could move, and she thought a woman was trapped behind the wallpaper. The way how the heroine thought about her family and the society has also changed at the same time. Instead of being controlled and destroyed under gender discrimination and male chauvinism, the heroine chose to break through all restraints from the society and fight for her freedom at the end. She “didn’t like it a bit (Gilman, P77)” so she tore all the wallpaper, liberated the woman behind it. She crept out of the room before she getting a breakdown and she told her husband and Jenni that they could not put her back anymore. John’s faint symbolized the collapse of the patriarchal society under the rule of
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is the story of a woman descending into psychosis in a creepy tale which depicts the harm of an old therapy called “rest cure.” This therapy was used to treat women who had “slight hysterical tendencies” and depression, and basically it consisted of the inhibition of the mental processes. The label “slight hysterical tendency” indicates that it is not seen as a very important issue, and it is taken rather lightly. It is also ironic because her illness is obviously not “slight” by any means, especially towards the end when the images painted of her are reminiscent of a psychotic, maniacal person, while she aggressively tears off wallpaper and confuses the real world with her alternative world she has
The protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is also expected to reinstate her femininity, which she tries to imitate in front of John but destroys when she is alone in her room. Since she is already married and have a child society wants her to perform her role according to gender norms of the Victorian period. She mentions that she “tak[es] pains to control [herself] – before him” that does not go unnoticed (Gilman, 648). John observes the positive changes, “you are really better, dear, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story of a woman who slowly goes insane after being trapped inside a nursery by her husband, who believes her to be sick. As the story goes on, the strain of their marriage increases while Jane is slowly going insane within her confined space of a room. There are many elements of this story that make it so interesting and well written. One of those would be the way that the character development influences the conflict, style of writing, symbolism and the irony of the plotline. Jane’s narration as the main character plays a large role in how the story moves forward and eventually reaches a breaking point at the end.
The short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about the struggle of a woman to gain her freedom and to get her own life apart from her controlling husband. The physician, who also happens to be the woman’s husband, keeps her in a room, as a form of “treatment”. He claims that she is psychotic, but after reading the text, I felt that the woman was only driven to insanity because of the so called “treatment” that her husband set forth. From being kept in this room for so
In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents the narrator, being the main character, as an ill woman. However, she is not ill physically. She is ill in her mind. More than any chemical imbalance that may be present; the narrator's environment is what causes her to go mad.
How Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Life Influences The Yellow Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story detailing a woman’s spiral into insanity after she is prescribed a “rest treatment” for her anxiety. These rest treatments entail complete bedrest and limited intellectual activity. Gillams faced a similar treatment, after a deep postpartum depression.
In "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist symbolizes the effect of the oppression of women in society in the Nineteenth Century. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the author reveals the narrator is torn between hate and love, but emotion is difficult to determine. The effects are produced by the use of complex themes used in the story, which assisted her oppression and reflected on her self-expression.
The narrator who was modeled after Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” was a young wife and mother who has recently began to suffer symptoms of depression and anxiety. Her psychopathic mindset caused herself to go into a deep depression and longing for a way to quote “get out of the house.” The narrator lost all since of reality while she wrote in her journal for a feeling of security and comfort due to her not so supportive husband. Maybe, her insanity and craziness is most likely a result of suffering from post partum depression because she had just recently had a baby whom she is not allowed to see. Maybe, towards the end it is never revealed that she had a severe case of schizophrenia which was what caused her to be both
"The Yellow Wallpaper" story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman employ the use of conventional psychological horror tale as a strategy to review the position of women as displayed in the early nineteenth century especially in marriages. Seemingly, the story reflects on women subordination role in marriages and men domination over them. The power made it impossible for them to express their desires. The story describes a middle-class marriage characterized by the rigid distinction between genders where the domestic functions fall under females and active work fall under males thus outlining a society that display women as second-class citizens. Hence, the distinction between genders influences women in the sense that they remain in a state of control by their husbands. Therefore, women play the role of supporting and doing as their husbands tell them to do. For example, John the narrator husband in the story dominates the narrator and misjudges her all in the name of helping her. The narrator thus loses herself and cannot stand up since that will prove disloyal to her husband. She retreats to her writing fantasy, which is the only place she retains self and control. For this essay, Gilman's underlying theme of "The Subordination of women in marriage" will be explored as the basis under which the narrator loses self.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper depicts the tale of a woman confined to the old nursery in her family's colonial mansion (Gilman 1997: 1f.). She was diagnosed with " a slight hysterical tendency", a popular diagnosis in women towards the end of the 19th century, and now recounts her experiences during her condition's treatment in the form of journal entries (Teichler 1984: 61, Gilman 1997: 1f.). Over time, the treatment's strict limitations and lack of contact with the outside world begin to influence the woman's sanity negatively, continuously accelerating her deterioration until the situation escalates violently at the end of the story (Gilman 1997: 1f., Teichler 1984: 61). The progress of the
Telling the story from Jane’s point of view also helped increase exposure and awareness of gender roles and the harm they can cause. After The Yellow Wallpaper was published, many people were opposed to it. One such person said, “The story can hardly, it would seem, give pleasure to any reader, and to many, whose lives have been touched through the nearest ties by this dread disease, it must bring the keenest pain. To others, whose lives have become a struggle against the heredity of mental derangement, such literature contains deadly peril. Should such stories be allowed to pass without protest, without severe censure?”
Shifting away from a traditional feminine image is a concept woven throughout The Yellow Wallpaper, specifically exploring the balance of power between the masculine and feminine. As the narrator begins her descent into madness, her fascination with the wallpaper continues and the narrator becomes “the exemplary subject of power/knowledge” (Crewe 274). The narrator is stripping that power away from the masculine figure. When she first requested to change the wallpaper John refuses on the grounds of “nothing was worse for a nervous patient to give way to such fancies” (28), John wants to dismiss her fanciful feminine imagination as it threatens his sense of control, and “fear can masquerade as calm authority when…embodied in ‘the weaker sex’” (Shumaker 593). However, we see this alter as both he and Jennie become increasingly fascinated with her behaviour and the wallpaper itself, “I’ve caught him several times looking at the paper!” (35) conveying that as the narrator becomes more involved with the paper she is regaining her power over the household. Gilman may also be suggesting that this break away from performing roles can manifest shame or uneasiness, Jennie after being caught staring, reacts “as if she had been caught stealing” (35). She is described as looking “angry” (35) at the prospect of being caught observing the object of the ‘mad woman’ of the house’s obsession. Jennie recognising herself being a part of this power shift becomes uneasy, just as Girlie feels
The plot of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is broken down into seven parts. The first part is the initial situation. A woman moves into a big spooky house that is back off the road with her husband for the summer. Her husband controls every aspect of her life. The second part was conflicted. The narrator wants to spend her time writing and socializing. Her husband says she needs to rest. The third part was the complication. Staying in one room all day makes the narrator go stir-crazy. She thought that a woman was trapped behind the wallpaper. The fourth part was the climax. The narrator rips the wallpaper off the walls as a form of rebellion. The fifth part was the suspense. John came home to find his bedroom door locked and begin freaking out. He was worried about his wife. The sixth part was the denouement. When John came home to find his wife ripping off the wallpaper he faints. This is an indicator of how he is handling his wife’s craziness. The final part was the conclusion. The narrator feels liberated by ripping off the wallpaper.
The "Yellow Wall Paper "by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a chilling study and experiment of mental disorder in nineteenth century. This is a story of a miserable wife, a young woman in anguish, stress surrounding her in the walls of her bedroom and under the control of her husband doctor, who had given her the treatment of isolation and rest. This short story vividly reflects both a woman in torment and oppression as well as a woman struggling for self expression. The setting of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the driving force in the story because it is the main factor that caused the narrator to go insane.
The mood of the story shifted from nervous, anxious, hesitant even, to tense and secretive, and shifts again to paranoid and determination. Her anxiousness is evident whenever she talks to John. She always seems to think for lengthy time when attempting to express her concerns about her condition to him. The mood shift from anxious to secretive is clear when she writes “I had no intention of telling him it was BECAUSE of the wall-paper.” (9). She wants no one to figure out the affect the wallpaper has on her and she wants to be the only one to figure out its pattern. The final mood shift to determination is obvious when she writes “But I am here, and no person must touch this paper but me – not ALIVE!” (11). She is steadfast in attempting to free the woman from the wallpaper. She even goes as far as to lock herself in the room to make sure that she is not interrupted. The major conflicts of this story are the narrator versus John over the nature of her illness and its treatment and the narrator’s internal struggle to express herself and claim independence. During the entire story her and John’s views about her treatment conflict with each other, especially when it comes to her writing. He even makes her stay in the room upstairs instead of in a prettier room downstairs that she would prefer. She often keeps her views to herself or writes them down in